March 16, 1979 Gusto record review: Spyro Gyra's second album

 

Nothing beats the rush of a breakthrough moment.

March 16, 1979 

Spyro Gyra’s new album

          Jay Beckenstein’s living room on Buffalo’s West Side has been transformed into an office for Cross-Eyed Bear Productions, which is the force behind the jazz-rock group Spyro Gyra. The advent of secretaries and filing cabinets, however, has not displaced the room’s central fixture – Beckenstein’s record and tape playing units. Back before the band went on tour, it was the one place to catch previews of Spyro Gyra’s second album, “Morning Dance” (Infinity INF-9004 MCA), which has just been released.

          “I have no excuses on this one,” Beckenstein said one afternoon, lighting up a smoke as the music began. “This time we had the resources to go get the right player to do a particular thing. I’d like to think we’ve kept the identity. Conceptually, it’s still Jeremy and my and Rich’s conception.”

          The title song, “Morning Dance,” opens proceedings on a note of continuity. It qualifies as a follow-up to the sunny, successful “Shaker Song” on the first album. Double Image’s David Samuels is present again to lay out a sprightly figure on marimbas which leads into one of Beckenstein’s brightest alto saxophone elegies. The snappy, happy samba beat builds into an eye-opening finale with handclaps. When a morning starts like this, the rest of the day can’t help but be good.

          Next is “Jubilee,” a jumpy Jeremy Wall funk tune outlined first with New York session whiz John Tropea’s guitar, then filled in with a line of R&B horns from which Beckenstein steps out. It’s back-to-back with another number by pianist Wall, “Rasul,” which offers a dreamy counterpoint. Saxophone floats on strings until it’s caught in a gorgeous sweep into the finale.

          Then comes Beckenstein’s perky, Latin-flavored “Song for Lorraine,” with its catchy fillips by percussionist Gerardo Velez. Here fans get their first recorded glimpse of Wall’s successor in the group, Tom Schuman, who appears with a bubbling bop solo. Side one closes with Wall’s “Starburst,” which begins like a theme song for a TV series until it rises upward on a succession of solos. Tropea soars into a climactic West Montgomery run before saxophone ace Michael Brecker sends the song out with great elan.

          “This is Brecker,” Beckenstein says as Brecker’s familiar growl breaks in. “It didn’t scare me at all to put him on. Michael’s Michael and I’m Jay. We both have our styles. I’m not competing with anybody, just myself.”

          Side one is all confidence and affection. Whenever it plays, it invariably raises the ambient level of joy. Side two is a series of variations that take Spyro Gyra one step further onto four different paths.

          The most successful experiment is Beckenstein’s “Heliopolis,” which opens the side. This is a jazz fusion song for all formats. It’s full of gorgeous saxophone and stunning effects, from the other-worldly synthesizer at the start to Schuman’s nimble bluesy solo at the end.

          New guitarist Chet Catallo’s “It Doesn’t Matter” out-Bensons George Benson with a super-polite, super-pretty melody that Catallo literally sings with his fingers. Wall’s “Little Linda” is classic Spyro Gyra done at double-time, a reflection of former drummer Ted Reinhardt, who powers it along. Former guitarist Rick Strauss’ “End of Romanticism” ends the record with a formal blast of heraldic brass and supercharged guitar.

          The album maps the band’s shifting phases in the past year. Drummers go from Reinhardt to sessionman Steve Jordan to the current Eli Konikoff. Guitarists progress from Strauss to Tropea to Catallo. Schuman appears, sharing keyboard chores with Wall, who is not touring with the band.

          On the regional success of the first Spyro Gyra album, Beckenstein’s living room became an office. The anticipated nationwide success of the second album will build Beckenstein and co-producer Richard Calandra the 24-track studio of their dreams in the Boston Hills south of the city. They may as well start ordering the tape, because “Morning Dance” sounds like a sure-fire hit for all tastes and sensibilities. It’s the classiest, most appealing collection of instrumental jazz-rock to come this way in quite a while.

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IN THE PHOTO: Spyro Gyra on stage at the old Tralfamadore Cafe during a sold-out four-night stand in February 1979. Standing, left to right, are Eli Konikoff, Jim Kurzdorfer, Chet Catallo, Tom Schuman and Geraldo Velez. Seated, Jay Beckenstein. This would be the band’s touring lineup for the rest of 1979 and into 1980.

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FOOTNOTE: The title track from "Morning Dance" hit the top of Billboard's Adult Contemporary singles chart and the album was certified gold six months after it was released. That studio in the Boston Hills wound up getting built in the Hudson Valley instead. Bear Tracks Studios, they called it, and it opened in 1982 in Suffern. In the interim, Spyro Gyra recorded primarily at Secret Sound in New York City.