Blue Fire: The Van Gelder Session

Dave Stryker Blue Fire The Van Gelder Session. Produced by Dave Stryker. Recorded at Van Gelder Recording Studio. Engineered by Maureen Sickler. Mixed & Mastered at Trading 8s Studio, Paramus, NJ on July 29, 2025 by Chris Sulit. DAVE STRYKER guitar JARED GOLD organ McCLENTY HUNTER drums

On Blue Fire guitarist Dave Stryker, who cut his teeth working with Jack McDuff and Stanley Turrentine before branching out on his own, brings his longtime trio of Jared Gold on organ and McClenty Hunter on drums into the historic Rudy Van Gelder record-ing studio for the first time. The band's communication, interplay, and groove is evident on four new Stryker originals (including the burning title cut “Blue Fire”), as well as hip new takes on Lennon/McCartney’s “The Fool on the Hill” and Charlie Parker’s “Dex- terity.” A beautiful reading of the Jerome Kern ballad “The Folks Who Live on the Hill” leads into the cooking 3/4 closer “Summer Night.” You can hear that this recording had special meaning for the trio as Stryker says:

“This recording was a longtime dream for me. I had always wanted to record at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio but never got the chance when he was alive. Thankfully, Rudy’s assistant Maureen Sickler and her husband Don have taken over the operation to keep it preserved. When you walk into this amazing space, the history, not to mention the incredibly warm sound of the huge room, are palpable. Given the story of Van Gelder’s—all the Blue Note and CTI records and of course Coltrane’s A Love Supreme—it would’ve been easy to be overwhelmed. However, with my 20-year working trio of Jared Gold (playing the original Jimmy Smith/Larry Young Hammond organ) and McClenty Hunter on drums, we were inspired and captured some of the magic. We can now add Blue Fire to the long list of albums recorded at this legendary temple of jazz.”

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