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Dave 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 ...
Continue ReadingDave Stryker: Groove Street
by Richard J Salvucci
This is a throwback recording, but in a very good way. Time was someone could get in a car on a weekend morning, roll the window down, turn the FM up and drive to a happy place. It really did not matter much where: the music got you there because it was just that kind of straight ahead, in your face, bliss is it to be young sort of thing. In a big city such as Philadelphia a jazz station ...
Continue ReadingThe Dave Stryker Trio with Bob Mintzer: Groove Street
by Pierre Giroux
The Dave Stryker Trio with tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer is a captivating musical escapade. This collaboration not only showcases the talents of the two principals but also the two accompanying players, organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter. Right from the initial notes of the opening track “Groove Street," a Dave Stryker original, the band sets itself up for success with Gold's classic organ shuffle as the launching pad. Stryker's guitar sizzles and Mintzer weaves a ...
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