If the weather doesn't cooperate, this show will be moved inside to Rose Music Hall with a limited number of seats available on a first come, first served basis. 

April serves as our annual "Jazz Appreciation Month" celebration. To mark the 30-day-long occasion, we have again gone out of our way in 2022 to deliver 20-plus events. The run of ongoing activity begins in fine fashion on Saturday, April 2 with an outdoor (providing the weather cooperates), dare we say it, "super group" of sorts. Let's just say our sights are set quite high for this concert.
   At any given moment guitarist/leader Dave Stryker seems to be organizing four or five different projects simultaneously - or at least overlapping with each other - as he toils in consort with and along side an array of eqially talented colleagues. The Omaha-to-New Jersey transplant is as prolific and as energetic a performer as you're likely to find in jazz today. He's issued 30 titles under his own name - many released on his Strikezone label. He's also contributed to scores of other recordings; his discography cointinues to be on an upward trajectpory. The breadth and scope of his experience is now three decades strong. That's why we felt quite comforable  asking the guitarist to surprise us by assembling a "customized" group together for us to present to you, our concertgoers.
   Let's just say he did not dissapoint. Truth be told, he came knocked us out, selecting people and creating an ensemble culled from his measurable bag of musical tricks. The result: A quartet that draws from his extensive and separate stints with a pair of legendary figures: saxophonist Stanley Turrentine and organist Jack McDuff.
   Welcome to Dave Stryker's "Guitar-Organ Explosion," an aptly named ensemble that includes Bobby Floyd, a Columbus, Ohioan, and one of the true unsung Hammond B-3 heroes in the country. He's also a first-timer at the Jazz Series. Making this event that much more hip and fun will be Eric Alexander, the deeply rooted, effervescent, versatile tenor saxophonist-band leader; it's been way too long since Alexander made a Jazz Series appearance. Drummer McClenty Hunter, a frequent Stryker bandmate and also a Jazz Series first-timer., rounds out this fearsome foursome.

Saturday, Apr. 2, 2022

Rose Park

- Pat Metheny