Dave Stryker

Dave Stryker, a jazz guitarist whose tone draws deeply from blues and soul traditions, has performed and led ensembles for many years. Eschewing the incisive, transparent phrasing common among other guitarists, he cultivates a subtly obscured sonority rooted in his long association with organ trios. Over time he has performed and recorded alongside Jack McDuff, Stanley Turrentine, Jimmy Smith, Lonnie Smith, and Freddie Hubbard. The 1992 album Guitar on Top presented an all-star ensemble that included Mulgrew Miller. The bulk of his recorded output has appeared on Steeplechase, with notable titles including 1994’s Full Moon, 1996’s Blue to the Bone, 2004’s Shades Beyond, and 2010’s Keystone. Subsequent releases have come out on his own Strikezone imprint. Blue Soul, issued in 2020, placed him with Bob Mintzer serving as arranger and conductor for the WDR Big Band. As We Are, released in 2021, featured John Pattitucci, Brian Blade, and Julian Shore. Groove Street, dated 2024, reunited Stryker’s organ trio with Mintzer appearing as guest soloist.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1957, Stryker took up the guitar at age ten after hearing recordings by the Beatles, Cream, and Johnny Winter. He soon explored the work of blues figures such as Freddie King and the more harmonically adventurous jazz stylists Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, and Miles Davis. While still a teenager he began working regularly in Omaha clubs; in 1978 he relocated to Los Angeles, where he studied briefly with guitarist Billy Rogers and formed a friendship with Hammond B-3 organist Brother Jack McDuff that led to employment.

After settling in New York City during the 1980s, Stryker spent several years touring with McDuff’s soul-jazz group. In 1986 he met Stanley Turrentine and subsequently spent a decade on the road with the saxophonist, a period during which his own identity as a guitarist gained recognition among six-string colleagues and within the broader jazz and blues communities. As a leader, Stryker made his debut in 1988 with the independent release First Strike, fronting a quartet that included drummer Billy Hart, pianist and keyboardist Marc Cohen, saxophonist Steve Slagle, and bassist Ron McLure. Signing with SteepleChase in 1991, he issued Passage, which also featured Joey Calderazzo and Adam Nussbaum among others. A consistent sequence of well-received SteepleChase albums followed, among them Guitar on Top in 1992, Full Moon in 1993, Nomad in 1994, Blue to the Bone in 1996, and Blue to the Bone II in 1999. In 2000 he honored Davis with Shades of Miles, augmented by Larry Goldings on Hammond B-3, trumpeter Brian Lynch, and saxophonist Billy Drewes. Changing Times (2001) and Big City (2005), the latter the first of two albums issued on MelBay, illustrated his wide-ranging fusion of guitar-driven blues, swing, New Orleans funk, soul-jazz, and rock. The Chaser appeared in 2006. Throughout these years Stryker also contributed as a sideman to projects by Kevin Mahogany, James Williams, and Royce Campbell while co-leading several sessions with saxophonist Steve Slagle. In 2010 he paid tribute to longtime associate drummer Tony Reedus, who had died of a pulmonary embolism in 2008, with the organ-centered One for Reedus, marking his return to SteepleChase; that same year he released Keystone with drummer Quincy Davis. Another organ-quintet date, Blue Strike, came next.

Stryker inaugurated Strikezone Records in 2014 with Eight Track, which included vibraphonist Stefon Harris, organist Jared Gold, and drummer McClenty Hunter. Messin’ with Mister T followed in 2015 and featured guest appearances by Eric Alexander, Jimmy Heath, Chris Potter, and additional musicians. After the sequel Eight Track II he issued the 2017 quartet recording Strykin’ Ahead and Eight Track III the following year. His first holiday collection, Eight Track Christmas, appeared in 2019. Saxophonist, composer, and arranger Bob Mintzer had joined Stryker’s organ trios as a guest on multiple live occasions. As principal conductor of Cologne’s WDR Big Band, Mintzer conceived the notion of supporting Stryker’s trio with the full orchestra. He prepared fresh arrangements of recent Stryker compositions, interpretations of songs by Marvin Gaye, Prince, and Jimmy Webb, and his own piece “Aha.” The resulting set, credited to Dave Stryker with Bob Mintzer and the WDR Big Band and released on Strikezone in 2020, featured Mintzer’s conducting and charts.

After completing a European tour, Stryker reconvened his trio plus guest saxophonist Walter Smith III to record Baker’s Circle in 2021. The next year he altered both his recording approach and compositional methods for As We Are, reassembling with Pattitucci, Blade, and Shore while adding a string quartet that incorporated violinist Sara Caswell and cellist Marika Hughes. The album received near-universal praise for its sophisticated textures, dynamic range, and ensemble control. Stryker composed seven of the nine selections; the remaining tracks comprised one original by Shore and a reading of Nick Drake’s “River Man.”

Stryker and his associates toured extensively throughout 2023. Late that year he returned to the studio with Gold and Hunter and with Mintzer appearing as a co-billed guest. Stryker wrote three of the nine pieces, Mintzer contributed two, and Gold supplied one; the program was completed by renditions of Harry Warren’s “The More I See You,” Wayne Shorter’s “Infant Eyes,” and Eddie Harris’s “Cold Duck Time.” Issued in January 2024 under the title Groove Street, the album concluded the project.