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.

 

Twenty-five + Great Jazz/Blues Organ Performances

The Hammond B3 is a beast of an instrument and the jazz-organ-trio format is a staple of the jazz idiom.

Tracings its origins back to a wind driven instrument-compressed air being pushed through multiple length tubes to sound various notes-the pipe-organ made its way into western religious ceremonies in the eighth century when Charlemagne installed one in his chapel in Aachen. For centuries since, the organ has been the musical instrument of choice in churches, temples and synagogues.

Laurens Hammond

Then came along came Laurens Hammond. Hammond was a mechanical engineer and he developed a patent in 1934 for an “electrical musical instrument” that was based on using tonewheel generators to produce sounds. His goal was to offer a cheaper alternative to the pipe organ for churches and places of worship and he succeeded with the introduction of his Hammond model A console organ in 1935. The low cost, much more compact electric organ was wildly successful and by the end of the nineteen thirty’s Hammond was producing two hundred of these organs a month. It wasn’t until 1954 that the B3, the prominent instrument used in jazz organ trios, was introduced by Hammond. The B3 added an additional percussive harmonic feature and its popularity with jazz and progressive rock artists was legendary, especially when paired with the rotating Leslie speaker system which produced a warbling, tremelo sound. The B3 model was modified in 1967 and has gone through numerous electronic iterations including a new XB3 that was made by Hammond-Suzuki and purportedly faithfully simulates the original tonewheel sound through electronics, but the original tonewheel generator B3 had a distinctive sound and feel and is the model most prized by aficionados.

The Hammon B3 Organ

It is speculation, but I suspect  that it wasn’t until organists, in predominantly Black churches, found themselves trying to musically simulate some of the fiery rhetoric and gospel sway of their preachers, that the instrument began to take on its powerfully soulful, danceable feel. The B3 would eventually be brought out of the church and into secular world and become a staple of the jazz tradition.

This list of twenty-five + great jazz/blues organ performances is an attempt to honor and celebrate some of the beautiful, soulful, swinging, adventurous music that has been made using the Hammond B3 organ. It is chronological staring with Waller and ending with Charette, but it easily could have been more inclusive given enough space and time. Some artists deserve more than one feature because of their exceptional body of work ( Jimmy Smith and Larry Young each have two selections), but space didn’t allow for additional selections. There will undoubtedly be some musicians who are missing entirely from the list and deserve to be included and for that I apologize.This is a very subjective list and lists by their nature are stupid ( as listmaker and jazz pianist/blogger Ethan Iverson has said), but somehow we are compelled to compile them, if only to ellicit some kind of response. and hopefully subsequent discussion.   subjective and I have limited space. Many thanks go to Mathew Kaminski the organist for the Atlanta Braves and a hullva fine jazzz organist himself, for his astute input. So for better or worse here is my list of twenty-five + great jazz/blues organ performances.

The organ tradition in jazz, is said to have started with Thomas “Fats” Waller, his playing steeped in gospel and intermingled with stride. The music had a certain bounce to it, a calliope sounding celebration. It was played on an Estey pipe organ, so it doesn't technically belong in a list of B3 performances, but it is the germ from which all subsequent jazz organ performances grew. So for historical reference, here is a sample from a 1927 recording of Waller at Trinity Church Studios in Camden, NJ.

Thomas “Fats” Waller: 1927 on the Estey Pipe Organ Camden, New Jersey “Stompin’ the Bug” 3min 39 secs

 

Using an organ was also seen by the club owners as a cheaper alternative  to the expense of hiring a seventeen-piece big band.

With its combined use of chorus and single line notes, the organ could create a bigger, broader sound. A deft technician could use creative positioning of his draw bars to mimic other instruments. It was like having a band in a box. Here Count Basie uses his organ technique to play his “KC Organ Blues” with his band reduced quintet.

1.       William James “Count” Basie: “K C Organ Blues” from the 1954 release Count Basie Sextet with Paul Quinchette (tenor), Freddie Green (gtr), Gene Ramey (bass), Buddy Rich (drms).    2min 52 secs

       

The innovators of the jazz organ trio sound could be heard percolating by the nineteen fifties with the formation of an influential jazz organ trio under the keyboard artistry of William Starthem “Wild Bill “Davis as heard on his 1957 release “Wild Blues.”

2.       . “Wild Bill” Davis: “Wild Blues” originally released as a single in 1957 with Wally Richardson (gtr) and unknown drummer                                                      2min 16 secs

       

By the late nineteen fifties Hollywood was already being influenced by the alluring sound of the jazz organ and one of my first exposures to a jazz style organ was on Henry Mancini’s arrangements for the silky Blake Edwards TV series Mr. Lucky from 1959. While technically not a traditional jazz or even a B3 performance ( the organ used was a Wurlitzer Theater Organ,) Mancini did intorduce the organ's lush, jazzy possibilities to a wider audience. I know it had a lasting effect on me. Here we hear Mancini’s deft use of studio musician Buddy Cole on this unforgettable tune.

3.       Buddy Cole: Wurlitzer Theater Organ on “Mr. Lucky from the 1960 album” Music from Mr. Lucky by Henry Mancini and his Orchestra.  2 min 2secs

In the fifties, on a parallel course to Wild Bill Davis in pioneering the use of the organ in the jazz trio format, was Missouri born Milton Brent “Milt” Buckner. Buckner is credited with developing the parallel chords style. Here he is heard playing with guitarist Kenny Burrell. The use of a guitarist as the other voice in the jazz organ trio became a popular format for the form.

4.       Milt Buckner: “Mighty High” from his album from 1960 Mighty High with Kenny Burrell 9gtr) Joe Benjamin (bass), Maurice Sinclaire (drms)              2 min 48 secs

Undoubtedly one of the most influential of all the Hammond B3 practitioners was “The Monster,” James Oscar “Jimmy” Smith. He switched to organ after hearing Wild Bill Davis in 1954. By 1956 he was offered a recording contract with Alfred Lion’s Blue Note Label after the impresario heard him in a Philadelphia club. Smith developed his own distinctive setting on the pull bars and along his percussive attack, this technique became known as the Jimmy Smith signature sound. He was also a facile improviser and was adept as using his bass pedals to simulate the sound of a walking string bass. Here is an early example of Smith’s indelible sound.

5.       Jimmy “The Monster” Smith: “The Sermon” from the 1959 album The Sermon with Lee Morgan(trpt), Kenny Burrell (gtr), Art Blakey (drms), Lou Donaldson (alto), Tina Brooks (tenor)

 20m 12 secs.

      

"Organ Grinder Swing" from the 1965 album Organ Grinder Swing with Kenny Burell (gtr) and Grady Tate (drms) 2 min 10 secs features Smith in his prime.

Smith was touring in Europe when German guitarist Paulo Morello asked him what it was like to work with such famous guitarist like Wes Montgomery, George Benson and Pat Martino. Smith was quoted as telling Morello “Listen man-I teach guitar.”   In fact, Smith played with many of the most notable jazz guitarists of his time including the aforementioned, Montgomery, Benson, Morello and Martino as well as Kenny Burrell, Grant Green and other fine players. He also played with horn players like Lou Donaldson, Lee Morgan and Tina Brooks.

After Jimmy Smith, there were whole legions of players who were undeniably influenced by his style on the B3. While many took on their own unique sound leaning more on soul, blues or funk, it wasn’t until Larry Young that the organ was taken into a completely different and more modern direction. Here are some of my remaining choices for most memorable performances on the instrument all the way into the modern day.

6.       James Harrell “Jimmy” McGriff: “All About My Girl” from MG Blues 1962    drummer unknown                                                                                           3min 54 secs

       

7.       “Brother” Jack McDuff :  “That’s A Goodun” from the 1963 album Live with George Benson (gtr),         Red Holloway (tenor). Joe Dukes (drms).   8min 16 sec

       

Don Patterson had arguably some of the most memorable performances on the B3, I choose this one.

8.       Don Patterson: “Hip Cake Walk” from the 1964 album Hip Cake Walk with Leonard Houston (tenor), Billy James (drms).                                                 16 min 40 sec

      

9.       Larry Young: aka Khalid Yasin “Luny Tune” on Grant Green’s 1964 Talkin’ About! With Grant Green (gtr), Elvin Jones (drms).     7 min 43 secs

       

Later on his brilliant 1966 album Unity with Elvin Jones (drms) "Monk's Dream."

10.   Richard “Groove” Holmes: “Misty” from the 1965 release Soul Message with George Randall (gtr) and Jimmie Smith (drms).  6min 1 sec 

      

11.   Shirley Scott : “Rapid Shave” from Queen of the Organ  live at the Front Room, Newark, NJ 1965.  with Stanley Turrentine (tenor), Bob Cranshaw (bs), Otis Finch (drms).   8 min 23 secs

       

12.   Charles “The Mighty Burner” Earland: “More Today Than Yesterday” from Black Talk  1969 with Melvin Sparks (gtr), Idris Muhammad (drms), Buddy Caldwell (congas), Houston Person ( tenor), Virgil Jones (trmpt).                             11 min 12sec 

The next selection is my tip of the hat to the whole generation of prog rockers that took up the mantle of the B3. While not truly jazz players, they did make the organ a memorable part of the music of the sixties, seventies and beyond. Lee Michaels played one of the best, most animated Blues organ solos I have ever heard “live.” He just rocked the house on that B3 and his playing was more traditionally rooted in the B3 jazz /blues sound, so I have used him as a surrogate for all those guys who rocked the B3. That list includes Keith Emerson, Jon Lord, Rod Argent, Brian Auger, Stevie Winwood, Greg Allman, Greg Rolei, Rick Wakeman, Booker T. Jones, Billy Preston, Mark Stien, Ray Manzarek, Garth Hudson, Mathew Fisher and Al Kooper.

13.   Lee Michaels “Stormy Monday” Blues from Lee Michaels 1969 with “Frosty” Bartholomew                     Eugene Frost-Smith   5 min 15secs

       

For many United States B3 followers the French organist Eddie Louiss will be a new name and many thanks to Noah Baerman at http://blog.noahjazz.com for pointing this fine artist out to me.

14.   Eddy Louiss: “Bohemia After Dark” from the 1972 album Bohemia After Dark with Jimmy Gourley (gtr), Guy Pederson (bass), Kenny Clarke (drms).   5min 53 secs

15.   Joey DeFrancesco: “Work Song” from the 1993 Live at the Five Spot with Robert Landham (alto),  Paul Bollenback (gtr), Byron “Wookie” Landham (drms), Grover Washington Jr. (tenor), Jim Henry (trmpt). 9 min 33 secs

      

16.   Larry Goldings: “The Acrobat” from Peter Bernstein’s 1998 Earthtones with Peter Berntstein (gtr) and Bill Stewart (drms).     9 min 59 secs

       

17.   Barbara Dennerlein and Rhoda “Barefoot Lady” Scott : “Nova” from a live performance in Switzerland in 2002 with Felix Simtaine (drms).  8min 22 secs

       

18.   Sam Yahel: “Truth and Beauty” from his 2005 album Truth and Beauty with Joshua Redman (tenor) and Brian Blade (drms.)       7min 59 secs

       

19.   Pat Bianchi: “Theme for Ernie” from his 2006 album East Coast Roots with Mark Whitfield (grt), Bryon Landham (drms)

       

20.   Vince “The Prince” Seneri: “Overdrive” from the 2007 album The Prince’s Groove with Randy Brecker (trpt), Paul Bollenback (gtr), Gary Fritz (perc), Buddy Williams (drms).   4 min 33 secs

       

21.   Tony Monaco: “S’About” from his 2008 album Tony Monaco Live at the Orbit Room  with Ted Quinlan (gtr), Vito Rezza (drms).    11 min 49 secs

       

22.   Dr. Lonnie Smith: “A Matterapat” from his Up!  from 2009 with Peter Bernstein (gtr), Donald Harrison (alto), Herlin Riley (drms).                             6min 47 secs 

23.   Mike LeDonne: “Bopsolete” from his 2010 release The Groover with Eric Alexander (tenor), Peter Bernstein (gtr), Joe Farnsworth (drms).   6 min 5 secs

       

24.    Jared Gold: “Shadowboxing” from his 2013 release Intuition with Dave Stryker (gtr) and McCLenty    Hunter (drms).                   5 min 5 secs

      

25.   Brian Charette: “Aiight!!” from 2014 release Square_One with Yotam Silberstein (gtr) and Mark Ferber (drms).      3 min 23 secs

       

Lest we forget anyone not mentioned above. honorable mentions go out to John Medeski, Will Blades, Big John Patton, Greg Allman, Clare Fischer, Peter Levin, Radam Schwartz,  Hank Marr, Reuben Wilson, Leon Spencer Jr., Lou Bennett, Johnny Hammond Smith, T. Lavitz, Dave Seibel, Robert Walter, Neal Evans, Gary Versace, Don Pullen and Booker T. Jones and all the other  prog rock B3 players that were mentioned above.