[ JAZZ VETERANS ]
Spyro Gyra celebrates three decades of playing top-notch jazz with a holiday weekend outdoor concert at the Turtle Bay Hilton.
30 years and
still changing
Saxophonist Jay Beckenstein has been the mainstay of the popular jazz band Spyro Gyra for three decades now, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
Speaking long distance by phone from his New York state home earlier this week, he jokingly mentions that "I didn't expect to live 30 years! It's an amazing thing that the band's lasted this long, and the reasons are many, but I give credit to the people who buy our CDs and come to our concerts."
The band's Hawaii fans should be out in force tomorrow night as Spyro Gyra headlines this year's Guitars Under the Stars outdoor concert on the grounds of the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore.
Guitars Under the Stars
Independence Day concert featuring Spyro Gyra and the Brian Kessler Band with Sonya MendezWhere: West lawn of the Turtle Bay Resort, 57-091 Kamehameha Highway
When: 5 p.m. tomorrow
Tickets: $30 advance and $35 at the gate
Call: (877) 750-4400
Note: Food and beverage booths will be on the grounds, as well as telescopes for viewing the night sky. Holiday fireworks display starts at 9:15 p.m.
Beckenstein says that the islands have always been one of the band's favorite tour stops, with concerts at the Waikiki Shell a couple of times and the occasional resort, although "we haven't been back, not for a little while. We have a new drummer in Ludwig Afonso, and the others have been in the band for at least 10 years" (which include keyboardist Tom Schuman, guitarist Julio Fernandez and bassist Scott Ambush).
While the overall fusion jazz sound of the band has remained at a high consistency since its height of popularity in the early 1980s, Beckenstein claims that "if you heard us 10 years ago, let alone 20, and you've heard us live recently, you can hear a big difference in our approach. We're always actively looking for new ground to cover, as you can hear on our latest album, CD number 27, 'The Deep End.'
"If we kept constantly repeating ourselves, we'd get bored. Although changing up (our overall sound) isn't easy, we've done it incrementally over the years. ... We've never looked back at all of our success in the '80s, and to be just a nostalgia band. We always try to make every CD for now, to be our best."
Jay Beckenstein, second from left, has been the mainstay in Spyro Gyra.
Tomorrow night's crowd should hear it in the live renditions of several tracks from "The Deep End," like Ambush's workout tune "Wiggle Room," Fernandez's ambitious and mood-shifting "The Crossing," and Beckenstein's equally ambitious, though Indian-influenced "Monsoon" (dating back to his own solo album 4 years ago on the now-defunct Windham Hill Jazz label and since a concert setlist staple) and "Joburg Jam."
That last composition was inspired by the Spyro Gyra's touring South Africa. "We've been there two years running now," Beckenstein says. "In the early '80s, we kept getting invitations to go there for obscene amounts of money, but we turned them down for obvious reasons (being the apartheid environment). But when we first took the stage there a couple of years ago, and started playing 'Catching the Sun,' 8,000 people sang along with it!
"I came to find out that our records were pretty huge sellers during the time of upheaval, and our music has always had positive associations with it.
"After all these years, we still have a full plate," Beckenstein says. "We're looking at a 70-concert year this year and another CD next year. Between that and raising 3 children -- ages 11, 14 and 17, all girls -- that's enough for me. ... While the work hasn't kept me in Rolls Royces in the driveway, it does manage to pay for three young women's college funds."
Still, it's the music that matters.
"We want to give the impression that the band feels really excited about we're were at. We don't feel like an old band, been there, done that. My bandmates are real serious to make this as good as it can. It's already lasted 30 years, and while we can be proud of that, we're even more proud that, after 30 years, we're still jazzed about our music."
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