Twenty-two albums into their amazingly successful career, the workhorses of Spyro Gyra still have a few surprises up their sleeves. For Got the Magic, saxophonist Jay Beckenstein and company enlisted the assistance of Chuck Loeb, who as producer/collaborator on a number of tracks, helps punch up and re-define the band’s signature sound. Tunes like the driving acoustic-threaded “Sierra” give Beckenstein’s musing leads space to grow-lending a feeling of bright optimism and hope. Another Loeb-produced piece, “Silk and Satin,” also benefits from this attention to detail-with an unexpected brass swagger background and offbeat snaps feeding its ’70s Steely Dan flavor. Other highlights spotlight creative arrangements-a sprightly-lithe Brazilian feel makes “Springtime Laughter” (featuring guest vocalist Basia in some fun elastic interplay with Beckenstein’s sax) a charming mood painting, and “Havana Moonlight” crackles with percussion and multi-threaded guitar play. There are moments of more groove-driven electronica (“If You Will”) here as well, but for the most part, Spyro Gyra’s magic is in continuing to find unique ways to transcend the typical.
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro