The Treniers

The Treniers, whose lineup included twin brothers Cliff and Claude Trenier, bridged swing and rock & roll during the late 1940s and early 1950s through their high-energy hot jump blues. Contemporary listeners often hear stronger swing than rock in the group’s early-1950s singles, a quality traceable to the brothers’ earlier vocal tenure with the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra. Nevertheless, the band foreshadowed key rock & roll traits via its driving, heavy beats, piercing saxophone breaks, and numbers such as “Rocking on Sunday Night,” “Rockin’ Is Our Business,” and “It Rocks! It Rolls! It Swings!” Bill Haley absorbed this swing-infused R&B approach after witnessing the Treniers during joint summer engagements in Wildwood, NJ. OKeh captured the group’s work in the early 1950s; by mid-decade the sound had shifted toward a more R&B-centered style. Although they shared the fate of numerous other early R&B trailblazers by missing mainstream rock & roll success, the Treniers did appear in several of the first rock & roll motion pictures.