Dave Stryker Goes to the Movies

A huge fan of the music found in various movies, Dave Stryker releases an album with a full orchestra of songs.

For the “Goes to the Movies” project, Stryker recruited arranger and conductor Brent Wallarab from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.

JB:  Your new album is very creative and distinctive.  Tell me one or two classic electric guitar with orchestra albums that have particularly impacted you as a musician and why.

BRENT:  The jazz/pop records Wes Montgomery did for Verve and A&M with arrangers Oliver Nelson and Don Sebesky were key influences. Other influences include the jazz-tinged scores Henry Mancini did with strings, Bob Bain being a guitar soloist on some of this material, and some of the string writing Don Sebesky did for other jazz artists including Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, Paul Desmond, and others. 

DAVE:  So, for sure the Wes/Oliver Nelson collaborations and maybe Kenny Burrell / Gil Evans, and we both love the CTI Sebesky stuff, but really, I don’t think there have been a lot of guitar/orchestra recordings that make this one special.

JB:  Brent, are there any special orchestration aspects in arranging music with the electric guitar out in front of the orchestra?

BRENT:  The guitar is a very versatile instrument in that it can stand out like any other single-lone solo instrument, but also comp, play written voicings, and blend beautifully with other instruments. Dave in particular has such a warm sound that it invites lush accompaniment. I appreciated Dave’s trust in me to write arrangements I thought would work well with his style and approach.

JB:  Dave, as a guitarist, how did you need to think differently being supported by an entire orchestra?

DAVE: Well, it was such a thrill to be featured in front of an orchestra with Brent’s creative arrangements. I just tried to be inspired by the setting, Brent’s writing, and the beautiful melodies from these movie themes. We tried to make it a meeting of the jazz quartet and orchestra, so I felt at home there.

JB:  What drew you to using movie songs for this guitar/orchestra setting?

BRENT: Dave and I worked together on the Emmy-winning PBS TV production Wes At 100: A 100^th Birthday Celebration of Wes Montgomery. I wrote a handful of arrangements featuring Dave with a big band and strings that come off pretty well. We quickly decided we needed to do a record together. The theme of music from the film came to us as we both share a passion for movies, especially but not limited to, the golden era of the 1970s “New Hollywood”. We wanted to honor the beauty of the original versions, putting our own unique spin on them but keeping them recognizable. Our love and respect for this music led us in the direction of avoiding abstraction and keeping true to the spirit of the originals. Our reharmonization, reorchestration, form expansion, etc. had to serve the original music, not distract from it. 

DAVE: I remember suggesting to Brent, “What about movie themes?” He replied: “That’s my two favorite things: movies and music!” (ha-ha). The PBS special was the genesis of this new recording, but I didn’t want to tackle Wes as for this recording, as I love Wes too much and feel we covered on the PBS special. Since Brent and I both love movies and music, this seemed like something cool to try.

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JB:  Why begin the album with “In Your Eyes,” Peter Gabriel’s song from Say Anything?

BRENT:  We wanted to open the album with something that had great energy and was also familiar to a wider generation of music and movie lovers. This movie, and Gabriel’s iconic song, is a favorite of my (Brent’s) wife, who requested we include it. It quickly became a favorite of all the musicians involved. 

DAVE: Yes, Brent suggested this one as we wanted to cover something a little more modern and different than some of the other movie themes we tackled. “In Your Eyes” is such an incredible song by Peter Gabriel. I feel we both hit on something special with this one. Once more, props to Brent for his incredible writing. 

JB:  Your rendition of the theme from Cinema Paradiso begins very close to the original but then goes into a nice bossa nova feel.  Talk about your goals with this song.

BRENT:  We are so enamored with Morricone’s theme that we invested a great deal of effort to capture the essence and mood of the original while at the same time letting our own voices come through. This was the formula for everything on the album. Dave’s idea to go to a Bossa feel for the solos I think was as practical as it was artistic. It’s a nice energy lift in the middle of the chart that might bog down if it stayed ballad all the way through. 

DAVE:  Once we had decided on some of the themes we wanted to do, I got to work thinking of how we could arrange these to fit in a jazz quartet setting surrounded by the orchestra. This included trying to come up with different feels, grooves, and solo sections within the arrangements. 

JB:  I also love the bossa nova feel on “You Only Live Twice.” Talk about this.

BRENT:  We were not afraid to lean into nostalgia and embrace the jazz/pop records that Dave and I both enjoyed back in the 70s. “You Only Live Twice” is an amazing song, one Dave and I are huge fans of. With a melody so strong and a soloist as great as Dave, I didn’t want to clutter up the arrangement and get in the way of either of them. It’s an elegant tune, and I wanted the orchestration to be a tasty enhancement without distractions.

DAVE: This is one that I knew I wanted to do from the beginning. I love the Bond movies, and I love how Brent embraced the CTI sound in his arrangements as I grew up with all those great records.

JB:  What did you appreciate about Greg Ward’s alto saxophone work on “Taxi Driver” and then “Flirtbird” from Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder?

Brent:  Greg Ward is simply one of the greatest living jazz saxophonists and we are fortunate to have him involved. He is one of the most versatile musicians I have ever heard, and he knows exactly how to deliver appropriately no matter the situation. Bernard Herrmann’s original “Main Theme” to Taxi Driver famously features an alto saxophone, and we wanted to do the same, even though there are significant differences from the original. On “Flirtibird,” Greg adds another level of energy and excitement when he comes in at the climax of the arrangement. With alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges being so important to Ellington’s legacy, it seemed appropriate to let Greg have a moment. 

DAVE:  Greg is one of the new greats of the saxophone. He really put his stamp on this iconic theme. I feel so lucky to have Greg and all the great players on this record who brought their own voices to the project: Xavier Davis, Jeremy Allen, McClenty Hunter, Sara Caswell, Jim Pugh, and Mark Buselli as well as the incredible trombone section and string orchestra.

JB:  There’s a hint of disco with the “Theme from Shaft.”

BRENT: Isaac Hayes composed and recorded the theme for Shaft in 1971. The hi-hat 16^th note figure that McLenty Hunter plays on our recording is exactly what opens the original version. Apparently, the hi-hat pattern originally came from an Otis Redding Stax recording session that Hayes was a sideman on. He recalled it and used it for the opening of Shaft. Disco would most definitely adopt the 16^th note high-that groove, but it had its origins with Hayes. 

DAVE:  I knew we had to include this one because I love to arrange these hip-pop tunes from the 70s that I’ve done with my Eight Track project. It was fun to come up with the funk into samba into straight-ahead swing arrangement so we could open up and burn a little bit!

JB:  I can’t ask about every song.  For “Moonglow,” did you have in mind violinist Joe Venuti’s 1933 version or just the theme from the 1955 movie Picnic? Also, what do you appreciate about Jim Pugh’s trombone solo in the song?

BRENT:  “Moonglow” was included as a gift to the parents of our producer. They fell in love to that tune when in high school, and we were glad to include it. It is a great melody and is associated with a movie of the 50’s called Picnic, which was hugely popular in its day.  Joe Venuti, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and many other musicians had iconic versions of it, but our goal with this was to evoke the lush strings of romantic Hollywood in the 50s while letting Dave and the rhythm section swing like crazy. I let the trombone section take the place of the full big band and legendary trombonist Jim Pugh leads the section and solos. He is a fluid, elegant player who adds so much leading the section throughout the entire album. We wanted to give him a bit of a feature on this one. 

JB:  People are especially drawn to the music of Henry Mancini. I love what you have done with “Dreamsville” from TV’s Peter Gunn.  What gives Mancini’s music such appeal?

BRENT:   Mancini was a genius. He wrote so many beautiful and memorable melodies that sound effortless and simple but truly are miniature masterpieces. He also developed his own recognizable vocabulary with his orchestration and chord voicing, which is always lush, warm, and so romantic. We initially did this arrangement for the Wes Montgomery TV show because Wes often played this with his trio. For our version, I kept the brass arrangement fairly close to Mancini’s original and added strings as I imagined he might have. 

DAVE:  I agree Mancini was a genius. I have always loved “Dreamsville.” I might have heard it first on a Pat Martino record before Wes. But this was one of Brent’s great arrangements that carried over from the Wes Montgomery PBS special and was kind of the genesis of this record.

JB:  I love the sophisticated rendering you do, but why close the album with “Edelweiss” from the Sound of Music?”

DAVE:  This was actually suggested by our co-producer Greg Reynolds as one of his favorite movie themes. It is such a well-known melody I decided to arrange it and let the quartet shine (one take) on the closing credits of our movie project Stryker with Strings Goes to the Movies. Thanks for listening and I hope everyone enjoys it as much as we did making it.

BRENT:  Here is an insider’s hint: This may be a clue to the theme of volume two that Dave and I are planning to record next year.

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