Album Review: The Roots Beneath by The Phil Merriman Trio

The well-established pianist, Phil Merriman convened his trio comprising John Williamson (bass) and Simon Roth (drums) in 2022. Phil and Simon had been playing together as a duo since their university days but were joined by John who completed the well-rounded unit. For the past two years the band has been consolidating and writing. Merriman has now released an album of the trio’s work entitled The Roots Beneath and I’ve had the pleasure of listening to it for the past few days.

The tile of the album is apparently a metaphor for the unseen underpinnings of creative life. In the case of this work, Merriman cites various influences including folk melodies of Bartok and harmonic tones of Messiaen.  The project has been very well executed. In general, I find trios a bit limiting and prefer quartets or quintets for their instrumental scope. However, Merriman’s trinity doesn’t appear anyway constrained and the offering of ten original songs is fresh and extremely pleasing. There is lots of rich tonality and plenty of nods to classical works. The eponymous title track is a masterpiece with some tremendous bass phrasing encased by haunting piano and lovely spacious drumming. All the tracks on the album have quite different textures and are somewhat difficult to characterize. Don’t expect any be-bop licks. To my ear there is quite a bit of Third Stream influence which I found a little reminiscent of some of Jacques Loussier’s work, particularly in the opening song, First One Back. Waves and My Romance seem to have a notably Bartokian flavour. There is some exceptional diversity and masterful musicianship in this album and the interplay between Merriman, Roth and Williamson is mature and equitable.  The tracks are accessible and always engaging but there is no supper-jazz content (an easy trap for trios) or the intense electronic freneticism of a band such as GoGo Penguin.

Overall, this album is a tremendous accomplishment and showcases not only the creative abilities of Merriman and his colleagues but the cultural positioning of European jazz. Credit for the production goes to Raphael Clarkson, also a university friend of Merriman and Roth. Just give it a listen -you won’t be disappointed.

John Morrow