Dave Stryker
Released in 2019
DownBeat Four-Stars Review
YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l6riSX1YOO73-2oDpRt0JCWBc7KuEzyxo
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4CejJM85SOdnMma0VUz5ng?si=kUYHuv-_SM2WWywvuytmdw
About:
Fresh off the success of Eight Track III (6 Weeks at #1 on the JazzWeek Radio Chart and still at the top of the charts) Dave Stryker and his Eight Track Band decided to go in and celebrate and make a Christmas CD for all the listeners and fans who have enjoyed and supported the music. Dave says: “It’s always crazy to be arranging and recording Christmas music in the hot summer, but I think I was able to put my stamp on this batch of Holiday favorites and make a pretty hip record along with the always groovin’ musical expressions of Stefon Harris, Jared Gold and McClenty Hunter. We put our ‘Eight Track’ vibe on these tunes!”
Track Listing:
1. This Christmas (Donny Hathaway / Nadine McKinnor) 04:57
2. What Child Is This? (Traditional) 05:11
3. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Traditional) 05:09
4. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (John Lennon / Yoko Ono) 04:08
5. Soulful Frosty (Steve Nelson / Eugene Record / Walter Rollins / Sonny Sanders) 04:10
6. Christmas Time Is Here (Vince Guaraldi) 05:27
7. Sleigh Ride (Leroy Anderson) 03:46
8. Blue Christmas (Billy Hayes / Jay W. Johnson) 06:08
9. We Three Kings (John Henry Hopkins, Jr.) 06:34
10. O Tannenbaum (Traditional) 05:24
Personnel:
Dave Stryker: guitar
Stefon Harris: vibraphone
Jared Gold: organ
McClenty Hunter: drums and percussion
Steve Nelson: vibraphone (10)
Produced and Arranged by Dave Stryker
Review:
Dave Stryker has lent his considerable musical intelligence, imagination and prowess the past few years to a series of three Eight Tracktitled albums recorded with organist Jared Gold, drummer McClenty Hunter and either Stefon Harris or Steve Nelson on vibes. Crafting soul-jazz grooves, the quartet reanimates tunes Stryker enjoyed listening to as a teenager in the 1960s and ’70s. Eight Track Christmas (Strikezone 8819; 51:02 ++++) continues the series with the guitarist’s fresh-as-newly-fallensnow ballad and uptempo arrangements of his favorite Yuletide tunes, mostly familiar carols. The shiny star atop Stryker’s Christmas tree is “Soulful Frosty,” a mash-up that pairs “Frosty The Snowman” with a version of Young-Holt Unlimited’s hit from 1968, “Soulful Strut.”
Frank-John Hadley (DownBeat)
