DAVE STRYKER - Baker’s Circle
Strikezone Records: 8821
Dave Stryker (guitar) Walter Smith III (tenor sax) Jared Gold (organ) McClenty Hunter (drums) Mayra Casales (percussion) Recorded in Paramus NJ, January 11th 2019
The Hammond organ fuelled combo firing up a tenor/guitar front line is a familiar format and like the blues and hard bop contexts from which it emerged it has endured the vacillations of taste and fashion to become a staple that each succeeding generation of jazz musician has been inspired to re-visit and enhance. Guitarist Dave Stryker is one of these and he has a lot of skin in the game having embarked upon his distiguished career as a sideman to Brother Jack McDuff, a pioneer of the instrument’s potential as a purveyor of bop ‘n soul grooves. Stryker plays in a style that owes a lot to the guitar illuminati who came within McDuff’s sphere of influence – I’m thinking of Grant Green, Kenny Burrell and George Benson- but the several organ combos he has led over the years have generally offered more nuanced fare than the `grits and gravy` rudiments that came to typify the genre.
With this latest recording he has assembled a band that allows him plenty of latitude to draw on his years of experience both as an exponent of `sharp as a tack` modern bop oriented jazz and an interpreter of soul and funk repertoire from the `70’s. Significant in this respect is his choice of saxophonist: Walter Smith isn’t your typical tough tenor of the Red Holloway, Stanley Turrentine school for though he is capable of generating plenty of heat. he plays with a clarity of tone and ideas that place him amongst such contemporary leaders as Joshua Redman and Mark Turner. Sonically he sits neatly between the softly burnished lines of the leader and the fire of Jared Gold’s stoked up B-3 thus avoiding any congestion in the ensemble passages, allowing each instrument to come through the mix with its own distinctive voice unimpeded. A quality considerably aided by an impeccable recording.
An entertainingly diverse playlist provides everyone with opportunity to display their goods and it opens with a punchy modal blues, the first of four Stryker originals which include the title track; a dedication to a former mentor. Amongst the remainder we get a Latin workout that brings Casales percussive dexterity to the fore, a standard by Cole Porter in medium swing mode plus a couple of the aforementioned 70’s soul hits which represent the leader’s personal speciality allowing Gold to wax lyrical with some slinky harmonics. The album closes with a grooving shuffle from the Turrentine back catalogue driven along by Hunter’s virtuosic drumming, which animates the entire set without ever sounding heavy handed, winding up an infectiously vibrant and up-lifting programme of music that will surely provide a boost to even the most dispirited amongst us in these gloomy times.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Strikezone Records: 8821
Dave Stryker (guitar) Walter Smith III (tenor sax) Jared Gold (organ) McClenty Hunter (drums) Mayra Casales (percussion) Recorded in Paramus NJ, January 11th 2019
The Hammond organ fuelled combo firing up a tenor/guitar front line is a familiar format and like the blues and hard bop contexts from which it emerged it has endured the vacillations of taste and fashion to become a staple that each succeeding generation of jazz musician has been inspired to re-visit and enhance. Guitarist Dave Stryker is one of these and he has a lot of skin in the game having embarked upon his distiguished career as a sideman to Brother Jack McDuff, a pioneer of the instrument’s potential as a purveyor of bop ‘n soul grooves. Stryker plays in a style that owes a lot to the guitar illuminati who came within McDuff’s sphere of influence – I’m thinking of Grant Green, Kenny Burrell and George Benson- but the several organ combos he has led over the years have generally offered more nuanced fare than the `grits and gravy` rudiments that came to typify the genre.
With this latest recording he has assembled a band that allows him plenty of latitude to draw on his years of experience both as an exponent of `sharp as a tack` modern bop oriented jazz and an interpreter of soul and funk repertoire from the `70’s. Significant in this respect is his choice of saxophonist: Walter Smith isn’t your typical tough tenor of the Red Holloway, Stanley Turrentine school for though he is capable of generating plenty of heat. he plays with a clarity of tone and ideas that place him amongst such contemporary leaders as Joshua Redman and Mark Turner. Sonically he sits neatly between the softly burnished lines of the leader and the fire of Jared Gold’s stoked up B-3 thus avoiding any congestion in the ensemble passages, allowing each instrument to come through the mix with its own distinctive voice unimpeded. A quality considerably aided by an impeccable recording.
An entertainingly diverse playlist provides everyone with opportunity to display their goods and it opens with a punchy modal blues, the first of four Stryker originals which include the title track; a dedication to a former mentor. Amongst the remainder we get a Latin workout that brings Casales percussive dexterity to the fore, a standard by Cole Porter in medium swing mode plus a couple of the aforementioned 70’s soul hits which represent the leader’s personal speciality allowing Gold to wax lyrical with some slinky harmonics. The album closes with a grooving shuffle from the Turrentine back catalogue driven along by Hunter’s virtuosic drumming, which animates the entire set without ever sounding heavy handed, winding up an infectiously vibrant and up-lifting programme of music that will surely provide a boost to even the most dispirited amongst us in these gloomy times.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
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The opening bars of ‘Tough’ put us straight into Larry Young territory, a driving minor key groove with Jared Gold’s organ and longtime Stryker associate/ex Kenny Garrett drummer McLenty Hunter setting things up for Stryker to show off his updated Kenny Burrell chops. Walter Smith III delivers the Joe Henderson role with his customary poise: his solo on the latin groover ‘El Camino’ is pitched between cerebral and earthy with his customary clear, limpid tone and crisp delivery. ‘Dreamsong’ is a bluesy lope, ‘Everything I Love’ a cool strut through the changes with everyone keeping things at an even temperature while displaying some impressive chops, ‘Rush Hour’ has a twisty theme that would have fit into a late sixties Blue Note session, though with some neat metric modulation to keep things up to date: Smith and Gold really fly on this one. ‘Inner City Blues’ is a tough take on the oft-covered classic that evokes Medeski Martin and Wood with some cool extra breakdowns added. Stryker’s tone is fat, his attack is clean and his language on this project shows his lineage to the genre’s greats: his laid back octaves on ‘Love Dance’ hark back to Wes, but he’s still his own man and this is a very satisfying addition to the genre, delivered with heart and soul and a large measure of understated intelligence. ‘Trouble #2’ is a direct quote from Turrentine which gives Smith a chance to show how down-home he can get within the context of contemporary post-Potter modern tenor playing. Recommended.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
