Spyro Gyra - The Deep End

Styles: Fusion, Smooth Jazz
Year: 2004
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 64:53
Size: 152,0 MB
Art: Front

(4:58)  1. Summer Fling
(5:02)  2. Eastlake Shuffle
(7:00)  3. Monsoon
(4:36)  4. As You Wish
(6:10)  5. Soburg Sam
(7:17)  6. The Crossing
(6:48)  7. Wiggle Room
(6:15)  8. Wind Warriors
(4:46)  9. In Your Arms
(5:46) 10. Chippewa Street
(6:09) 11. Beyond The Rain

With their third label release, the longtime contemporary jazz powerhouse ensemble led by fluid and funky sax legend Jay Beckenstein celebrates 30 years of a consistent mix of making instrumental pop hits and pushing the musical envelopes into fusion territory. The title promises a plunge into something deep, or at least a little stretching, and the band showcasing new drummer Ludwig Alfonso on a few tunes more than delivers. But not right away. They open smooth and light-funky with the playful, sax-driven "Summer Fling," which is breezy and fun but only digs deep with Tom Schuman's heavily retro key solo. "Eastlake Shuffle" balances Beckenstein's adventurous sax punch with a heavy blues mood driven by Schuman and the rockin' guitar harmonies and solo of Julio Fernandez. Things don't really heat up until the exotic fusion jam "Monsoon," a live show crowd-pleaser that builds from an Indian-flavored meditation (complete with distant chance and bird calls) into a moody sitar-laced melody before exploding into a powerful, blues-drenched extravaganza featuring some of Beckenstein's most powerful lines blended with Fernandez's brimming, ready-to-explode guitar on the hook. From this point, the band alternates its light moods ("As You Wish") with more aggressive and sometimes blistering rock-flavored explorations ("Joburg Jam," one of the four tracks featuring the shimmering vibes action of Dave Samuels, "Wiggle Room"). Most veteran bands would gasp for survival in the culture of stricter radio formats by playing it ever safer and trendy, but Spyro Gyra has never been most bands. Each release has a few sweet pleasantries (and even these feature magnificent musicianship) but a great deal more energy and blowing than today's average smooth jazz listener is used to. It's worth the plunge. ~ Jonathan Widran https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-deep-end-mw0000458674

Personnel:  Jay Beckenstein – saxophones; Tom Schuman – keyboards; Scott Ambush – bass guitar; Julio Fernandez – guitars, vocals on "The Crossing"

The Deep End

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Spyro Gyra - Good To Go-Go

Styles: Fusion, Smooth Jazz 
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 69:02
Size: 163,1 MB
Art: Front

(5:48)  1. Simple Pleasures
(5:20)  2. Get Busy
(4:15)  3. Jam Up
(5:40)  4. The Left Bank
(5:02)  5. Funkyard Dog
(6:45)  6. Along For The Ride
(6:23)  7. Island Time
(4:45)  8. Wassup!
(5:01)  9. Easy Street
(6:34) 10. A Winter Tale
(6:41) 11. Good To Go-Go
(6:42) 12. Newroses

Thirty-one years and 27 albums in (not including compilations), urban contemporary jazz unit Spyro Gyra are playing with the funky inspiration and clever melodic and rhythmic invention that have made them synonymous with the genre, but that they haven't displayed on their own recordings for some time. This is not to say the quintet have ever been completely off their game. They know what they do, and do it extremely well they can make smooth and groove-oriented records all day long but the sheer edge and shifty, even knotty melodic ideas on "Good to Go-Go" feel adventurous in contrast to the records they've made since the beginning of the decade where they've fused smooth jazz to some Caribbean, Spanish, and other kinds of world music as well as written and recorded with pop vocalists. The adventure here is in the groove itself. First there is the opener, "Simple Pleasures," (composed by saxophonist Jay Beckenstein) with its bassline-driven funky core, followed by "Get Busy" written by keyboardist Tom Schuman. It is really busy but keeps its flow, melodically and rhythmically, never losing the central beat though its dynamics change radically and its lyric core on the heads is full of complex changes. "Jam Up" features the steel pans of Andy Narrell and drummer Bonny B.'s backdrop (and irritating dancehall) vocals, but cooks with a reggae-propelled foreground, ending up in Spanish flamenco territory in the melodies. "The Left Bank," (Beckenstein) and "Good to Go-Go" (by bassist Scott Ambush) are down and dirty and full of compelling harmonic smoke if not all-out fire. The former is a funk tune with a slippery backbeat and beautiful counterpoint, and the latter pushes with killer B-3 playing by Shuman, slapping bass by Ambush and Bonny B.'s popping rimshots playing nearly against the melody. The blues groove in the latter tune (especially with Beckenstein's and Julio Fernandez's swinging, sting-happy six-string break, which gets touched off by Ambush loping both into his bass solo) kicks the whole thing up into a rhythm and groove burner. "Island Time," is a carnival tune with solid jazz chops, and once again Narrell's steel pans get a beautiful workout inside a nearly ecstatic lyric keyboard and saxophone head. Of course the rhythmic assistance by Marc Quiñones doesn't hurt texturally either. "Newroses," by Beckenstein and Fernandez, takes the album out on an even more complex set of changes than it strutted in with. It's got gorgeous, almost pastoral sections that come in just after the most complex and twist-and-turn headlines bring in a melody that breaks from a relatively simple groove and then unwinds into something other. According to taste of course, but Good to Go-Go is the most satisfying release that Spyro Gyra have released on Heads Up, and is a recording that brings that jazz back in a big way into the "urban contemporary" and "smooth" subgenres. ~ Thom Jurek https://www.allmusic.com/album/good-to-go-go-mw0000779284

Personnel:  Jay Beckenstein – saxophone;  Tom Schuman – keyboards;  Scott Ambush – bass guitar;  Julio Fernandez – guitar;  Bonny B – drums.

Good To Go-Go

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Spyro Gyra - Carnaval

Styles: Fusion, Smooth Jazz 
Year: 1980
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:06
Size: 92,2 MB
Art: Front

(5:03)  1. Cafe Amore
(4:40)  2. Dizzy
(5:51)  3. Awakening
(4:18)  4. Cachaca
(4:42)  5. Fox Trot
(5:10)  6. Sweet 'N' Savvy
(4:42)  7. Bittersweet
(5:36)  8. Carnaval

Founded in 1974 by saxophonist Jay Beckenstein, Spyro Gyra have consistently been one of the commercially successfully pop-jazz groups of the past 30 years. The band became a full-time venture in 1976 and has been touring ever since. Critics love to attack this band's music, which combines R&B and elements of pop and Caribbean music with jazz, but its live performances are often stimulating unlike many of its records, which emphasize the danceable melodies. The roots of Spyro Gyra lay in Buffalo, NY, in 1974. Beckenstein and his longtime friend, keyboardist Jeremy Wall, had been leading a group with a revolving membership; every one of the many members in the band were loosely involved in the local jazz and rock scenes. Around 1974, the group was beginning to gel and cultivate a following. A club owner who wanted to advertise an upcoming appearance by the band asked Beckenstein for the group's name. The saxophonist told him "Spirogyra," a word he learned in a college biology course. The owner misspelled the word as Spyro Gyra, and the band fell into place, featuring Beckenstein, Wall, Jim Kurzdorfer, and Tom Walsh. Not long afterward, the group added keyboardist Tom Schuman. Electric guitarist Chet Catallo, drummer Eli Konikoff, and percussionist Gerardo Velez all joined in 1978 (with Wall dropping out) and bassist David Wofford was added in 1980. Spyro Gyra independently funded and recorded their debut album, releasing the record on the local independent label Amherst in 1976. The record slowly became a success and Amherst sold the rights to the band to Infinity Records, a division of MCA. Wall left the band in 1978, leaving Schuman as the group's main keyboardist. Morning Dance, their first album for Infinity, was released in 1979. 

The record became a major hit, spawning a Top 40 single with "Morning Dance" and going platinum. Morning Dance firmly placed Spyro Gyra as one of the most popular artists in contemporary jazz, and throughout the '80s, their popularity continued growing. Their albums were consistent best-sellers, and their concerts often sold out. In 1983, vibraphonist and marimba player Dave Samuels- who had played on several of the group's albums became a full-fledged member of the band. Over the course of the '80s, the membership of Spyro Gyra fluctuated, but Beckenstein and Schuman remained at its core, keeping the group's signature sound intact. In 1990, MCA's jazz roster was absorbed by GRP, so Spyro Gyra switched labels, releasing Fast Forward, their first album for GRP, later that year. In 1993, Samuels left the touring band, but he continued to play in the studio. By the late '90s, the band featured Beckenstein, Schuman, Julio Fernandez, Joel Rosenblatt, and Scott Ambush, and released Got the Magic in 1999. Two years later the band moved to the Telarc-affiliated Heads Up label and released In Modern Times in 2001, followed by Original Cinema in 2003. Drummer Rosenblatt left the band and was replaced by Ludwig Afonso for 2004's Deep End. A fourth Heads Up album, Good to Go-Go, was issued in 2007. ~ Scott Yanow & Stephen Thomas Erlewine  https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/spyro-gyra/id75445#fullText

Personnel: Hiram Bullock, John Tropea (guitar, electric guitar); Chet Catallo, Rick Strauss (guitar); Harold Kohon, Matthew Raimondi, Richard Sortomme (violin, strings); Peter Simitriades, Sanford Allen, Harry Lookofsky (violin); Lamar Alsop, Guy Lumia (viola, strings); Jonathan Abramowitz (cello, strings); David Darling, Jesse Levy (cello); Jay Levy, Allen W. Sanford, Peter Dimitriades (strings); Randy Brecker (flute, tenor saxophone, trumpet); Michael Brecker (flute, tenor saxophone); Jay Beckenstein (saxophone, alto saxophone, piano); Tom "Bones" Malone (trumpet, trombone); Jeremy Wall, Tom Schuman (keyboards); Rob Mounsey (synthesizer); Dave Samuels (vibraphone, marimba); David Samuels (marimba); Steve Jordan , Eli Konikoff (drums); Errol Crusher Bennett (congas, percussion); Gerardo Velez, Steve Kroon (percussion).

Carnaval

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Spyro Gyra - A Foreign Affair

Styles: Fusion, Smooth Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 60:53
Size: 150,8 MB
Art: Front

(5:27)  1. Caribe
(4:44)  2. Khuda
(4:26)  3. Sweet Ole Thang
(6:31)  4. Falling Walls
(5:08)  5. Shinjuku
(6:23)  6. Chileno Boys
(5:18)  7. Samba For Two
(4:21)  8. Canção de Ninar
(6:29)  9. Antigua
(4:36) 10. Last Call
(7:24) 11. Dancing On Table Mountain

Over 35 years into one of contemporary jazz fusion's most extraordinary evolving musical journeys, Spyro Gyra entered the 2010s where they began -- on their own indie label, Amherst Records, on which they released their self-titled debut in 1978. Driven by the melodic, jazzy, and increasingly global-minded vision of saxophonist and founder Jay Beckenstein, Spyro Gyra have undergone various personnel changes throughout the years while becoming serial world travelers. The concept of A Foreign Affair began with Beckenstein asking his crew -- Tom Schuman, Julio Fernandez, Scott Ambush, and Bonny B. -- to come up with impressions of these adventures. The results are dynamic, exotic, high-spirited, loaded with invention and improvisation, and even slightly spiritual in spots (the moody African-flavored "Khuda," featuring the dreamy, soaring vocals of young Indian singer Arijit Singh). 

The ports of call on the group's stylistic itinerary develop distinctive personalities as they evolve. They start with a relaxed and silky, sax-driven reggae sway on Beckenstein's "Caribe," then start dancing with Schuman's synth pans in fiery sync with the saxman's punchy lines on Bonny B.'s festive "Sweet Ole Thang." The bubbling, super-percussive "Falling Walls" by Fernandez is harder to place geographically but is reflective of the trademark adventurous Spyro Gyra sound of the 2000s. Schuman's mystical "Shinjuku" touches on the whimsical side of Spyro Gyra's numerous trips to Japan, where they have long enjoyed great popularity. There's also a graceful, lighthearted touch of Rio ("Samba for Two"), a balmy bossa romance ("Canção de Ninar"), and a return to the Caribbean via "Antigua." Ambush's expansive closer, "Dancing on Table Mountain," allows the bandmembers to stretch and show the depth of their jazzy possibilities. Between all the frequent flyer miles, two of the most interesting tracks are the beautiful, poignant vocal tracks by Keb' Mo' (the melancholy "Last Call") and Fernandez (the easy-rolling Latin-tinged cultural message song "Chileno Boys"). Over 30 recordings in, Spyro Gyra still had something fresh to say while fearlessly entering their fifth decade of recording. ~ Jonathan Widran http://www.allmusic.com/album/a-foreign-affair-mw0002180878

Personnel: Julio Fernandez (guitar); Jay Beckenstein (saxophone); Tom Schuman (keyboards); Bonny B. (drums, percussion); Pedrito Martínez (congas).

A Foreign Affair

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Spyro Gyra - The Best Of (The First Ten Years)

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 72:23
Size: 165.7 MB
Styles: Fusion, Smooth jazz
Year: 2006
Art: Front

[4:46] 1. Shaker Song
[3:54] 2. Morning Dance
[4:38] 3. Catching The Sun
[5:08] 4. Autumn Of Our Love
[5:00] 5. Cafe Amore
[4:15] 6. Cashaça
[6:06] 7. Freetime
[5:03] 8. Summer Strut
[6:37] 9. Old San Juan
[5:54] 10. Incognito
[5:31] 11. Conversations
[4:19] 12. Shakedown
[4:35] 13. Bob Goes To The Store
[6:30] 14. Del Corazon

This compilation covers the years 1977 to 1987, when Spyro Gyra was blazing new ground, blending jazz and pop elements in an original way that would eventually help define the emerging genre of smooth jazz. It touches on the band's Buffalo, New York, origins with "Shaker Song," recalls its first great success with "Morning Song," and documents the emergence of saxophonist Jay Beckenstein as an outstanding studio producer. Along the way, it also features the various musicians who have contributed to the group through the years. The original keyboard player Jeremy Wall contributes several compositions, including the touching "Autumn of Our Love" and the joyous "Summer Strut." There's an infectious humor to former bassist Kim Stone's "Bob Goes to the Store," while current member Julio Fernandez creates a fine setting for his own passionate guitar with "Del Corazon." Beckenstein's ability to work guest musicians into striking arrangements is apparent in Randy Brecker's trumpet with wah-wah pedal on "Catching the Sun," while bassist Eddie Gomez contributes distinctive energy to "Conversations." It's a stellar collection of tunes that will appeal to longtime fans and introduce the band's early career to recent devotees. ~Adam Rains

The Best Of (The First Ten Years)

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