Dave Stryker: Goes to the Movies (2024)

Jazz artists have been recording “at the movies" albums since 1962, when arranger-conductor Manny Albam recorded Jazz Goes to the Movies for Impulse. Jerome Richardson, Eddie Harris, Erroll Garner and even Bill Evans recorded Hollywood compilation LPs along with dozens of other jazz artists.

Prior, there were Broadway, movie and TV show soundtracks centered on one show, film or series. The movies came into vogue as a jazz-album genre when Hollywood shifted away from stuffy Euro-classical scores and toward a cooler, swinging sound in the early 1960s led by Henry Mancini, Johnny Mandel, Andrew Previn, George Duning, Michel Legrand and John Barry.

Now Dave Stryker has thrown his guitar pick into the ring with his superb new album—Stryker With Strings: Goes to the Movies (Strikezone). Dave has a smart, sure attack on guitar that is firm and respectful of space, giving the listener a chance to feel what they've just heard. Letting listeners' ears catch up is so important.

All movie collections are heavily dependent on song choices, and the wrong ones can leave listeners cold no matter how well they are orchestrated. Dave doesn't make that mistake. He made smart choices, and the strings, arranged and conducted by Brent Wallarab, are embracing, stirring and warm without making the mistake of laying the cinematic frosting on too thick. The soloists—Sara Caswell (violin), Greg Ward (as), Jim Pugh (tb) and Mark Buselli (flhn)—also are terrific.

Dave's solos are taut and lovely, with solid lines that straddle jazz and pop neatly. Best of all, I love how he lets notes ring as strings pour in. My only quibbles are that as beautiful as Dreamsville is here, it's from the TV series Peter Gunn, not the big screen. And there are two here from Anatomy of a Murder. I would have dropped Low Key Lightly.

The album is so good and seductive that everyone will wish their favorites were included (I would have loved Dave's take on Andre Previn's love theme for Two for the See Saw (known as Second Chance) and George Duning's main-title theme for Any Wednesday). Then again, it's not our album.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Dave Stryker's Stryker With Strings: Goes to the Movies (Strikezone) here or at streaming platforms.

JazzWax clips: Here's You Only Live Twice...



And here's Flirtibird...



Bonus: Because readers are going to ask me what the Previn and Duning themes sound like, here they are:

Here's Two for the See Saw...



Here's Any Wednesday...



And here's Dave and Brent talking about the making of the album in a minidoc directed by Dave's son, Matt...