Dave Stryker, Guitarist/Jazz Educator
Dave Stryker has recorded 30 CDs as a leader, the most recent of which is “Baker’s Circle,” honoring jazz educator David Baker, who, along with Aebersold, was an early, earnest advocate of jazz studies. Stryker also played with saxophonist Stanley Turrentine’s band from 1986-1995.
Stryker recorded four Aebersold Play-A-Longs, including a tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim and to Django Reinhardt’s gypsy jazz.
He currently is Adjunct Professor of Jazz Guitar at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and at the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University.
How did you get started with Jamey Aebersold and the Play-A-Longs?
When I was about 17 or so, I went down from Omaha (his hometown) to Wichita, Kansas to Aebersold’s summer camp, and went for two summers in a row. Rufus Reid (bassist) was my first combo teacher.
The second year I went, I was in (saxophonist) Joe Henderson’s combo. Now, (being) a 17- or 18-year-old kid in Joe Henderson’s combo and having Joe get in my van and go get a Big Mac, or whatever, on the break…It was life-changing.
There’s a whole ton of musicians out there who went to these jazz camps and that’s how we learned to play. That’s the first time I ever heard of a II –V- I, I think, was when I went to those camps.
Describe the first Play-A-Long recording you did, “What’s New,” Volume 93, which features jazz standards.
This was Jamey’s first guitar as a comping instrument Play-A-Long. Up until then, they (the Play-A-Longs) were all piano (bass and drums). We call it comping when you are playing behind a melody or playing behind a soloist. Or playing the chord changes. That will get you more work than being a hotshot soloist.
If you know how to comp behind other people and make the music sound good and making the person you’re backing up, whether it’s a singer or an instrumentalist, (sound good) that’s a valuable skill set to have.
I actually wrote some tunes (for the Play-A-Longs); Jamey was always really nice about letting me put some of my original tunes on the Play-A-Longs. I think on the first one, I maybe did a tune by Grant Green—I can’t remember exactly, but they were certain tunes with chord changes that were good to play over.
On the organ Play-A-Long, I did a few, too, because I’d played with Jack McDuff, that was one of my first big gigs and one of the great organ players, and so I knew quite a bit about organ trio and so I added a couple of tunes that are sort of inspired by Jack.
On the Django one, Jamey approached me about that and that was an interesting thing, because that’s a skill set that is different than jazz. It’s not a style that’s really in my bag as such, but I said, ‘Yeah, I could do this.’ I borrowed a Maccaferri-style acoustic guitar, which Reinhardt also used.
In your experience, how ubiquitous are Play-A-Longs around the world?
I have a funny story. I was doing a tour one time in Savannah, GA, and I was walking down the street one afternoon on my day off and I heard some jazz guitar coming out of a bar at happy hour. I walked in and there’s a woman just sitting there playing guitar, but she’s playing along with a track. And I’m listening and I say, ‘Gosh, this sounds really familiar.’ And I realized she’s playing along with my Jobim Aebersold Play-A-Long record.
So I sat up at the bar and I walked up to her when she finished her break and I said, ‘I just want you to know it was really a pleasure playing with you this afternoon.’ And she looked at me like, ‘What are you talking about?’ and I said, ‘I’m Dave Stryker and I’m on that Play-A-Long.’ And she said, ‘Oh my god!’
I’ve been all over the world—you know, you’d be in the craziest place and you’d never expect it—but there sitting on the street is a kid with a boom box with a hat out, playing along with a Jamey Aebersold Play-A-Long.
Aebersold’s Play-A-Longs have brought jazz music—and learning how to play jazz music—all over the world.