JAY BECKENSTEIN

Over the past twenty five years, as contemporary instrumental music has evolved through many different stylistic names and formats--from "fusion" to "rhythm and jazz" to "smooth jazz"--the one constant in both popularity and musical ingenuity has been Spyro Gyra. Jay Beckenstein's roaring, emotional saxophones have been the anchor of the band's multi-genre signature sound, but there's always been more to his artistry and musical soul than Spyro's discography can document.

No doubt as Beckenstein was itching all these years to do a solo venture, Spyro fans were just as eager to check out a fuller scale, more personal revelation--a deeper portrait of the man behind the music. After 23 albums on three labels--including last year's Windham Hill Jazz debut "Got the Magic"--Beckenstein makes an exciting departure from his almost annual ensemble recording schedule with "Eye Contact", his highly anticipated debut.

Never one to rest on his formidable laurels, Beckenstein had been after his former labels MCA and GRP to do a project of his own for years, but the ongoing success of the band and his instant identification as leader made such an idea seem self-competitive. He quenched part of his desire by producing solo albums in the 90's for bandmembers Tom Schuman and Dave Samuels. GRP finally agreed and Beckenstein got started on a few of the album's tracks in 1998, only to suspend the work when Spyro Gyra signed on with Windham Hill.

Windham Hill is now pleased to honor that original commitment, and Beckenstein has delivered a knockout punch with the help of musicians and producers Chieli Minucci (Special EFX), Jason Miles (Miles Davis, David Sanborn), Jeff Beal and Chuck Loeb. Beckenstein also likes to refer to "Eye Contact" as "the Bass Player Magazine project" thanks to contributions by world class bassists Mark Egan, Marcus Miller, Will Lee, John Patitucci and South African player Bakithi Kumalo.

"When you've played in the same band as long as I have and have a recognizable sound, there's bound to be some stylistic overlap," says Beckenstein. "But this project gave me the opportunity to hook up, play with and learn from other great composers, musicians and producers. The trick to survival in the music business is finding ways to avoid creative ruts, and I've found that pushing the envelope, bouncing ideas off of new people, was a great and necessary growth opportunity for me."

While Beckenstein has always taken it upon himself to produce Spyro Gyra's recordings, he was ecstatic to discover a newfound freedom in collaborating for the first time with carefully selected outside producers. "Because of the unique Spyro dynamic, my own productions with them involved taking the best ideas from each member and acting as overseer of a group process. You always want to make sure that the guys have their opportunities to be heard, in both their ideas and their instruments," he says. "Here, I went from producing a band to assembling a team of new players, each to create a certain effect. I've been a longtime admirer of each producer I work with here. Chuck and Chieli are experts using digital recording, Jason is brilliant with sounds and samples and voices, and Jeff approaches everything like an orchestrator. Each helps me achieve a unique sound and go to places I'd never thought of before."

Over a pitter patter percussion pattern, Beckenstein's sweet soprano swirls magnificently around Minucci's breezy acoustic guitar lines on "Sunrise." Chuck Loeb's acoustic improvisations then ease in and around Beckenstein's clever alto and tenor horn doubling and Mark Egan's winding basslines on the upbeat "The Other Side." The bluesy, retro-soul flavored "Northline" finds Loeb's crying guitar line and organ simmering around the alto, while the title track features the Beckenstein and the guitarist creating pure romantic passion in tandem. Jason Miles surrounds the saxman's confident, strutting alto with moody atmospheres and a rolling bass groove on the aptly titled "West Side Cool." After another triumphant Beckenstein and Loeb romance on the soprano led "Heart and Mind," the saxman pays tribute to his one time teacher Charles Mingus with a smoky, Trio flavored, almost avante garde approach to the legendary bassist's "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" (featuring John Patitucci).

Loeb and Beckenstein then cross from romance to crazy cool on "Monsoon," a six and a half minute power jam featuring echoing blues guitar, a sitar/bass duet by Loeb and Egan a powerful low toned performance on tenor. Weather Report is one of Beckenstein's greatest influences, and he gives Joe Zawinal's "Black Market" a punchy, horn drenched (soprano and tenor) treatment with the help of Omar Hakim's explosive drumming and the African chanting of Bakithi Kumalo. The exotica continues on the South African fiesta "Turnaround," with Beckenstein again providing the two fisted horn section over Julio Fernandez's echoing guitar lines and the intoxicating chants of six native singers. Combining thick hip-hop grooves with retro flavors, Beckenstein concludes the album with a playful and positive eye toward the future on "Lookin' Up."

Long before there was an official radio format dedicated to the genre, the Buffalo, NY bred Spyro Gyra--whose name, given almost flippantly to a hometown promoter, was a joking reference to a college biology paper Beckenstein had once written--was setting the pop and instrumental worlds on their ears from the moment their single "Morning Dance" became a Top 40 hit and Adult Contemporary #1 single in 1979. Over the next twenty years and numerous bestselling recordings, the band became a favorite perennial live attraction; their audience appeal was documented first on Access All Areas in the 80's and later in the 90's with their final GRP album Road Scholars.

Beckenstein's own story goes back to Brooklyn, where his mother was an opera singer and his father introduced him to Charlie Parker and Lester Young before the youngster could even speak. Starting on piano in kindergarten, then sax at age seven, Beckenstein was the consummate school band performer. "My senior year in high school was spent in Nurnberg, Germany where my father was working and I went to school on a U.S Army base. I played in R&B bands there that performed both for the army and in German clubs.

Enrolling at the University of New York at Buffalo, Beckenstein studied classical and avante garde music and, always the adventurer, played in some avante garde ensembles. By his junior year, he was working steadily on the Buffalo club scene, playing a mix of R&B and jazz as a sideman. Longing for more, he and keyboardist Jeremy Wall did some off night instrumental sessions in small clubs, and over a year, this duo developed into a larger ensemble and Spyro Gyra was born.

Years later, upon wrapping production of Spyro Gyra's Windham Hill debut "Got The Magic", Beckenstein said, "We are not just a bunch of guys put together this year to sell some albums and tickets. I'm happy to say we've grown even tighter over the years. The confidence we have as a band is very real and we feed off our interaction to get it."

While Beckenstein is committed to his leadership of this remarkable unit, "Eye Contact" has given him a chance to reach beyond the expected and do music that "further resonates in my soul. I'm aware that stylistically, like a Spyro record, it's all over the place, but the journey of this project helped me recognize paths I want to go down in the future, both with the group and on my own. I've always believed that the only way to grow as an artist is to open your eyes and be receptive to new things." Readmore...

SPYRO GYRA

History

Spyro Gyra is an American jazz fusion band  that was originally formed in the mid-1970s in Buffalo, New York, USA. With over 25 albums released and 10 million copies sold, they are among the most prolific as well as commercially successful groups of the scene. Among their  most successful hit singles are "Shaker Song" and "Morning Dance". which received significant play on popular music radio stations, and are still frequently heard nearly 30 years later on jazz and easy listening stations.

Their music, which has been influential in the development of the smooth jazz, combines jazz with elements of R&B, funk and pop music. Although generally considered to be more "jazz" than "smooth". Syro Gyra have been praised as skilled instrumentalists and for their live performances, which average nearly 100 per year.

With the exeption of alto saxophonist, song writer and founding bandleader Jay Beckenstein and keyboardist Tom Schuman the personnel has changed somewhat over time as well as between the studio and the live stage.

Appearance on the Buffalo club sceneAppearance on the Buffalo club scene

Spyro Gyra emerged around Jay Beckenstein and keyboardist Jeremy Wall, who had met and formed a band during their high school years. Although they headed in different directions during college—Beckenstein to the State University of New York in Buffalo and Wall to Cal Arts—they spent summers together playing outdoor concerts, and Wall moved to Buffalo soon after graduating.

Beckenstein had been working in clubs in Buffalo since his junior year of college, backing various vocalists. Wall teamed up with Beckenstein, and the two started playing instrumental music—mostly covers of R&B songs—together. The other two musicians who were part of the nucleus were Buffalo natives Jim Kurzdorfer on bass and Tom Walsh on drums, although many people played in those early jam gatherings. An early regular on the Tuesday Night Jazz Jam scene was Buffalo percussionist Umbopha Emile Latimer. In Beckenstein's description of the Buffalo club scene of the time:
Not many people know it, but Buffalo was like a mini Chicago back then, with a smoking blues, soul, jazz, even rockabilly scene, of all things.

Over a year, their work evolved into Spyro Gyra. Wall has commented that their sound was a "gutbucket of rhythmic tradition. We did simple music and esoteric stuff. It all came together, this oddball mix, until we found a middle ground, our own groove".

The name Spyro Gyra is a misspelling of Spirogyra, a genus of green algae on which Beckenstein had written a college biology paper years earlier. He recalls:
Before a gig in a Buffalo club that was called Jack Daniels, the owner twisted my arm for a band name. As a joke, I remembered the paper and said, 'Spirogyra'. He misspelled it 'Spyro Gyra,' advertised it that way, and it stuck.

Breaking out of Buffalo

As the popularity of the group increased, the band played more places around town, becoming a regular at the Tralfamadore Cafe in its original location, in a basement under a non-descript storefront on Main Street. That led to more opening slots for national acts and performances in nearby cities, Rochester and Cleveland.

There were two main guitar players who appeared as part of the band around this time, Alfred "Fast Freddy" Rapillo (who would later go on to play for Rick James) and Rick Strauss. Tom Walsh had moved to California and the drum chair was alternately taken by Tom Duffy, Ted Reinhardt and others. Tom Schuman, who had been sitting in with the band since almost the beginning, when he was only sixteen, became a fixture in 1977 and the group had two keyboard players for a brief period until Jeremy Wall left the performing band in 1978.

The first eponymous album, self released in late 1977, reflected these personnel as well as some guests like Dave Samuels and Rubens Bassini, who would be part of Spyro Gyra recordings for years to come. That album attracted the attention of locally based Amherst Records, who then re-released the first album with new artwork. This debut album would go on to become one of Billboard's Top 40 Jazz Albums of 1978.

Bronx-born Gerardo Velez, who started his career with Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock and would go on to play with many other artists and most recently as a member of Chic, became a regular around this time. He would gain fame with the early fans as Spyro Gyra's "dancing percussionist".

The follow-up recording, Morning Dance, financed by Amherst, made it possible to record part of the album in New York City and include more notable guests like John Tropea, Will Lee, Steve Jordan, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker and Suzanne Ciani. In the course of recording Morning Dance Eli Konikoff replaced Ted Reinhardt on drums and Freddy Rapillo returned to the group to replace Rick Strauss.

Late in 1978, prior to the release of the album, Rochester guitarist Chet Catallo replaced Freddy Rapillo in the band. The musical chairs of the revolving band membership, borne out of the jam scene beginnings of the band along with the appearance of guest musicians, set the template for the next few albums. The performing band became a standardized unit while the early recordings remained more of a collaboration of Jay Beckenstein, co-producer Richard Calandra and Jeremy Wall accompanied by some of the biggest names in the NYC jazz world.

The early albums

The March 1979 release of Morning Dance provided the group their breakthrough on the national and international scene. Through the efforts of Infinity Records, a New York City based start-up label owned by MCA Records, the group appeared in most major cities in the United States and many jazz festivals in Europe in 1979. That album would become a platinum seller due to the Top 40 pop hit of the same name, which would be a # 1 adult contemporary (AC) single, Billboard's #6 AC single of 1979.

Infinity Records folded by the end of the year and Spyro Gyra's follow-up record, Catching The Sun was released on MCA Records in February 1980 to similar success. Morning Dance became Billboard's #3 Jazz Album of 1980 and Catching the Sun was the #4 Jazz Album of 1980. Bass player Jim Kurzdorfer left the group in 1980 and was replaced by David Wofford. They released their next album Carnaval in late 1980. Both Catching The Sun and Carnaval were gold selling albums. Carnaval would become Billboard's # 7 Jazz Album of 1981.

Freetime, the group's fifth album, was released in 1981 and became the # 8 Jazz Album of 1982 as well as beginning their tradition of releasing a new album every year. 1982's Incognito represented a stylistic change in their artwork and featured Marcus Miller, Steve Gadd, Tom Scott, Richard Tee, Toots Thielemans and Jorge D'Alto as guests and would be Billboard's # 8 Jazz Album of 1983.

1983's City Kids, would be the last album using this producer centric approach, calling on famous session musicians to play in place of the full time band members. City Kids incorporated bass player Kim Stone, who would later go on to a long career with the Rippingtons.

1980s

1984 saw the release of the live Access All Areas, which would become Billboard's # 11 Jazz Album of 1984. AAA was the first album of Jay Beckenstein's new "band centric" approach to Spyro Gyra. It also introduced Dave Samuels as a full time member of the band. Eli Konikoff and Chet Catallo left the band just prior to its release to be replaced by Richie Morales and Julio Fernandez, respectively. It was this core unit that recorded 1985's Alternating Currents, which spurred the group's mid-80's resurgence with the hit "Shakedown".

Breakout, the 1986 follow-up, would be the first with Manolo Badrena as a full time member, replacing Gerardo Velez. Badrena was a veteran of Fusion titans Weather Report and a previous guest musician on Spyro Gyra's albums. Alternating Currents and Breakout would be among the top 15 Jazz Albums in Billboard in 1986. Longtime co-producer Richard Calandra passed away in October 1986 of pancreatic cancer.

1987 would see another personnel change within the band as Kim Stone left the band and the bass position was taken by Roberto Vally for the Stories Without Words album. Vally would go on to play with people like Michael Franks, Bobby Caldwell, Boney James, Boz Scaggs, Arturo Sandoval and Randy Crawford.

1988's Rites Of Summer album would be the first of the band's history without a percussionist, other than the drummer. It would also be the introduction of Oscar Cartaya, later to play with Herb Albert, Jennifer Lopez, Celia Cruz, Rubén Blades, Tito Puente, Robbie Robertson and Willie Colon. Both Stories Without Words and Rites Of Summer would be among Billboard's top 15 Contemporary Jazz Albums of 1988.

Point Of View would provide another turning point in 1989 for the band as Julio Fernandez left the band and was replaced by Jay Azzolina. It was also the first album in five years to have a guest musician, Roger Squitero on percussion. Julio Fernandez was also listed as a guest musician for one song.

Fast Forward would bring another new face into the band in 1990. Marc Quiñones would be with the band for two years and then go on to greater fame with The Allman Brothers Band. Fast Forward would be another #1 Contemporary Jazz Album for the band and one of Billboard's top 10 Contemporary Jazz Albums of 1990. Spyro Gyra would end the decade as Billboard's most successful jazz artist of the 1980s.

1990s-2000s

The 1990s provided the band with new challenges and a stable line-up for most of the decade. Guitarist Julio Fernandez rejoined the band for their 1991 Collection CD, a Best Of... which also featured two new songs. These two new songs on Collection marked the debut of drummer Joel Rosenblatt who had previously played with artists ranging from Michel Camilo to Pure Prairie League. The next CD, 1992's Three Wishes marked the debut of bassist Scott Ambush and completed what was to become the most long lived version of the band's core lineup in its history. Three Wishes was notable for its stripped down, more acoustic approach to the majority of the songs. The next CD, Dreams Beyond Control, was another about-face in the production approach which featured a large cast of supporting players and singers. Alex Ligertwood, of the Santana band, provided lead vocals, a "first" on a Spyro Gyra album. Also featured on this CD were the Tower Of Power horns, Howard Levy of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista, former member and now Allman Brothers band member Marc Quiñones and the NYC based No Sweat Horns. Despite being as well received as it was, this effort was swimming against the tide of the fashion made popular by the juggernaut that was Smooth Jazz radio in the 90's. The group made some effort to bridge that gap with their next release Love and other obsessions. This release featured two more traditional Smooth Jazz type vocals with guests Deniece Williams, Barrington Henderson, Billy Cliff and a host of other backing vocalists and musicians (which now included Dave Samuels who left the band to pursue his own Caribbean Jazz Project). The vocal tunes were an odd fit with the band's identity and this release marked the group's last flirtation with traditional R&B vocals. The instrumental "Ariana" from this album, did go on to become a #1 song at Smooth Jazz radio. The band's next release, Heart Of The Night, marked a conscious effort to produce a "themed" album of songs signifying the "moods of the night" from romantic to jumpin' at the club. The group's last studio album for GRP, 1997's 20/20 was named for its distinction of being the band's twentieth release in twenty years. This release was notable for its jazz version of James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James" and for the Spyro Gyra debut of guest trumpeter Chris Botti. The band's last CD for GRP was 1998's live album, Road Scholars, the title being a sly nod to the band's history of twenty plus years of thousands of shows. This album was not as big a seller as the group's studio releases, but it began a critical reappraisal of the group's place in jazz history spurred by extended versions of familiar tunes, including the ten minute plus piano trio version of the group's first hit, "Shaker Song." The Nineties closed out with "Got The Magic," a single release on Windham Hill Jazz, a new effort of the venerable new age label to expand their identity into a Smooth Jazz realm. This album featured another #1 song at Smooth Jazz radio, "Silk and Satin," and a jazzy vocal by Basia Trzetrzelewska written by Jeff Beal and his wife Joan. Jeff had made his Spyro Gyra debut as a trumpeter and songwriter on 1990's "Fast Forward" and has been very busy with soundtrack work, including the HBO blockbuster Rome (TV series).

Discography

Spyro Gyra 1978 Infinity Records 
Morning Dance 1979 Infinity Records 
Catching The Sun 1980 MCA Records 
Carnaval 1980 MCA Records 
Freetime 1981 MCA Records 
Incognito 1982 MCA Records 
City Kids 1983 MCA Records 
Access All Areas (live) 1984 MCA Records 
Alternating Currents 1985 MCA Records 
Breakout 1986 MCA Records 
Stories Without Words 1987 MCA Records 
Rites of Summer 1988 MCA Records
Universal Music 
Point Of View 1989 GRP 
Fast Forward 1990 GRP 
Three Wishes 1992 GRP 
Dreams Beyond Control 1993 GRP 
Love And Other Obsessions 1994 GRP 
Heart Of The Night 1996 GRP 
20/20 1997 GRP 
Road Scholars (live) 1998 GRP 
Got The Magic 1999 Windham Hill Jazz 
In Modern Times 2001 Heads Up 
Original Cinema 2003 Heads Up 
The Deep End 2004 Heads Up 
Wrapped in a Dream 2006 Heads Up 
Good to Go-Go 2007 Heads Up 
A Night Before Christmas 2008 Heads Up

Awards and nominations

Spyro Gyra has received the following Grammy nominations:
1980: Best Jazz Fusion Performance for "Catching the Sun"
1982: Best Rhythm & Blues Instrumental Performance for "Stripes"
1982: Best Jazz Fusion Performance for "Incognito"
1983: Best Jazz Fusion Performance for "City Kids"
1984: Best Jazz Fusion Performance for "Access All Areas"
1985: Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "Shakedown"
1985: Best Jazz Fusion Performance for "Alternating Currents"
2007: Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album for Wrapped in a Dream
2008: Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "Simple Pleasures" from Good to Go-Go
2008: Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album for Good to Go-Go
2009: Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album for "A Night Before Christmas"
Spyro Gyra was awarded the George Benson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards in 2007.

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