Van Gelder’s studio is basically a shrine at this point. The room where they cut some of the best jazz records ever is run by Maureen Sickler now (she used to assist Van Gelder) and her husband Don. Dave Stryker knew the risk he was taking. You record there, people are gonna compare you to every legend who ever stepped through that door. Not exactly a comfortable position. But he brought his trio anyway – same guys he’s been playing with for like twenty years – and honestly that chemistry is what makes the record work.

Blue Fire is blues with jazz brains, if that makes sense. Stryker’s got that confidence you only get from doing something for decades. The title track hits – fast, dirty groove, smoky as hell. Gold’s organ is thick and layered, Hunter keeps it locked down on drums. Everything stays together.

Gold’s playing the actual Hammond that Jimmy Smith and Larry Young used. Not a replica, the real one. And yeah, you hear it. There’s a warmth there that software just doesn’t get, despite what they tell you. Stryker can handle bebop lines when he wants to, plays ballads without getting mushy. But it’s the blues underneath that matters – the bends, how he phrases things, when he leaves space. Jazz sits on top of that through harmony and how he improvises.

For listeners who love the organ trio tradition, this album is a gift. Stryker, Gold, and Hunter play this music with respect, technique, and understanding. The album consciously looks back to the sixties, when Jimmy Smith was defining the sound of the Hammond B-3 and Grant Green was cutting blues lines on guitar, and Stryker places himself squarely in that lineage without apology.

He plays the music of the past in the present and does so masterfully, with enough personality and conviction to justify the approach. The question is whether jazz needs another excellent traditionalist record, or if the genre’s future lies elsewhere. But that’s a debate about direction, not about quality – Blue Fire delivers exactly what it promises, and delivers it well.

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