Dave Stryker Trio (from left: Dave Stryker, McClenty Hunter and Jared Gold): …every player at the top of his game and speaking with eloquence when called upon.
By David McGee
GROOVE STREET
Dave Stryker Trio with Bob Mintzer
Strikezone Records
Guitarist Dave Stryker is a man of his word. When he titles an album Groove Street, you best believe multitudes of grooves lay ahead as fashioned by Stryker, organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter with this album’s ringer being the formidable tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer, who contributes two original groovers, if you will, to the album’s nine-song setlist. Like Stryker, Mintzer makes everything better when he shows up, and the wonder is that these two long-time buddies haven’t conjoined in the studio more often. The last we found them together was on 2020’s acclaimed Blue Soul album, when Stryker joined Mintzer and his WDR Big Band for a bracing, Mintzer-arranged and -conducted summertime jaunt, “a persistent medium-cool approach,” as our review had it, on three Stryker originals, a Mintzer original and five covers ranging from Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” to Stanley Turrentine’s “Stan’s Shuffle” to Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman.” Blue Soul wound up #35 on the Deep Roots Elite Half-Hundred for 2020.
‘Groove Street,’ Dave Stryker Trio with Bob Mintzer, from Groove Street
A more intimate affair than Blue Soul, Groove Street features Stryker and his band in only their second album together, following last year’s Prime (a Deep Roots Spotlight Album selection) and Mintzer coming aboard not with his WDR Big Band but rather with new tunes and sax only. Clearly an equal opportunity employer, Stryker gives ample room for Mintzer and Gold to truly get in the groove as they see fit as Hunter is simply right there with muscular, rousing and feathery light percussive touches as the songs demand. The communication between the players here is more like that of musicians that have played together for years, so sure is their sense of where the groove is leading them.
‘The More I See You,’ Dave Stryker Trio with Bob Mintzer, from Groove Street
‘Overlap,’ Dave Stryker Trio with Bob Mintzer, from Groove Street
Bob Mintzer
As a listener, the quality that stood out for yours truly is how the nine songs—or at least the first seven–seem so interconnected, like a song cycle or a jazz fantasia. The eighth track, “The More I See You,” stands out owing to its familiarity as a pop hit dating back to 1945 when Dick Haymes recorded the Harry Warren-Mack David tune, which became an international pop hit in 1966 via Chris Montez’s career reviving Herb Alpert-produced single. Even so, in this quartet’s hands the song goes places it has never been before. Mintzer establishes the melody at the outset before he, Stryker, Gold and Hunter deconstruct and reconstruct it in extended solo jaunts over 6:40, and even Hunter gets in on the action with humorous interludes of drum rolls along the way before Stryker and Mintzer return to bring it home more or less as written, with warmth and respect for the original incarnation. Mintzer’s “Straight Ahead” closes the album with a jaunty groove propelled by its composer’s lively, angular tenor lines, much as his other original contribution, “Overlap,” proves a showcase for Gold’s smooth, clean organ chords in a convivial conversation with Mintzer’s twisting, turning improvisations on the melody before he steps away near the halfway mark for Stryker to cut loose with a flurry of single-string runs that Gold then mirrors in an extended organ solo. Stryker’s title track kicks off the album with a midtempo strut, bright and happy-go-lucky in feel, with the sax guitar and organ establishing the template for what’s to come—solos rising organically in theme-and-variation solos with Hunter’s energetic, sensitive drumming underpinning it all.
A slight change of pace comes in the form of sensitive explorations, led by Mintzer, of Wayne Shorter’s “Infant Eyes,” with Stryker and Gold spelling Mintzer with cool, measured solos adding muted urgency to the proceedings. Another cover, of Eddie Harris’s “Cold Duck Time,” is a high stepping affair with what sounds like Mintzer and Stryker doubling up on an opening salvo before the latter breaks away into a frisky run exploring the textures up and down the neck. Experience Groove Street in sequence, though, to fully appreciate the intellect and artistry at work here in making a beautiful whole out of disparate parts, with every player at the top of his game and speaking with eloquence when called upon.
***
TRIO
Andy Pratt
Thrift Girl Records
From the cascade of arpeggiated chords introducing the Gershwins’ “Soon” at this album’s start to the ebullient tenderness and genial vocal defining the closing offering of Bacharach-David’s “Something Big,” guitarist-vocalist Andy Pratt, working in a trio setting with fellow veteran Chicago jazz masters Joe Policastro (bass) and Phil Gratteau (drums), brings the sunshine at every turn. Cool, calm and collected throughout, these three musicians demonstrate the gift of being so good as to mask the complexity of their instrumental discourses in a laid-back exercise remarkable for its sustained mellow vibe.
‘Patricia,’ Perez Prado’s Mambo hit from 1958, as performed by Andy Pratt on Trio
Among jazz trios, Pratt’s is closer in style and attack to that of John Pizzarelli. Theirs is a tight, evocative subdued approach that serves to put a fresh sheen on some familiar and not-so-familiar pop, Latin and Great American Songbook chestnut. On the playful side, Pratt leads the trio through a frisky rendition of Perez Prado’s 1958 certified gold Mambo hit, “Patricia,” artfully deploying lush chords and teasing single-string variations of the catchy theme over Gratteau’s mischievous fills and cymbal work. This workout is only slightly less surprising than the tender, dreamy excursion into Jerry Goldsmith’s “Love Theme from Chinatown,” with Pratt meticulously fashioning a sensuous ambiance, especially with a feather-light touch on arpeggiated explorations of the neck, with Policastro offering a warm bass solo and Gratteau serving up a clever, ambient mix of brush drums, cymbal work and atmospheric rolls.
‘When Joanna Loved Me,’ popularized by Tony Bennett in 1964, as performed by Andy Pratt on Trio
‘From This Moment On,’ written by Cole Porter, as performed by Andy Pratt on Trio
Whereas the Pizzarelli trio has its namesake in the vocal slot, so does Pratt take the lead vocal duties in his. Pizzarelli has something approaching Nat King Cole’s “smoky gray” voice, but Pratt’s voice is altogether different; in fact, his is more plainspoken and earthy, more like a blues singer’s, and he uses it to great effect via his rhythmic phrasing and interesting dramatic flourishes. He can swing the lyrics brightly on an item such as Walter Donaldson’s 1930 hit, “Little White Lies,” an oft-covered tune notable for the 1939 recordings by Ellla Fitzgerald and Moon Mullican and the million selling version by Dick Haymes in 1947. It’s about a feckless woman who has “the devil in your heart” and “Heaven in your eyes,” but Pratt and company keep it rather comme ci, comme ça. A more penetrating performance greets “When Joanna Loved Me,” a 1964 tune written by Robert Wells and Jack Segal and popularized by Tony Bennett. On this bittersweet memory of a love long since departed, Pratt digs deep vocally and what could be amber-burnished memories are clearly open wounds—“…her touch, her smile and for a little while, she loved me, once again in Paris, in Paris on a Sunday, and the month is May,” –as Pratt’s faux bravado reveals the abiding hurt informing his reminiscence.
‘(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me,’ Andy Pratt, from Trio
Stepping up the pace, the band sprints through Cole Porter’s ebullient “From This Moment On,” with Gratteau powering the rhythmic thrust on brush drums, Pratt interjecting robust fills and frisky upper neck solo runs while topping it all with a lively vocal reading suited to the lyrics’ optimistic musings. Most surprising, though, is the second of two Bacharach-David gems here, “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me,” done in a deadpan style a la Leonard Cohen and more deeply blues-oriented and more deeply tragic in the telling than Lou Johnson’s original 1964 hit or “barefoot girl” Sandie Shaw’s Top 40 hit of the same year, or Naked Eyes’ bloodless mechanical rendering in 1983. It’s really a remarkable reading, respecting the lyrics and the catchy melody while taking it to its heretofore unexplored dark underbelly. Pratt surely recognized, in sequencing, the need to follow this penultimate track by going out on a high note. Back to Bacharach-David he went, with the abovementioned lighthearted fare of “Something Big,” penned as the title song for a 1971 Western comedy starring Dean Martin (and an excellent cast), with film and song alike now largely forgotten. But its blithe spirit is right on the money as a Trio closer, with all three musicians given some latitude to say their pieces before signing off in style. Trio has everything going for it. Over the course of a 20-years-plus career, Pratt has worked in various configurations but this, his third jazz trio outing, seems the best fit of all. More, please.
