Spyro Gyra
Spyro Gyra can be booked through this site. Spyro Gyra entertainment booking site. Spyro Gyra
is available for public concerts and events. Spyro Gyra can be booked for
private events and Spyro Gyra can be booked for corporate events and
meetings through this Spyro Gyra booking page.
Unlike most middle agents that would mark
up the performance or appearance fee for Spyro Gyra, we act as YOUR agent in
securing Spyro Gyra at the best possible price. We go over the rider for
Spyro Gyra and work directly with Spyro Gyra or the responsible agent for
Spyro Gyra to secure the talent for your event. We become YOUR agent,
representing YOU, the buyer.
In fact, in most cases we can negotiate for
the acquisition of Spyro Gyra for international dates and newer promoters
providing you meet professional requirements.
Spyro Gyra Biography
Founded in 1974 by altoist Jay Beckenstein, Spyro Gyra has
consistently been one of the commercially successfully pop-jazz groups
of the past 20 years. Although originally a studio group, the band
became a full-time venture in 1979 and has been touring ever since.
Critics love to attack this band's lightweight and rarely changing
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 at the
expense of improvising.
The roots of Spyro Gyra lay in Buffalo, NY, in the early '70s.
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 Spirogira, 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, electric guitarist Chet Catallo,
bassist David Wolford, drummer Eli Konikoff, and percussionist Gerardo
Velez. Not long afterward, the group added keyboardist Tom Schuman.
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. 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.
In the wake of the record's success, Wall retired from live
performance, leaving Schuman as the group's main keyboardist; Wall
stayed with the band as an assistant producer and occasional composer.
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/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, All Music Guide
Written by Stephen Thomas Erlewine