The band is on the right track as always, I cant remmember ever listening to a bad spyro
album. Got the magic does go back to the older sound that they had when they first started, But thats what made them who they are today, ( The Best ) I have seen the band from when they first started, and I have seen them grow, We all know what they can do.Everyone who was a part of the band during
the years were all monster players.All the new fans are used to listening to the RAW
spyro That has a great hungry sound, But all
I can say is that as long as Jay and TOM are
together, I will be happy.Because they are the best. By the way ( JAY ) Try to keep this band together as long as you can. I love Joel, Scott, Julio. I have seen every chicago
show since the first at the park west. I would love for the band to contact me.
I also am a drummer and would love to talk to Joel. Jay keep up the good work, You never let me down yet. Your Biggest fan ever.

------------------
jazcat9@yahoo.com

The band is on the right track as always, I cant remmember ever listening to a bad spyro
album. Got the magic does go back to the older sound that they had when they first started, But thats what made them who they are today, ( The Best ) I have seen the band from when they first started, and I have seen them grow, We all know what they can do.Everyone who was a part of the band during
the years were all monster players.All the new fans are used to listening to the RAW
spyro That has a great hungry sound, But all
I can say is that as long as Jay and TOM are
together, I will be happy.Because they are the best. By the way ( JAY ) Try to keep this band together as long as you can. I love Joel, Scott, Julio. I have seen every chicago
show since the first at the park west. I would love for the band to contact me.
I also am a drummer and would love to talk to Joel. Jay keep up the good work, You never let me down yet. Your Biggest fan ever.

------------------
jazcat9@yahoo.com

Jazzcat9 . . .

Nice to have another SG fan on hand. Maybe we should debate who really is the band's greatest fan sometime.

I've listened to the band for about nine years, having discovered them after their initial popularity period in the early to mid-80s. I've read Jay Beckenstein's comments that "Got the Magic" was a release similar to early stuff. But when I listen to stuff like "Catching the Sun" and others, I still get a different feel from the new release. I believe it may have to do with introducing Chuck Loeb into the mix.

Don't get me wrong. I will always be a great fan of this band and will make every "live" performance if at all possible. I prefer the "Three Wishes," "Dreams Beyond Control," "Roads Scholars" approach. These releases better characterize what you get from this band at a "live" show.

Jazcat9,

Well MAYBE you MIGHT squeeze into a tie with me for the number one Spyro Gyra fan.
I too, love the current line-up...then only change I would make would be to get a hypnotist to get ahold of Dave Samuels and get him back in the band!
It's a tribute to Spyro Gyra that they have continued on, barely missing a beat, without Samuels as a full time Spyro member.
I have taken my brothers/friends to see Spyro Gyra over the last four years, and they say that they can't imagine Spyro Gyra being any better...that they are the best musicians they have ever seen.
Amazing that Spyro Gyra used to have SIX virtuosos onstage(and with Mark Quinones and before him, Gerardo Velez SEVEN!).
And to me, Julio has become as indespensable as Jay and Schuuu are...Jay Azzolina is a great great player, but Julio is more diverse, and by far the better stage precence...and does a much better job of changing his solo's and guitar sound from night tonight and tour to tour.
As a veteran of 31 Spyro Gyra concerts since 1985, they've NEVER let me down live.
At the moment, "Got The Magic" is getting a mixed review from me...I really like about 5 or 6 cuts...and hate 3 of them, due mainly to the "vocal sound bites" that I'd like to erase from my copy of the CD.
I think that the band records what it wants to record...sometimes we forget that the band may have such a diverse pallete of "likes" that it's easier for us to say that they were creating an album just to fit into the rigid playlists at smooth jazz radio stations.
It's equally possible that they really like the kind of music they created on "Magic"...we have to be careful not to assume that they hated to make this record...that they ONLY did it to make the execs happy at Windham Hill Jazz.
Besides that, I think i have ID'd at least three or four songs that will be dynamite in the live setting! Especially given that Spyro trademark build on the studio version approach.
Peace!
Paul

I have been listening to SG since the beginning (and playing them on the radio, we'll just act like I was 12 years old when I had my first jazz show, OK? )and "Magic" doesn't really remind me of the early stuff that much, probably because I don't recall the early albums having chant vocals on them and those seem to be an integral part of this project. Also to put it bluntly, if it had not been a crossover hit "Morning Dance" would probably be seen as "too exciting" or too obtrusive for Smooth Jazz airplay since its rather sunny and bouncy and has no RnB flavor at all. My favorite SG "period" is late 80s: "Breakout" and "City Kids".
The irony here is that at a recent radio convention some SJ programmers even showed an awareness that they have backed themselves into a corner by being so narrow musically and it is eroding the audience..
A few years ago Dave Koz had a nice NAC hit with "Let Me Count the Ways". On the CD it has a very annoying chant vocal..the radio version actually *took out* the vocal..there was a great song underneath that cheeze too and it turned out to be a hit. I hear a good song underneath the title trak to this CD too, I would love to hear "Got The Magic" without the vocal.

[This message has been edited by Shannon West (edited 06-16-99).]

First, it's great to get some banter going here...for a long time it was like the Phil and Paul Spyro Gyra discussion forum!

I would like to address Phil's point re: what Jay Beckenstein said about parts of the CD being "retro"...
I find three songs that could have easily fit onto some of the early Spyro records:

Breezeway...the more I listen to it, the more I like it...and think that it has the flavor of a track or two off of "Freetime"

Teardrops...I think I hear echoes of "Harbor Nights" from the "Incognito" release in this new ballad(and I think it might make a dynamite live number, a la 1998's live version of Tom Schuman's "I Believe In You")

Silk and Satin...something about this one reminds me, again, of the "Incognito" release

I also think that Beckenstein may have been referring to the bands early approach of building a song layer by layer by layer in the studio...and using outside musicians...this might be part of the "retro" approach mentioned by Jay.

I think that once Beckenstein decided to make the performing band the same one that performed on the songs in the studio, the band became much better, much stronger more honest.

Since 1985, the records have been my favorites.

I think that "Heart Of The Night", with the most overt references to "straight ahead" jazz of any Spyro recording, and "Road Scholars", are as strong as any record the band has released.

"Dreams Beyond Control" and "Love And Other Obessessions" would rank right along side with "Road" and "Heart", but "Dreams" and "Love" are each marred by two songs featuring the same thing that marrs "Got The Magic"...vocal performances that make me say "YUCK".

I have to admit that other than a couple of times(when I first spun the CD's)i have not listened to any of the four songs from "Love" and "Dreams" at any time when I put the CD in my player...in fact, as I did quickly with "Magic", I transfered the CD to a cassette tape and edited out the tracks that have vocals on them...makes the CD's much much stronger, in my opinion.

The only song by Spyro Gyra with vocals that belongs in the catagory of "great" is "De La Luz" featuring Julio Fernandez. I'd listen to those type of vocal performances every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

The one's I mentioned from "Dreams" and "Love" and the new one's from "Magic"...I don't care if I ever hear them again, and I wish the band had not even put em on the releases.

Oh, I forgot to mention "Tower Of Babel"...that is one other Spyro song with a vocal on it that I love!

Peace!
Paul

I'll have to agree with you guys on the vocals thing. But I will say that even though I've only listened to the Basia vocal a couple of times, I think I do like it best of the vocal tunes. I guess you could say it sucks the least. The two on Love are the worst, followed by the two on Dreams. Those just sound like BAD ballads. I think the Basia tune at least sounds somewhat jazzy... but anyway...

I think the one thing I appreciate about SG is the fact that they've always had horns backing them. Sorry... I'm just a fan of horns. However, I do think the horn arrangements on Magic are less aggressive (i.e. South American Soujourn, Breakfast at Igor's, Rockin' a Heart Place). I hope they're not fasing them out.

The main reason I'm writing is this (sorry for going off the topic of the thread): I don't see much mention of 20/20 on the board... particularly this thread (where other recent albums are mentioned). IMHO, I think 20/20 is one of their best studio releases yet. But then again, it may be a horns thing too... and I don't know how big a fan you guys are of horns.

Later,
Jader

I like the Basia vocal although not as much as I like most of the songs on her albums. I am glad they chose Basia to do the vocal rather than one of these Peabo Bryson soundalikes that seem to be on so many CJ albums. I don't mind a vocal or two that are whole songs although I personally don't like R'n'B ballads, but no complete song bothers me to the extent that having a vocal chorus chant one or two sentences over and over does. I have yet to hear a song that was enhanced by that. Don't mind scat type vocals either unless the same type of scat vocal shows up on a lot of songs on one CD (which to a certain extent happened with the female vocal chorus on Got the Magic). I didn't mind the vocal on "Ariana" at all, still think that was a catchy song. I don't like straightahead jazz at all, have been around it for years and never enjoyed it and finally reached the point where I didn't want to spend time doing things that were more intellectual than enjoyable to me..I quit trying to sit thru artsy movies around the same time..I like pop songs and I like movies where a lot of stuff blows up Where I get antsy with the current state of Contemporary Jazz evolving into Smooth is when it crosses the line between pop and easy listening..as one of my favorite country songs says "I'm not ready for the rockin' chair"..

Jader . . .

I'm with you on Basia's "Got the Magic" track. I've always enjoyed her music and "Springtime Laughter" was composed by an absolutely wonderful musician/writer, Jeaf Beal and his wife Joan.

I was surprised last year when I purchased Basia's "Basia on Broadway" live release and found that one of the most beautiful songs she's ever done, "Yearning," featured a beautiful soprano saxophone solo by Spyro leader Jay Beckenstein. Turns out that Spyro and Basia toured together in 1994 (I believe that was the year).

I believe that vocals can be used on a group's releases. The human voice can be a marvelous istrument blending and interacting with a group of musicians. All one has to do is listen to New York Voices or Manhattan Transfer's Janis Siegel to realize this.

Shannon's comments on the overuse of what she calls "chant" vocals are another story altogether. They get to the point where they can only detract from an arrangement.

"Got the Magic" has some nice pieces on it ("Silk and Satin," & "Teardrops") it but I had to chuckle when Shannon commented on putting a CD on to see if anything on it would grab your attention or simply occur in the background. I want to remember that one because I think it's an excellent way, in a sense, to measure a release in today's "smooth" music "sameness" fog.

Phil,

I agree that a vocalist CAN add to a bands music...heck look at the Pat Metheny Group, who really hit their high water mark with the release's that feature the great voice of Pedro Aznar...I love that type of vocalizing!
Same with Julio Fernandez's vocal on "De La Luz"...one of the standout tracks on a great record, "Heart Of The Night".
I even like Julio's scat vocal on "Sierra", off of "Got The Magic".

The Basia vocal performance on the new record is very good...to me though, it just seems out of place...doesn't improve the flow of the record. I wish that Jay Beckenstein would've saved this song...and the whole add the vocal chant approach for his side project that Windham Hill Jazz is releasing next year.
I am definitely not dead set against vocals...just dead set against those vocals that are embarassing and make me cringe, as many of the arrangements on "Magic" cause me to do.

Peace!
Paul