Hey Paul Lasecki, as a noted SG expert, I'm sure you have input on this. First off, I have not seen the band yet. They are rarely in Chicago and last years tour was cancelled 1 week before showtime. I'll catch them this time around for sure. Anyway, I realize there is an awful lot of material from the band but not one song from my favorite Three Wishes cd appears on Road Scholars. There are 5 additional musicians on that cd not counting Dave Samuels. Lots of the early SG seems this way. I assume in recent years for live shows it's the same 5 man lineup of Beckenstein, Schuman, Rosenblatt, Fernandez and Ambush. My question is how do they improvise additional horns and percussion when they play live? I hear they are undeniably superb to see live so do they leave it out or put a spin on the songs without missing a beat, no pun intended. Maybe they just don't perform those songs live that use the additional musicians. Maybe I just answered my own question. Hey, I was bored and felt like posting something. Just wondering.

And for that earlier post today on the Ripps sight, no sense in comparing the two. It's apples and oranges.

Steve,
I'm not Paul, but I'll venture an answer...
The band is the same it's been for the last 7 years : Jay, Julio, Scott, Joel, and Tom. As for the horns, Tom does an incredible job with one of the keyboards on the uppper rack. I still don't get how he can be ripping through a solo and switch to horn parts so quickly and accurately. I had a chance to catch them while I was home for the summer, in Sacramento. The HOB internet broadcast and the summer show I went to had the same set list. You can view it in it's entirety on this message board, but I can tell you that they play Pipo's Song and Breathless, which were both off of Three Wishes. Breathless is a different, more upbeat version than you're used to on the CD, but it rocks! Great show altogether, you won't be disappointed at all.
Hope this helps,
Matt

To Matt:
Hi !! I'm a die hard SG Fan and also a musician. I have an Associates degree from Berklee Music College in boston (Jazz of course).

Tom Schuman uses an Emulator II. That functions as a sampler and as a secuencer.
When Tom is making his amazing solos, The sequencer plays the horns. (Except for south american soujurn, here tom plays both piano sound and horns mixed via midi)
Tom also has the amazing ability to play solos with one hand and melody with the other.

Well I hope that answers your question.
You can e-mail me if you need more schuman info.

Thanks for the info! Paul and Phil will be glad to converse with a couple for SG experts. Between the two of them I think they've seen the over 60 times easily. Welcome aboard!!

Thanks for the info! Paul and Phil will be glad to converse with a couple more SG experts on this site. Between the two of them I think they've seen them 60 plus times. Welcome aboard!

It's great to have Steve and Eril aboard.
I loved being filled in on what equipment Schuuu uses onstage...even though I'm clueless as far as the technical aspects. So it's awesome to have someone with a musical degree onboard, one who knows specifics about instruments and equipment--and one that is also passionate about the band.
I'll just add that Schuuu is awesome to watch on "Breakfast At Igors"(the band HAS been including this one in every set for this tour. You get a fantastic example of his ability to reproduce the horn section parts while laying down those incredibly fast and well thought out piano runs.

Look for it, and get back to us with your impressions, Steve.

Peace!
Paul

P.S. The only time I remember seeing Spyro bring a horn section along was at least 7 to 10 years ago....and they only brought that section out for 3 or 4 numbers. It probably is not smart, in a cost effectiveness kind of way, to do that these days.

Peace!
Paul

You are right! Towards the end of the song you can hear it. Thanks for pointing that out for me. Another all-time favorite from Road Scholars is South American Sojourn. I am no musician but I would swear much of that song is being played in two different time signatures. I'll bet the sheet music for that piece looks like a Tokyo roadmap..and towards the end of Tom's solo, those are some of the fastest riffs I've ever heard going up and down the keyboard. Great stuff!

I forgot to add another note. Has anyone seen the band perform "Teardrops" live yet? I'll bet Julio really tears it up with his solo at the end of the song. The studio version is such a tease at that part of the song. How about a 7 minute live version?

SteveH,

Hey man, I guess great minds do think alike!!!

I can't quite remember where I posted it, but I know I posted on Magic Island that "Teardrops" would make a dynamite live number...I said something to the effect that it would probably turn out to be a showstopper in the manner that "I Believe In You" was during the 1998 tour. Schuman had a fantastic, undestated solo in that live version, and Julio had an extended, slow, almost Jimmy Page-y or David Gilmour-y solo at the end of "I Believe In You".

I think that Teardrops would work in the same way.
As far as I know, it hasn't made it's way into the live set yet...it wasn't in any of the three concerts I caught here in Southern California in August.

Peace!
Paul

Hey what is with the the loss of Spyro visits to the Chicago area. I have seen the band several times over the years, the last time at Navy Pier. But there seems to a trend to book other people in the windy city. Steve did you say you were from Chicago? Do you hear any reasoning for the lack of Spyro Concerts? WNUA seems to run to same bunch of people even though every Spyro Gyra concert I have been to was a sell out. I too found the technical stuff to be interesting even if I don't have a clue as to what it ment. I would point out that I was curious as to what the band would do when Dave Samuels left. But Tom takes on that load as well. If he keeps it up he might become a one man band. Not a bad title for his upcoming solo effort. I have been waiting for years for a second one. I know any new solo project will have to wait until Jay's comes out, but I know any new effort by Tom is gonna be great!!!