How about a list of "closet" favorites or songs we really like but I don't here them come up much in our posts.

"When Evening Falls"
"Lost & Found"
"Bright Lights"
"Breezeway"
"Looking Up" (from Jay's cd)
"Autumn of Our Love"

That's "hear", not here. Sorry.

The one that jumps to mind for me is Taking the Plunge (For Jennifer) from AC. You know how sometimes music affects you in a particular way and you really don't know why? There's a Jay passage near the beginning of that song that I used to be convinced was the most beautiful thing ever played. I used to get a huge lump in my throat whenever I listened to it.

You've just hit a nerve here man!!!!!!

"Heartbeat"
"Gotcha" ( I drove my parents crazy with that song almost for a whole year)

"Oasis"
"Paula/Paw Prints" (Killer!!!!)
"Opus D' Opus" (Another Killer. NOTE: Every time i listen to this song, I think about a "Starsky and Hutch" car chase".

"End of Romanticism"

Wow, I needed that!!!!!

Eril.

Some I have liked are:

1. "I Believe In You" by Tom Schuman on Alternating Currents.

2. "Mardi Gras" - by Dave Samuels on Alternating Currents

3. "4MD" (for Miles Davis) - by Jeremy Wall on Fast Forward

4. "Ocean Parkway" - by Jeremy Wall on Fast Forward.

"Pacific Sunrise

"Swept Away"

"Swing Street"

"Mardi Gras"

More later.


Peace!
Paul

"Mallet Ballet"
"Leticia"
"Galadriel"
Those are my three from the self-titled debut album.
Stay tuned for the songs I'd choose from other albums. Several have already been mentioned but the only fair thing to do is to just keep adding on to this post


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Woody

Just so nobody beats me to the punch, my entries from "Morning Dance" are:
"Rasul"
"Song for Lorraine" (which is actually one of my all-time favorite)
"Starburst"
dang, gonna get the whole album in here if I'm not careful
"It Doesn't Matter"
"End of Romanticism"
Of course, the title song and "Heliopolis" are in other categories.

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Woody

Catching the Sun is weird. It's not my all-time favorite album because even my top four songs -- which, except for Autumn of Our Love, change like the wind -- don't stand up to my top four from such albums as Alternating Currents, Three Wishes, 20/20, City Kids, Rites of Summer, Breakout and Incognito. Still, it's in a class by itself because it's the only album of theirs that I can play and will want to hear every song, every single time.
That said, my "hidden" favorites from Catching the Sun are: everything with the remotely possible exceptions of Here Again and Philly.
Carnaval is almost the same, except I'm not that crazy about the title song anymore. Of the rest of that album, I'd have to put Dizzy, Awakening, Foxtrot, Cashaca, and Sweet and Savvy on this list.

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Woody

From Freetime, I'd add Telluride, Pacific Sunrise and Amber Dream
From Incognito: Last Exit, Harbor Nights, Oasis, Sueno

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Woody

Well, I guess I'll stop now.
Don't want to be accused of hogging the show.

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Woody

On the experimental side:

Hannibal's Boogie
Whirlwind
Pyramid
Limelight(what a great song)!

Peace!
Paul

Anyone else here like "Freefall"(from "Breakout") as much as I do?

That marimba solo blending into the synth solo that perfectly blends into that great piano solo is one of my fave Spyro Gyra moments.

Peace!
Paul

I was getting around to that Paul. Yes, I do love Freefall as much as you do. Whirlwind, however, is not a closet favorite as it stands out as perhaps my favorite of all.
Limelight, Pyramid and Hannibal's Boogie are also on my list.

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Woody

How about a couple "classics" that were, at one time, probably considered two of their signature tunes:

1. Percolator
2. Cockatoo

I remember hearing a wicked version of Cockatoo in concert one time. I think it was an encore on the Rights of Summer tour.

Yeah Rob, it was. I saw that one too. Heard them do a similar rendition of Cockatoo on PBS, a recording from a Jacksonville Jazz Festival appearance.
Now that this thread's active again, I'll continue adding more hidden faves:
Serpent in Paradise, Nightlife, Islands in the Sky, PG, Alternating Currents, Heartbeat, I Believe in You, and Guiltless

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Woody

Hey!

I remember that version of Cockatoo...too!

Julio played some mean electric, and I remember Dave Samuels really coming up with another top notch solo.

I used to have this on video tape, but when my car got stolen, it was stolen right along with it.

Anyone else still have it??

Peace!
Paul

I have that Jacksonville Jazz thing on tape. That guitar solo was awesome.

I rarely hear anyone mention "Serpentine Shelly"...but this one is one of my favorites.

Schuuu has a great synth solo...but listen to what's happening behind the solo...Roberto and Richie are smokin"!!!

Oh...and Julio has a pretty scorchin' solo at the coda.

Peace!
Paul

I offer the following as my "hidden favorites":

Spyro Gyra--Opus D'Opus, Mallet Ballet, Pygmy Funk, Cascade
Morning Dance--Jubilee, Rasul, Starburst (AWESOME solo by Michael Brecker!!), End of Romanticism
Catching The Sun--****atoo, Autumn of Our Love, Laser Material (side one was incredible, wasn't it?), Safari
Carnaval--Awakening, Sweet 'n' Savvy, Bittersweet
Freetime--Telluride, Elegy For Trane, String Soup
Incognito--Oasis, Sueno
City Kids--City Kids, Nightlife, Silver Linings
Access All Areas--Sea Biscuit (no, really!), Latin Streets
Alternating Currents--Alternating Currents, Binky's Dream No. 6, I Believe I You, Sunflurry
Breakout--Doubletake, Whirlwind
Stories Without Words--Serpentine Shelley, Del Corazon, Joyride, Pyramid
Rites Of Summer--Limelight, No Man's Land, The Archer
Point Of View--Slow Burn, Fairweather, The Unknown Soldier, Hannibal's Boogie, Gotcha
Fast Forward--Bright Lights, Futurephobia, Escape Hatch
Collection--You Can Count On Me, What Exit, Mallet Ballet (live)
Three Wishes--Whitewater, Nothing To Lose, Gliding, Rollercoaster
Dreams Beyond Control--The Delicate Prey, Same Difference, Birk's Law, Bahia
Love and Other Obsessions--Group Therapy, On Liberty Road, Rockin' a Heart Place
Heart Of The Night--As We Sleep, When Evening Falls, Valentino's, Believe
20/20--Ruled By Venus, The Deep End, Rockaway To Sunset, Sweet Baby James (nice cover!)
Road Scholars--(no "hidden" tunes here, but my favorites are...) Shanghai Gumbo, Heart Of The Night, De La Luz, Breakfast At Igor's (better stop before I name the whole album)
Got The Magic--Sierra, If You Will, R.S.V.P. (I've never heard "Special Delivery", it's not on my copy...)

Man, that's hard work! I wonder how much input each of us would have if someone started a thread on "SG tunes we DON'T like"...?? One, maybe two each (if that many)?


Saluting from the saddle of my horse (Sea Biscuit), I am--
The JazzKnight

[This message has been edited by JazzKnight (edited September 25, 2000).]

BTW...I didn't put those asterisks in there (see my previous post this topic, under "Catching The Sun"). How can I make the actual song title appear in its "unedited" state?

Shocked and slightly embarrassed, I am--
The JazzKnight

[This message has been edited by JazzKnight (edited September 25, 2000).]

Guys, Reading this thread again, i noticed that the "I believe in you" version on "Gary's tape" sounds AWSOME by the fact the Jays uses the tenor and gives it a more "smooth" sound to this killer ballad.

Also i've been haunted with "Escape hatch" (really and very hard to play)


Eril.

Jazzknight...

Some of your "hidden" favorites are definite, out front faves of mine.
"Sunflurry" would be a great example.

Peace!
Paul

Eril,

I totally agree with you about the tenor version of I Believe in You. It sounds awesome.

Hard to believe it's been 3 whole years since this thread was updated.
I'm listening to Carnaval - the first SG album I ever owned - and remembering how impressed I was with the funk-inspired Dizzy, the beauty (especially the piano solo) of Awakening, the almost-big band sound of Foxtrot and Schu's signature keys on Sweet n Savvy.
Another reason this album is partial to me - as if any of the older ones are not - is Bittersweet and Sweet n Savvy were on the setlist the first time I saw them in concert (1987, shortly before the release of Stories Without Words) and Cachaca was on the setlist a year later.

Now that you bring "Carnaval" to the spotlight i tell you that i've always been in love with "Cashaca". Also the live version on Gary's tape is sooooooooo great. Check out close that julio looks at joel about 30 secs after the song starts like saying "Man..where did that came from"!!!!

Nice Song!!!

Yeah, I love Cachaca, too.
Back in 1982, when I listened a lot to the jazz station run by Jacksonville University, I heard Cafe Amore, Cachaca, Foxtrot and Sweet n Savvy - the most of any SG album that I have heard. Cafe Amore got played on the area's R&B station a few times. I think I only heard Foxtrot once. But Cachaca and Sweet n Savvy, I heard them at least twice.

Gary who?

When did JazzKnight re-appear? Been a long time, huh?

From the day I first heard Point of View in 1989, the easy favorites have been the 3 opening songs, Hannibal's Boogie and Swamp Thing, with Carolina and Gotcha lurking nearby.
However, my appreciation for The Unknown Soldier has grown tremendously. And one song that's really grown on me is No Limits.

Telluride

Jay is in top form during the closing.

You know what, Oasis is one of my hidden faves too. It reminds me about the first time i listened to "Incognito".

It has a very good groove and the lyricon solo give it a very distinctive sound and personality.

I know what you mean, Eril.
Oasis would have been my early favorite from that album, if not for that thing called Old San Juan. (It took a while for Incognito to overtake those two, and What Exit and Harbor Nights aren't far behind in the 4 and 5 spots.)

What happened to mwe with Incognito(the whole album) was that i got crazy with Old San Juan.....Duhhhh!! , Last Exit and Incognito. For a 10 year old who's starting to study the piano it's amazing to listen to such a complex variety of songs. Then one day i was just fooling arround with the piano and Oasis came in to my mind.

Last Exit is a cool song to begin with, but I came to like it even more when I heard it during the commercial break of a TV show.
I was in Los Angeles when a friend and I got passes to view a taping of the Merv Griffin show. His guests that day were Jaclyn Smith (one of the original Charlie's Angels), Carl Lewis and I can't remember the third guest, but it was a singer.
For anyone who's never been to a show like this, they record it in real time. That is, they start promptly on the hour, play the theme song, the whole works. So when they cut to a commercial, the music is piped in, and the host will chit-chat with whatever guest is on stage at that time, and the "on the air" lights will be off for the entire 2 minutes (or however long the break is), then they return to the show. So if it's an hour-long show, you're actually in the studio for the entire hour.
Anyway, it was during one of these breaks that I heard Jay's sax:
ba-de-da-bah BAH-bah-ba, ba-de-da-bah BA-da-DA ba-da-da-be-dahhhhhhhhhh
I recognized it right away as "the opening song from Incognito" but couldn't think of the title. (This was just before Christmas in 1985.)
And, of course, they continued to play the song through the break.

This is not really a "hidden" favorite, but since it's on In Modern Times, there's so much competition, it doesn't get the notice it deserves:
East River Blue
It's a cool song to begin with. But Jay's sax and Schuu's extended solo put this one in a class by itself.

Hard to believe this thread hasn't been touched in so long.
Anyways, each time I hear Early Light from Stories Without Words, I like it that much more. Julio's solo is one of his most dramatic.

Three long forgotten tunes that just rocks:
Canaval - well, this is just what's it's all about
Freetime - awesome arrangement
Latin Streets - Chet's solo blows away

but on the other hand, it's hard to pick any tune as they are almost all outstanding