March 5, 1977: Spyro Gyra

 

A look at one of Buffalo’s most successful musical exports while they were still playing the clubs. 

March 5, 1977

Spyro Gyra, UB Artists in Residence,

Like Jazz – Also Play Rhythm ‘n Blues 

OTHER BANDS MIGHT PANIC at the sight of Jack Daniels tavern this tranquil Tuesday night. No standees to incite to boogie, just a polite sit-down crowd at the tables. But Jay Beckenstein’s not alarmed. A mellow mood works just as well as a hot one for Spyro Gyra.

          Spyro Gyra disproves the axiom that jazz has to be angular and unsettling to be serious.

          Their melodic themes and floating solos are creative choices, not commercial cop-outs. For them, beauty and integrity stand side by side.

          “I think we’re pretty tasteful people,” Jay says. “Of course it’s good material. It’s adult music. I don’t think of it as something bad.”

          Neither do these laid-back listeners. When the band comes back, it provokes them into louder and louder applause.

          Jay is Spyro Gyra’s lyrical lead. A fast tune jumps under the rasp of his saxophone. Ride with him on one of those fast runs. It’s as good as the Comet at Crystal Beach.

          “He’s singing tonight,” someone remarks.

          Jeremy Wall’s Fender Rhodes piano takes over and the notes sparkle like water trickling down a slate cliff. When Jay steps back into the music, the piano retreats and shimmers in the air behind the sax.

* * *

NEXT, FOLLOW bassist Jim Kurzdorfer through a particularly delicious 16-note figure that climbs up and down all four strings, nimble as a daddy longlegs before it slip into the underbrush of sound.

          Missing is regular drummer Tom Walsh, who’s kept on permanent retainer by the pop group America. While he’s busy on the West Coast, John (Duffy) Fornes supplies a mechanically impeccable backing, laced with rapid two-stick riffs on the high-hat.

          Jack Daniels at 443 Forest Ave. seems like the last remnant of the once-lively Elmwood Avenue music scene. It’s where Spyro Gyra got its start some 18 months ago.

* * *

AT FIRST, the group was simply a jam session among a few members of the Buffalo Jazz Ensemble. Soon it grew into a full-time occupation.

          The quartet is one of the few bands locally that makes a living by playing jazz. Usually those are separate activities, as the band well knows.

          “We’ve all done the grit-your-teeth-and-bear-it commercial gigs,” Jeremy remarks.

          “And the jazz things that only two people in the whole city like,” says Jim.

          Aside from Jack Daniels Sundays and Tuesdays, Spyro Gyra shows up Wednesdays at Falcon Eddie’s on Seneca Street, Thursday at the Tralfamadore Café, Main and Fillmore, and Saturdays at the Odyssey on Tonawanda Street opposite Riverside Park.

          In addition, they’re artists in residence at College B on UB’s Amherst Campus this semester, which means they hold open rehearsals outside the College B office three Wednesday afternoons a month and finish the season with a concert.

          “It’s pretty light, as is the pay,” Jay says, “but the title might do us some good.”

          Jay, Jim and Tom are UB music graduates and have performed with the Creative Associates.

* * *

JEREMY, WHO comes from the same Long Island town as Jay, studied in California with Milton Subotnick and is a prolific composer and arranger.

          Half their numbers are original compositions. The rest, heavily improvised jazz standards. If the occasion calls for it, they can cook up a mean funk beat.

          Their push, however, is toward recording and producing. Jay has welded together some of the remaining musicians from the city’s faded rhythm and blues scene for demo sessions.

          There’s disco tunes, R&B material, jazz-rock and a haunting tone poem full of special effects which Jeremy wrote about a town on the Amazon River. It would go on Spyro Gyra’s album.

          “If we can’t sell the album in New York City,” Jay says, “then maybe we’ll do it ourselves.

          “It’s not expensive and the group has a certain local following. We’re going for big production. If we sound commercial, that’s not – ha! – a crime.”

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTOS: Jay Beckenstein, center; Jeremy Wall, left; and Jim Kurzdorfer, right.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Spyro Gyra did indeed release their self-titled debut album later in 1977 and they did it on their own label. It then got picked up by Amherst Records, which re-released it in 1978. It became one Billboard magazine’s Top 40 jazz albums that year, propelled by the popularity of the leadoff track, Jay Beckenstein’s “Shaker Song.”

          Spyro Gyra has released 28 studio albums since then and two live albums. Although the personnel lineup keeps changing and changing, Jay Beckenstein is still leading the band and they’re presently on tour. They’ll be doing a month in northern Europe in October and November.

          With him will be original keyboardist Tom Schuman, who shows up as a guest on a couple tracks on the self-titled album and has been a full-timer ever since.

Jeremy Wall stopped playing live with the band in 1978, though he continued to contribute to their recordings as a player and producer. He is a professor at SUNY Oneonta, teaching courses on songwriting and the music business, and leads a jazz-funk band.

Original drummer Tom Walsh provided percussion on that debut album, but didn’t come back. After his years with America, he’s been an incredibly busy session drummer in L.A. His website notes that he’s played the drums on the three longest-running TV themes – “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

His replacement, John “Duffy” Fornes, has continued to play in jazz groups around Buffalo.

Another guest on the album is marimba player Dave Samuels, who also contributed greatly to the band’s sound and success in the 1980s and 1990s. He died in 2019.

Also dearly departed is bassist Jim Kurzdorfer. He died in 2011.

Incidentally, that town on Long Island that Jay and Jeremy come from is Farmingdale. The Amazon River song that appears on the first album is “Leticia.” And this isn't the first time Jay Beckenstein appeared on these pages. He was part of the House Rockers, with and without Elmo Witherspoon, in stories here in 1973. 

FURTHER NOTE: All of these transcripts of old feature articles and reviews from the Buffalo music scene can be found in a somewhat more legible and searchable form on my Blogspot site: https://www.blogger.com/blog/posts/4731437129543258237?blogID=4634213086822498028#allposts.