The Treniers”Cool It Baby” (tracks from 1953-56)...

The Treniers

“Cool It Baby” (tracks from 1953-56)

Bear Family

For years, Germany’s Bear Family has been one of the finest archival labels in the world, renowned for collecting and preserving the music of such little-known but excellent artists as the Treniers.

This is an anthology of the seminal R&B; group’s work for Mercury and RCA/Groove, records that came in the wake of its stint on Columbia’s Okeh subsidiary, which had released such raucous, perhaps better-remembered jump tracks as “Rockin’ Is Our Business” and “Go! Go! Go!” By the time the group recorded the selections on “Cool It Baby” (several of which are previously unreleased), it was aiming more for a teen-age market (sample title: “We Want a Rock And Roll President”), but its hellfire vocals, shrieking saxophones and claps and shouts of glee were still intact. Indeed, the Treniers’ records remain among the wildest--and most enjoyable--of R&B;’s golden age.

To this day, surviving members of the group can be seen jumping, screaming and shouting on Las Vegas stages, seemingly oblivious to time and determined to make rockin’ their business until the day they die.