The First Great 2026 Jazz Album?
On January 9, Strikezone Reecords will release Blue Fire by West Orange guitarist-composer-producer-educator Dave Stryker. Recorded at the legendary Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, it was mixed and mastered at Trading 8s in Paramus. Among its nine tracks is Paul McCartney’s 1967 “The Fool On The Hill,” Charlie Parker’s 1947 “Dexterity” and Jerome Kern’s 1937 “The Folks Who Live On The Hill.”
“This recording was a longtime dream for me,” says Stryker. “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.”
Stryker will be performing tomorrow night at Midnight Blue in New York City. He’ll be in New Orleans January 8 at the Hyatt Regency, then back home in Jersey twice: Jan. 15 at Tavern on George in New Brunswick and Jan. 23 at Shanghai Jazz in Madison.