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. Her and her husband Don are actively running, restoring and preserving this gem. It’s so great to have then pay this 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 playing on jazz history here. Gold attacks the same B3 that was once played by Larry Young, Jack MacDuff and Jimmy Smith and boy does he set it on fire!  What could a B3 man ask for?  Let’s not leave the drummer out of here, as McClenty Hunter creates 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. These guys 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. These guys a savoring every minute of this one. I find myself repeating this one to make sure I catch all the intricacies. Whew!

These guys take the Beatles’ “A Fool on the Hill” and set it to a soft, breezy swing. You can listen to this and imagine your feet up as you sip a drink with an umbrella in it. Light 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 as 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 entertain and Hunter offers a 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 just pulls at your sensibilities. His playing here 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 work. Although Benson’s influence is often heard in Dave’s playing, he sometimes seems to have absorbed some of Jim Hall’s sensitivity that certainly serves him well. Gold and Hunter brilliantly accompany here with a gossamer-like delicacy. Just beautiful; this one is a keeper.

“Back and Forth” is a Jared Gold composition that has a cadenced opening with 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. These guys are so in tune that they navigate the obstacle course that Gold has written here with ease and skill.

Stryker includes a Jerome Kern classic “The Folks Who Live on the Hill” which is another gem that these guys play at a slow, lingering pace. In the seven plus minutes these guys explore the possibilities of this melody bringing it to life, 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 here emanates with suspense and danger brilliantly. Stryker’s blues-tinged guitar brings the tension and eeriness of the unknown alive to the listener.  The hair on your neck rises in anticipation. These guys paint a picture with their instruments that transport you there.

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 song has been substantially altered and made part of the jazz canon by Miles Davis and Gil Evans. The two revised and recorded it on the album Quiet Nights in 1963. If that wasn’t enough, the song was again modified by Chick Corea and played by Stan Getz on his album The Master released in 1982 ( Many thanks to Ethan Iverson for bringing that evolution to my attention which you can read here.) 

As far as how Stryker and company handled this music, it seems that these guys chose to  hold true to the more swinging Corea arrangement than to the more sedate Davis/Evans version. Stryker added some probing rhythmic octave chording and Gold embellished the music with his own more progressive explorations. Hunter kept the drive lively and propulsive. Have a listen for yourself. It only goes to show how diverse musical improvisation can be.