Guitarist Dave Stryker and large-ensemble arranger Brent Wallarab, fellow members of Indiana University’s jazz faculty and kindred movie buffs, get dramatic and cinematic on this 11-song program of music from some of their favorite films, and perhaps yours as well. The highly listenable tracks on Stryker With Strings Goes To The Movies consist of lush, panoramic orchestrations awash in melody and rife with thematic jazz improvisations — a nostalgic submersion into a captivating world of widescreen wonder. Stryker, the perpetually touring guitarist whose prodigious output of small-group jazz and organ-combo albums and headlining gigs dates back decades, and Wallarab, longtime co-leader of the repertoire-diving Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, previously teamed up in 2023 to work on music for a public TV broadcast celebrating the centennial of Indiana jazz legend Wes Montgomery. They take their collaboration to new depths and heights on Stryker With Strings Goes To The Movies, which also serves as a followup to the guitarist’s previous release with rhythm section and strings, 2022’s As We Are. The orchestra here is 30-strong, with strings, brass and a New York-style rhythm section of pianist Xavier Davis, bassist Jeremy Allen and drummer McClenty Hunter, complemented by a marquis’ worth of jazz soloists in saxophonist Greg Ward, violinist Sara Caswell, trumpeter Mark Buselli and trombonist Jim Pugh. Highlights include Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” (from the 1989 teen romance Say Anything), a bossa-grooving “You Only Live Twice” (John Barry’s theme for the 1967 James Bond film), a noir-ish “Taxi Driver” (composed by Bernard Herrmann for Martin Scorsese’s famous 1976 film), a funky-burning romp through Isaac Hayes’ “Theme From Shaft” (from Gordon Parks’ 1971 blaxploitation film), a hard-swinging “Flirtbird” (one of Duke Ellington’s themes written for Otto Preminger’s 1959 courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder), a balladic “Dreamsville” (written by Henry Mancini for Blake Edwards’ Peter Gunn movie and TV show) and a gorgeous quartet version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Edelweiss” (from 1965’s The Sound of Music), taken as a jazz waltz sans strings and brass. For a complete track listing and other essential information about Stryker With Strings Goes To The Movies, be sure to check out the album’s 16-page booklet with detailed, insightful notes by David Brent Johnson of WFIU Public Radio in Bloomington, Indiana. And, to experience Stryker in a live small-group context, go see his Jan. 24–26 shows at New York’s Birdland with organist Jared Gold, tenor saxophonist Troy Roberts and drummer Hunter (Rob Dixon joins the fold on tenor sax Sunday night only).

from https://downbeat.com