Jazz Articles about Andy Hunter

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Dave Stryker: Blue Soul

by Jerome Wilson
June 29, 2020

Germany's WDR Big Band has welcomed a great variety of musicians such as Fred Hersch, Michel Camilo, Ambrose Akinmusire and Jimmy Heath as guest soloists over the years. On this occasion they provide an invigorating backdrop for the springy and soulful guitar of Dave Stryker. The set list on this CD finds Stryker and the band tackling a combination of vintage pop and soul hits and the guitarist's original compositions, all arranged and conducted by saxophonist Bob Mintzer. ...

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Dave Stryker with Bob Mintzer and the WDR Big Band: Blue Soul

by Jack Bowers
May 17, 2020

Bob Mintzer had an idea. The renowned tenor saxophonist, who serves as principal conductor of Cologne, Germany's world-class WDR Big Band, had made several appearances as guest artist with guitarist Dave Stryker's New York-based organ trio and was so impressed that he thought it would be a good idea to re-orchestrate some of Stryker's music for big band and invite the guitar maestro to return the favor by traveling to Germany and performing as guest artist with the WDR ensemble, ...

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SPOKE: (r)anthems

by Ernest Barteldes
November 25, 2014

On (r)anthems, the New York-based ensemble takes various pop classics and favorite World Music tunes and reinvents them into their own flavor, either going into a New Orleans-tinged feel or just improvising around the melody. An example is Stevie Wonder's “Tell Me Something Good," which is re-purposed here into a marching band-like vibe. The Beatles' “Blackbird" (incorrectly credited solely to Paul McCartney) begins with the original guitar line as a duet. The ensemble then improvises freely around the melody.

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SPOKE: (r)anthems

by Dan Bilawsky
October 25, 2014

According to the members of SPOKE, this album--the band's third to date--"is both musical rant and anthem." So what does that mean? Well, it means that there's an intentional balancing act between the raw and refined, the focused and the untamed, and the grand and rowdy. Nothing ever goes off the rails and nothing is ever too sedate or bland, as the members of SPOKE continually switch gears and change hats. There's also enough stylistic diversity at play--pop, bop, spicy ...

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Andy Hunter: Think Like A Mountain

by Dan Bilawsky
October 19, 2012

Trombonist Andy Hunter has taken a seat in many of the most important big bands of the past decade, yet many are still unaware of his skills. He sadly suffers from “section man syndrome": that ailment that afflicts those who are heard by many, yet never truly seen for who they are. Hunter, who has resided in Brooklyn for the better part of a decade, has put his round and occasionally robust horn to good use in bassist Dave Holland's ...

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Spoke: Spoke

by J Hunter
May 21, 2009

In his liner notes to Spoke's self-titled debut disc, Matthew Lima wrote that this Brooklyn-based quartet is “constantly refining the art of the compromise... not into a concession or lowering of standards, but an intermediate between different things." He's half right: There are no concessions whatsoever on Spoke; however, the differences are what it's all about.

The thought that went into the set's twelve pieces is literally mind-bending. Classical music isn't just one of the musical sub-cultures Spoke visits on ...