Alexandria,
VA
April 20, 2006
The band opened their set with “Heart of the Night” from
the album of the same name, which featured one of many fantastic
guitar solos by Julio Fernandez. They followed with one
of my favorite songs from The Deep End,
Julio’s “The Crossing.” He played
a beautiful acoustic guitar solo introduction which was followed
by the high speed hand clapping sequence between he and Jay. This
is one of the band’s many Latin tunes – just one
of the genres of music they play well.
Jay explained to the audience that they have not had time
to work up any of the new material from their latest release,
except for one song, the title track, “Wrapped in a Dream,” so
that was the only cut from their current release that we heard. It
was very contemporary, almost straight ahead in sound and feel,
especially the bass and drum parts.
I admit to being slightly disappointed that the new tunes
weren’t ready yet. I was looking forward to possibly
hearing “Impressions of Madrid” and “Impressions
of Toledo.” In any case, that just gives me another
excuse to go see them again later on in the year. Besides,
when you have 28 years worth of songs to pull from, how can
you go wrong?
The band reached way back and played “Free Time,” from
the 1981 release of the same name. This is one of the
two Tom Schuman’s tunes that we heard. “Schu’s
Blues” was the other. It’s always interesting
watching him play. He’s very animated. He
gets into the music and the interactions with his fellow band
mates. “Schu’s Blues” was definitely
one of the highlights of the show. Tom Schuman can, and
does, play every style of music.
Scott Ambush’s “On Liberty Road,” from Love
and Other Obsessions is a tune he wrote for
South Africa. This one gave drummer Ludwig
Afonso a chance to display his talents. In 2004 it
was my first time seeing Ludwig with the band. Two
years later, it’s becoming evident why they chose
him as their drummer. He performed a great drum
solo. It’s hard being the new guy, but Ludwig
seemed to be meshing not only with the band, but with the
audience as well.
It wouldn’t be a Spyro show without “Morning Dance.” It’s
their only number one hit and a crowd favorite. “We’ve
managed to squeeze a 30 year career out of this one song.” Jay
told the audience. He said they’ve played it every
kind of way, “Latin, Reggae, acoustic, plugged, unplugged,
you name it.” This version was a little closer
to the original. Any way they play it sounds good to me.
They closed the set with “Feelin’ fine – Part
2” from 2001’s In Modern Times,
which was co-written by Jay and Chuck Loeb. Jay
Beckenstein is his own horn section. He played the soprano
and alto saxophones simultaneously during parts of this song. This
song also showed what a phenomenal bass pIayer Scott really
is. He had a solo which lasted for about 15 minutes. It
began with him playing his bass like a guitar, and then went
back to doing the bass thing. Outstanding!
Although that was the end of the set, the crowd wanted more. The
band obliged with “Daddy’s Got a New Girl Now.”
This is a band that loves to make music,
and loves to play it live. They feed off of each other very well. They
are the definition of a tight band. I will always go see
them when they come to town. In 1978, this little bar band
from Buffalo, named after algae, recorded their first album. Twenty
eight years later, Spyro Gyra is still going strong, and remains
one of the best contemporary jazz bands on the scene.
- Mary Bentley
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