Tim Ray Trio; new album Fire & Rain
Tim Ray Trio’s new album Fire & Rain mostly feels like it was influenced by the cool jazz musicians from the late 1940s through to the late 1960s. This trio is playing styles, colors and tones, and attitude that come from a time when hip cat daddios hung out in coffee shops and piano bars to jive with the vibe.
Opening track is the trio’s take on Monk’s “Bye-Ya.” This rendition has snappy piano, lines that run into lines, suggesting urgency, a man running through a dark city at night, searching for the right venue. John Lockwood’s upright bass thump and Mark Walker’s swift drum smacks layer the underside of this number with plenty of oomph. The trio conjure such a tremendous sense of emotion, musical skill, and a theme of interpersonal chaos. It’s impossible not to get caught right until its tunefully abrupt ending.
“Stolen Moments” breathes its way into existence on the strength of John Lockwood’s compact bass notes. Lockwood leaves open enough space for Tim Ray’s light rain of melodic notes, gently pressed trinkets of tone, suggestive of mischief in how they play bright and shiny over the Lockwood bass. Lockwood peppers the lower register with light, sparse notes while Walker pushes it all forward with adept stick work, just enough of a hard hit every few seconds. Even in a gentle mood, these three can still create a special chemistry as they push their line of notes into a hip wedge.
Ray’s composition “NO Worries” finds Lockwood squeezing his upright bass into funk territory to support Ray’s electric keyboard. There is a coolly modern jazz feel, expanded soon after into a racing melodic piano line, notes trying to keep pace with the spirited vibe. Walker’s walking, bulbous drum fills inject more motion. There is so much musical muscle coming from each instrument, forming into a soulful expression, asserting independence from each while forming simultaneously into a fun filled whole.
A plaintive piano leads us into “The Meeting: The Jbug and the Kman.” High spirited and fun, it maintains a serious side, only natural as it was inspired by Lockwood’s little son meeting his new baby brother. There is anticipation, tenderness, and warmth poured like gravy over all of the Ray piano trotting and the injection of gentle groove beneath, a groove that suggests as much anticipation as the upper register. The instruments fit together like a woven blanket, buttressing the connotation of connection.
“Mojave” gets a frisky twist from Ray’s spiraling piano notes. He’s shifting ever upwards, making his interval of notes lively, as they’re spinning. Beneath his sublime rise, his rhythm friends keep an upbeat groove. While Ray taps a boundless, energetic melody, Lockwood and Walker maintain a speedy rhythm, plenty of single notes traveling alongside that spirited piano. It’s almost as if they are racing each other even though they are in sync, playing one number. There is a pulpiness in the groove that contrasts finely with Ray’s more brittle notes, a synergy that only fine players can muster.
D. McKenna’s “Theodore The Thumper” gets a lighter treatment than the previous tracks. Its bright, sunny piano line moves jauntily on a spring in the step rhythm. This trio keeps a joyful feeling by juxtaposing the happy piano melody with a trotting groove. Both move at the same lively pace while the rhythm boys place enough palpable nudges beneath the piano to keep our toes tapping, our heads bobbing in approval, and our souls stirred by so many shiny moments along the way.
Title track “Fire & Rain” is a tender rendition of James Taylor’s uber popular 1970s singer-songwriter pop hit single. It’s uncanny how well Ray renders the emotions of that hit with his rain drop soft piano tinkling. He makes us feel what this song is about, tinkling out the emotive highs and emotive dark notes. Walker’s stick work behind it accompanies pleasantly the abundance of nice, single notes coming from the piano. Lockwood, too, chimes in with pleasantly plumb low end notes, single nudges that augment well the upper register notes, highlighting the pretty melody with contrast while anchoring it all with brief snaps of thick low end.
“Lawns” moves like an eye moves over the rolling greensward of an impressive landscape. Just as one tries to take in as much as one can of such a splendid scenery, this tune reflects on someone who has to absorb an entire area and how it makes him feel. Gentle piano tinkling conjures a dewy misty image while bits of low end and unobtrusive brushwork make for a nice walk around that lawn. There are moments when Ray’s notes just ring out with beautiful tone within their delicate, down tempo approach.
“Moon In The Sea” gets an interesting back beat, a quick hit of brush and stick that create a hip vibe. Ray shades more meaning into that effect with a line of sophisticated notes that move in unusual intervals around the alluring groove. Splashes of piano notes and hints of low end picking gel perfectly with the minimalist drum work. These three just weave their instrumental parts so well into one another that the three lines become a fourth, thicker wave of earthy delight.
Feeling a bit like classical at certain moments, “Improv #1 (for Chick)” shows how Tim Ray Trio can stretch themselves elastic, edging into another genre, classical. Ray tosses in a quick interval of piano notes. Stops. Bass notes dart in quickly. Then, the entire piece seems quiet and eerie, almost like a soundtrack to a scary movie. This track is quite good in its own eccentric manner.
Haunting elegance marks the main melodic theme in “Nighttime.” One can feel the night falling as Ray’s tender notes hint at darkness. Feeling like the end of the day or the end of something intangible, “Nighttime,” eventually, turns into something romantic. Its shift into something that could be played at a fancy restaurant dinner date comes when Ray and his trio move into uptempo pace, creating the energy that one associates with romance, especially when it’s heating up.
Completing the essence of this Fire & Rain album, the trio jump into Keith Jarrett’s “The Windup.” While it has the energy of barrelhouse, it also has the precision of jazz. The piano notes, bass notes, drum fills and rolls hit the soundscape with an immediate impact and travel around each other in swift, intricate intervals. This could be the party theme played at the end of a gig, or, it could suffice as the soundtrack to one of those old speedy black & white movie scenes.
Recorded at GBH Fraser Performance Studio in Boston, Massachusetts, Tim Ray Trio manage to showcase musical process as well as compositional and arrangement ability in this document of their studio sound. Moreover, their ability to conjure a vibe, set a scene, or just plain make one tap his toes, borne out of their talents, becomes equally important, giving each song its own personality and its own lively purpose.
