Dave Stryker and his Trio Brings Some "Blue Fire" to Van Gelder's Studio

Dave Stryker- Blue Fire: The Van Gelder Session- Strikezone Recds

The guitar stalwart Dave Stryker finally got to have his dream come true and the results are his latest release Blue Fire The Van Gelder Session was well worth the wait! Stryker has been on my radar for years. His work with his long-term cohorts Jared Gold on the B3 organ and McClenty Hunter on drums have provided some of the best Organ/Guitar/Drums music for the last twenty years. I originally discovered Stryker’s compelling guitar work as a co-leader of the progressive Stryker/Slagle Band, when I got into their modern, sinewy sounding work on album’s like The Scene from 2008 and Keeper from 2010.

Dave Stryker’s career started when this Omaha, Nebraska based guitarist left for Los Angeles at the age of seventeen in 1978 to expand his musical experience and cut his teeth on the circuit. He met organ master Jack McDuff and eventually moved to New York, playing with McDuff from 1984 through 1985, before touring with saxophone great Stanley Turrentine from 1986 up to his passing in 2000. With this experience steeped in the blues, soul jazz, jazz funk, hard bop, and R&B there is no mystery why Stryker’s music is so influenced by these sources.

Much of the best of jazz of the “prime time” era was recorded by labels like Blue Note, Impulse, Prestige, CTI, and Savoy in the studio of sound engineer magician Rudy Van Gelder in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. While the master Van Gelder passed away in 2016 his iconic, wood-lined, cathedral-like studio has been preserved and has been listed in the National Register of Historical Places in 2022.

                                             Van Gelder Studio in 2022 (photo via Wikipedia)

The currently active studio was willed by Van Gelder to his longtime assistant Maureen Sickler, who had been working at the studio for three decades before she became owner upon Rudy’s passing. The Sickler's  are now actively running, restoring and preserving this gem of jazz history. We wish them continued success. It’s so great to have them pay it forward.

Recording at the Van Gelder studio is like playing the Village Vanguard, reaching a goal that for some is seemingly never attainable. No wonder guitarist Stryker wanted to check this achievement off his bucket list so Blue Fire: The Van Gelder Session comes to life.

The album opens with a Stryker cooker, the deeply grooved “Van Gelder’s Place” that just shuffles onto the stage with cool and soul. Dave’s guitar is so smooth, so in touch with his soul, as he attacks his notes with aplomb, both singularly and in octaves vis a vis Wes. Gold gets his turn adding to the jazz history here, as he attacks the same Hammond B3 that was once played by esteemed practitioners like Larry Young, Jack MacDuff and Jimmy Smith. Jared he sets it on fire on this album; what more could a B3 man ask for?  The drummer, McClenty Hunter, bubbles with energy creating the stream upon which these guys float, just beautiful.

The music just doesn’t stop there. “Blue Fire” is another Stryker composition that has a feel like something Larry Young might have brought into the studio. The trio create a brewing chicane of sounds that swell and pulse with electricity. Stryker and Gold synch-in so precisely that it has you holding your breath as they anticipate each other’s moves. Hunter’s drum work is a syncopated whirlwind of pure propulsion. It becomes apparent that these musicians are savoring every minute of this session. I find myself repeating this impressive song multiple times just to make sure I catch all the intricacies. Whew!

Stryker uses the Beatles’ “A Fool on the Hill”  to create a soft, breezy swing. You can listen to this and imagine your feet up as you sip a drink with an umbrella in it. A fun and carefree groove.

If bebop is your thing, how about this group’s take on Charlie Parker’s “Dexterity”? Stryker ‘s guitar lines spell out the melody with dexterous fluidity. He is pushed by Gold’s throbbing organ work, probing foot driven bass lines and Hunter’s incendiary drum work. Gold’s creativity is on display, as his solo never ceases to surprise and Hunter offers his own buoyant solo of note.

Stryker’s beautiful ballad, “Waiting for Ruby,” is one of my favorites on this album. Dave opens with a sensitive guitar entre that pulls at your sensibilities. His playing is so personal it’s like he is playing this one just for you. Stryker has an inherent melodicism that is never far from his playing. Although George Benson’s influence is often heard in Dave’s playing, his absorption of some of Jim Hall’s sensitivity certainly serves him well. Gold and Hunter brilliantly accompany with a gossamer-like delicacy. This one is a keeper; just beautiful.

“Back and Forth” is a Jared Gold composition that has a cadenced opening featuring a repeating line that unexpectedly changes time throughout. This one challenges your sense of getting settled into a groove. Instead, it bobs and weaves, keeping you unbalanced and paying attention. The trio is in synch as they navigate the obstacle course that Gold has written with ease and skill.

Stryker includes a Jerome Kern classic “The Folks Who Live on the Hill”  at a slow, lingering pace. In the seven plus minutes, the trio explores the harmonic possibilities of this melody making their own imprint. Stryker explores his octave chording possibilities as Gold’s B 3 swells and moans and Hunter breezily shuffles.

Stryker’s cinematic “Every Dark Street” is like being in a film noir thriller. Gold’s organ emanates with a sense of suspense and danger. Stryker’s blues-tinged guitar lines introduces a tension and eeriness of the unknown.  The hair on your neck rises in anticipation. They paint a picture with their instruments that elevate your senses and transport you to this eerie dark street.

This satisfying album closes with a song by Harry Warren and Al Dublin titled “Summer Night.” The song was first heard in 1936 in the film Sing Me A Love Song.  But this composition has been substantially altered when it was made part of the jazz canon by Miles Davis and Gil Evans. This duo revised and recorded this song on the album Quiet Nights in 1963 and it never was quite the same. The song was again modified by Chick Corea and played by the saxophone ace Stan Getz on his album The Master released in 1982. (Many thanks to Ethan Iverson for bringing the evolution of this song to my attention which you can read here.) 

Stryker and company seems to have been influenced more by the swinging Corea arrangement than to the more sedate Davis/Evans version. Stryker added some probing octave chording, as  Gold embellished the music with his own more progressive explorations. Hunter never fails to keep the drive lively and propulsive no matter the time signature. The history of this song is a testament to how diverse musical improvisation can transform any composition's interpretation.

 

Balance by Adam Unsworth, Byron Olson and John Vanore ; Orchestral Jazz At Its Finest

Balance : AC-48

The French horn is an unusual instrument in jazz, first prominently used by Claude Thornhill in his Orchestra of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. Thornhill employed Sandy Siegelstein and John Graas to play French horn at various times in his band. Their symphonic tone along with a powerful woodwind section gave that band its distinctively cool sound.  Gil Evans , a Thornhill arranger who used the distinctive instrumentation as a laboratory for developing his own sound,  famously commented on the Thornhill Orchestra’s unique sound.  “The sound hung like a cloud.” 

On Balance,  French Horn player Adam Unsworth, a member of Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Centennial Project,  teams up with  conductor/ arranger Byron Olson and trumpeter John Vanore and created an eminently listenable experience. They seamlessly  integrate a sumptuous symphonic sound with the exhilarating excitement of improvisational ensemble playing. The music has an ethereal beauty with cinematic undertones mostly provided by Olson’s deft arrangements and Unsworth’s  billowy sound.. With songs like the title track “Balance,” composed by Unsworth, Olson’s arrangement is resplendent with strings and counterpointed by some masterful soloing by Unsworth, pianist Bill Mays  and saxophonist Bob Mallach. The song transports you to a place of mental balance and tranquility interspersed with a dynamism that is kinetic and revitalizing.

On “Flow”, another Unsworth composition,  the lyrical pianism of Bill Mays and the warm clarinet work of Jeff Nichols carries you into the slipstream of this piece with effortless ease.  The rhythm section of Mike Richmond and Danny Gottlieb are propulsive but unobtrusively  supportive. John Vanore’s warm flugelhorn, Unsworth’s richly expressive horn and the brilliant string arrangement of Byron Olson make for pure magic.

“Bittersweet” an Olson composition, is the musical invocation of the word. Trumpeter Vanore lifts this tune from its melancholy into a more spirited ensemble playing that includes a tasteful tenor solo by tenorman Mallach.

“Tilt” starts out with an ostinato line by pianist Mays and saxophonist Mallach. The orchestration by Olson gives this piece a cinematic feel of action. There is a section of controlled cacophony that is punctuated by Gottlieb’s precise drumming. The tune takes a film noir turn with Mallach and Unsworth playing in unison before Mays enters with a stirringly original piano solo. Unsworth returns with a French horn solo that almost pulsess like a rombone. The tune ends with a bounty of multiple instruments all working in controlled frenzy.

“Blues Nocturne” features exquisite ensemble playing with Vancores muted trumpet, Unsworth’s bellowing horn surrounded by Olson’s swelling strings. Pianist Mays dances on the keyboard with a marvelously floating crescendo of notes leading into a soulful solo by bassist Mike Richmond, including his expressive sighs.  Saxophonist Bob Mallach's playing is robust and fluid. Olson’s ” Michele” is a mournful ballad played to perfection by Unsworth’s moving horn and made all the more poignant by arranger/conductor Olson’s deeply emotive orchestration. Vancore offers a subdued but effective muted trumpet solo.

The album finishes  with Olson’s “One Last Fling” a swinging ensemble piece that showcases some nice individual playing by Unsworth, Mays, Mallach, Gottlieb and Richmond and  “Find Your Way” an Unsworth composition that features Mallach’s lyrical playing along with Unsworth’s own emotive French horn work, supported by a the full orchestra arrangement by Olson.  Balance is orchestral jazz at its finest, a feast for the ears that can be enjoyably left in your cd player’s rotation without losing its appeal over multiple listenings. 

Personnel: Adam Unsworth, French horn; John Vanore, trumpet and flugelhorn; Bob Mallach, tenor saxophone; Bill Mays, piano: Mike Richmone, bass; Danny Gottlieb, drums, Byron Olson, arranger/conductor Philadelphia Session: Violins: Richard Amoroso (solo); Jose Blumenshein, Jason Depue, Daniel Han, Dana Morales, Yayol Numazawa, William Polk, Paul Roby, Marc Rovetti; Violas: Che-Hung Chen, Kerri Ryan, Burchard Tang; Cellos Efe Baltacigil, Yumi Kendall; Bass Harold Robinson; Clarinet/Bass Clarinet: Paul Demers; Bassoon, Holly Blake; New York Session: Viola Richard Brice, Cello Allison Seidner; Bass, David Kuhn; Flute/Alto Flute, Pamelea Sklar, Obe English Horn, Charles Pillow; Clarinet, Jeff Nichols; Bassoon, Kim Laskowski, Vibraphone, Bill Hayes.

Here is a link to adam Unsworth's website where you play selections from his album Balalnce