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Jazz Articles about Dave Stryker
Dave Stryker, Michael Dease, Mattias Svensson, Roderick Harper and more
by Benjamin Boddie
Today's Music--Right Now! Fantastic music by Dave Stryker, Michael Dease, Mattias Svensson, Roderick Harper, Eddie Allen & Push, Paul Ricci, Kate Olson, Steve Berndt, Vance Thompson, Vancouver Jazz Orchestra, Peter Furlan, Gil Livni, Lisa Hilton, Brandon Sanders, Charlie Porter, Enoch Smith Jr., Leslie Odom, Jr., Maja Jaku, Baltimore Jazz Collective, Affinity Trio, Gregory Groover Jr., Johnathan Blake, Glenn Makos & Bru, Andrew Carroll, Charles Lloyd, Shawn Purcell, Kenny Barron, Lafayette Harris Jr., Lori Williams, Sean Mason, Margherita Fava, and more.
Continue ReadingDave Stryker: Blue Fire - The Van Gelder Session
by Pierre Giroux
Dave Stryker's Blue Fire--The Van Gelder Session features the guitarist performing at one of the most revered venues in recorded jazz, and the chosen setting is anything but incidental. Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's legendary Englewood Cliffs studio in July 2025, the album benefits from the ambiance itself. Its warmth, clarity, and a sense of history, while showcasing a deeply rooted guitar-organ-drums trio that understands groove as both discipline and release. Joined by organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter, ...
Continue ReadingDave Stryker: Stryker with Strings Goes to the Movies
by Richard J Salvucci
If this recording were named “Dave Stryker Plays Bernard Hermann" (or Miklós Rózsa or Elmer Bernstein), well that would be just fine. They were all gifted composers who wrote film scores. The consensus would likely be that a musician like Stryker was hardly wasting his time, but Stryker With Strings Goes to the Movies hits the hopelessly middlebrow button. So how seriously anyone decides to take the results is anyone's guess. That would be a pity, ...
Continue ReadingDave Stryker: Stryker with Strings Goes to the Movies
by Jack Bowers
Guitarist Dave Stryker, who is at home in any venue, Goes to the Movies on this ambitious album, wherein his working quartet is greeted by a thirty-piece orchestra with strings and four talented guest artists. There are some gems here--Henry Mancini's “Dreamsville," Rodgers and Hammerstein's “Edelweiss," Ennio Morricone's theme from Cinema Paradiso among them--and a few pleasant surprises as well. Songs in the latter group include “You Only Live Twice," from the James Bond film of that ...
Continue ReadingBrian Landrus: Plays Ellington & Strayhorn
by Angelo Leonardi
In questo nuovo album, Brian Landrus esalta la magniloquenza della sua timbrica grave con l'ampia gamma di strumenti che usa: non solo i prediletti sax baritono e clarinetto basso ma sax basso, flauto basso, flauto contralto, clarinetto contralto, ottavino e vari altri. La scelta del celeberrimo songbook di Duke Ellington e Billy Strayhorn è piuttosto insidiosa, per la difficoltà di trovare una chiave di lettura originale in un repertorio abusato, ma Landrus ha trovato la sua via: «Ascoltando questi ...
Continue ReadingBrian Landrus: Plays Ellington & Strayhorn
by Jack Bowers
When gathering material for a new recording, one time-honored rule of thumb is that it is hard to stray too far off course when revisiting the musical handiwork of renowned composer Duke Ellington and/or the Duke's virtuosic alter ego, Billy Strayhorn--even if one chooses to lead with an Ellington theme as relatively unknown as “Agra" from 1967's Far East Suite, which baritone saxophonist Brian Landrus does on Plays Ellington & Strayhorn, a graceful and stylish quartet date that also encompasses ...
Continue ReadingGil Evans Remembered: Gil Evans Remembered (Live At The Cutting Room, NYC)
by Jack Kenny
Few people have a better right to remember Gil Evans than these musicians. The serrated wail of this band enraptured, touched and torched the listeners. It is easy to see why musicians from the Monday Night Band would want to play, creating under Evans' beatific musical vision. It must have been inspiring. Most of the musicians on the album played sometime over the years at Sweet Basil from 1983 to Evans' death and even beyond. He loved the way that ...
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