by Adorjan Horvát
Few formats in jazz are as groove-centered as the organ trio. On Blue Fire – The Van Gelder Session, guitarist Dave Stryker steps into that lineage with confidence. The album captures Stryker alongside Hammond organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter in a setting where the trio’s long-standing rapport turns the classic organ-trio language into something grounded in tradition and unmistakably contemporary.
The organ trio has always been a format built on subtle balance. With the low-end power of the organ’s left-hand or pedal work, low-end shaping the feel around the pulse of the drums, this places focus on guitar phrasing. This is why this setting was so popular in dance halls: a trio is capable of creating a fluid rhythmic architecture. On Blue Fire – The Van Gelder Session, Stryker, Gold, and Hunter treat that danceable architecture as a field of modern-day jazz interaction.
Stryker’s guitar voice is central to this balance. His phrasing carries the clarity and melodic logic that have long defined his playing, but within the trio context, his lines take on an additional structural role. Stryker favors concise, blues-inflected statements that lock into the groove while defining harmonic patterns that match the Hammond organ’s vertical voicings. His tone, jazz box warm, cuts through the mix with an unforced authority, letting the guitar take on the function of melodic lead, rhythmic partner, and harmonic anchor at will and with clarity.
Jared Gold’s Hammond organ provides the trio’s gravitational center. Gold approaches the instrument with a refined sense of comping that balances density and clarity. His chord voicings swell and recede with forward energy, moving with lush harmonic pads, punctuating voice-lead phrases, and percussive stabs. The Hammond’s bass register, whether articulated through pedals or left-hand figures, grounds the trio with a supple momentum that never feels mechanical. Instead, the bass presence emerges organically from the groove itself, flowing from its historical roots.
Gold’s solo passages highlight the instrument’s orchestral depth. When he steps forward, the Hammond’s drawbar-driven resonance fills the sonic space with swirling harmonics and blues-tinged phrasing. The organ fills the soundstage with a grounded, danceable jazz feel with post-bop textures. Gold is a player who balances feel and energy, keeping both intact, adjusting in real time to keep the conversation fluid.
Behind them, McClenty Hunter’s drums function as the ensemble’s rhythmic propulsion. His drumming emphasizes the buoyant swing and earthy backbeat that define the organ-trio tradition. Hunter’s ride cymbal patterns provide a steady current, while his snare accents and bass drum punctuations subtly guide the trio’s dynamic contour. Importantly, he resists the temptation to overplay. Instead, his rhythmic language feels conversational, responding to Stryker’s phrases, nudging Gold’s comping patterns, and shaping the ensemble’s internal pulse with a keen ear to the details.
What emerges from this interplay is a trio that moves as a single organism. No element dominates the sound; the music grows from the shared pulse that connects guitar, organ, and drums.
If the album’s foundation lies in the organ-trio tradition, but its emotional character emerges from the trio’s love of the groove. Blue Fire – The Van Gelder Session unfolds with the relaxed communication of musicians who internalize the pulse to let the music develop naturally.
The title track, “Blue Fire,” sets the tone with a simmering groove. The performance is an up-tempo contemporary swing where Stryker’s phrasing alternates between quick modern lines and blues-inflected riffs that sit comfortably in the pocket. His eighth notes shift subtly within the groove, sometimes centered squarely in the beat for forward momentum, sometimes leaning back to emphasize the tune’s earthy blues inflection. Gold’s organ chords swell beneath the guitar line, adding harmonic warmth without crowding the melody, while Hunter’s ride cymbal keeps the pulse buoyant and unhurried.
“Blue Fire” captures the trio’s chemistry particularly well. There are plenty of moments where Stryker finishes a quick cascade of eighth notes before dropping into a bluesy riff that settles deep into the groove, and then Gold answers with a clipped Hammond chord that lands as a conversational reply, all while Hunter’s ride cymbal sustains the pocket and accents the interaction on the snare.
That sense of communication becomes a defining feature of the album. Each performance shows a different angle of an organ-trio that encourages each other to fill the space with motion and intent. Here, the trio moves in a common direction. Listening becomes an agreed-upon element as they shape musical sentences. These clear structures give each chorus room to settle before the next idea unfolds.
On “Van Gelder’s Place,” these ideas often appear as clearly stated motifs framed by brief moments of breathing space, allowing the trio to respond collectively before the next phrase develops. Gold’s comping patterns frequently leave small rhythmic openings, which Hunter colors with subtle cymbal accents or brush textures.
The trio’s sense of pacing also emerges in its treatment of ballad repertoire. On “The Folks Who Live on the Hill,” Stryker opens alone with a lush chordal introduction before the trio settles gently into the melody. Gold’s Hammond chords shimmer beneath the guitar while Hunter’s brushes stir softly across the snare, creating a warm, floating texture. Even in his solo, Stryker keeps the melody at the center of the performance, adorning it with post-bop phrasing and controlled chordal accents without ever obscuring its lyrical heart.
Throughout the album, groove is the propulsion that makes the atmosphere. The rhythm of the trio establishes a foundation that feels deeply rooted in the pulse and unhurried. Hunter’s drumming, in particular, embodies this philosophy. His patterns lock firmly into the beat but retain a looseness that allows the music to expand and contract around the soloist.
Blue Fire – The Van Gelder Session is a compelling statement within Dave Stryker’s extensive catalog, capturing an organ trio whose strength lies in cohesion. By emphasizing groove and attentive interaction, Stryker, Jared Gold, and McClenty Hunter reaffirm the enduring vitality of the organ-trio tradition while shaping it through their own relaxed, modern sensibility. The album glows with the steady warmth of musicians who understand that the deepest fire in jazz burns at a controlled, unhurried simmer. That’s the short of it!
