The Stryker / Slagle Band at the Jazz Bakery Dec. 15-18 - Show Review

I was asked by Dave Stryker's promotional people to attend the four night engagement at the Jazz Bakery in LA. Unfortunately, due to my geographic location, Montreal, Canada, I was not able to attend. So I set about finding someone who could attend on behalf of Jazz Guitar Life and found a willing participant in Bill R. He was put on the guest list, along with a friend and from his comments they both really enjoyed the show. Lucky guys...:) Below is his take on how the show went on December 15, 2005. Enjoy.

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Hey Lyle,

We caught the first night of the Stryker/Slagle band’s 4-night run at the Jazz Bakery in LA. Hard to believe, but there were less than 20 people in the place for the first set and it swelled to about 25 for the second. What’s up with that? Maybe because it was a Thursday. Well, I hope more folks saw them later, since they missed a great show. Dave Stryker’s mom even drove out from Arizona to see her son perform, so maybe that helped make the night.

Dave Stryker (guitar) and Steve Slagle (sax) go back some 20 years and that was apparent in their rapport and support during the show. Their backup included (didn’t get their first names) Novack on drums and Carpenter on upright bass, local LA-based guys for this gig, and they did an outstanding job of picking up the music and cues from Stryker and running with it.

Dave was playing his ES-347 through a Boss ME-50 into a miked Polytone amp, and puts out some deep thick jazz tones on the clean tunes and then drives it a little with the Boss on the bluesy ones. I hadn’t heard any of the band’s music prior to this evening, but am planning on digging into Dave’s stuff after what I heard. Definitely straight ahead stuff to me. Dave plays some great lines and tasty comping behind Steve. The tunes establish a melody then they’re off and running, but it’s not out there or too challenging to easily enjoy. Some of Dave’s lines are blues based, but mostly on the bluesy tunes, otherwise he’s a clean bop presence. Steve Slagle is very bop oriented and can really let it out, but he’s got a nice sense of dynamics and phrasing. You know how those sax guys can get carried away and wail on and on and just make a lot of noise at warp speed? Not here. Steve’s stuff sounds great.

Stryker and Slagle don’t need to give each other cues on stage. They know their music and play off of each other, sometimes playing the same notes, harmonizing other times, or trading 4’s. They look like they really enjoy watching each other go off on solos. I got a minute to talk to Slagle between sets about his collaboration with Stryker, and he said “It’s about finding someone who will play the music the way you want it to be played”. And unfortunately for me and those in LA, both Stryker and Slagel who have some LA roots, have made New York their home due to the concentrated jazz scene they find there with progressive players and support.

They played some tunes off of their new album, Live At The Jazz Standard, including Mozone and Doubleblue which Dave attributed to his Muddy Waters influence. As well, they played Boba Marta by Slagle on the alto sax for this one, kind of a Mathenyesque/latin tune (hey, to me anyway – I’ll have to hear it again on the CD), with Dave adding some distortion to his tone. Dave fingerpicked a beautiful Christmas Time Is Here, then the band joined in and made it a hot jazz tune. They also included Every Dark Street, with its eerie base lead in off of their first album, Long Gone, Every Time I Say Goodby – a slow and clean Cole Porter tune, and 1 Of 3.

Thanks Lyle, that was a great time for me. I’m also up in Santa Barbara every weekend and can catch groups at the Lobero or Soho! And check out Dave’s website, http://www.davestryker.com, which streams many of his tunes while you’re surfing his site.

Bill Rieman for Jazz Guitar Life