Spyro Gyra (clockwise from top left, bassist Scott Ambush, keyboardist Chris Fischer, drummer Lionel Cordew, saxophonist Jay Beckenstein and guitarist Julio Fernandez).
In the 1970s, Buffalo became known for cooking up two things: hot wings and cool jazz. Fifty years later, “Buffalo wings” are everywhere and the band Spyro Gyra is still laying down its balmy instrumental jazz after more than 10,000 shows around the world.
The latest chapter of the unlikely story of how an unnamed Tuesday night bar band in Buffalo came to be the country’s biggest-selling jazz act comes to The Hamilton Stage at The Union County Performing Arts Center on Sept. 14, as part of the Smooth Jazz New Jersey series. (Also coming up in the series is Damien Escobar and Kim Waters on the UCPAC main stage, Oct. 25.)
“The UCPAC is thrilled to be working with Smooth Jazz to create a jazz series featuring nationally known talent at the UCPAC Hamilton Stage in the vibrant arts community of Rahway,” said UCPAC executive director Deanna Hunt. “Our goal is to present a vast array of nationally known jazz musicians, in a premier venue with ticket prices that are affordable for all.”
Spyro Gyra co-founder Jay Beckenstein recalled in a recent interview that 50 years ago, he and some teenaged friends began playing cover songs of rising fusion bands such as Weather Report and Return to Forever and then began adding their own instrumental originals.
When the owner of the bar where they played weekly demanded that they choose a name for his advertising, Beckenstein — who had just taken a University of Buffalo bio course — thought of the algae spirogyra. The bar owner misspelled it as two words, but the name stuck despite some confusion, including some who thought they were a Greek band playing bouzouki music.
“We had no idea that it was going to be anything other than playing clubs in Buffalo,” said Beckenstein, who plays saxophone. “In fact, at the end there, we were getting ready to go our separate ways and, because of that, we put out a record, a farewell to the whole thing. Instead of a farewell it became a prologue to an entire career.”
The cover of Spyro Gyra’s 1978 debut album.
The band self-produced that eponymous album, which a local record store began selling under its own label, while advertising it on a local television channel during “Star Trek” reruns. And the album began to live long and prosper.
“We were just putting together all the things that we had listened to as teenagers,” Beckenstein said. “Whether it was Weather Report, or Earth Wind & Fire, or Marvin Gaye, or Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring,’ or (the album) Pygmies of the Ituri Forest. I mean, we were 16-year-old sophisticates and all of that crept in, and we wanted to taste all of it.”
They switched to the major label MCA and leveraged the company’s bigger budget for their second album, 1979’s Morning Dance. The album eventually went platinum and the Caribbean-balmy title tune (listen below) went to No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart.
“We were completely naive, which was good,” Beckenstein said. “We sort of got to New York, and it was like a candy store. What’s the best horn section in New York? Let’s hire them. Who’s the best percussionist in New York? Let’s hire them. We had no idea that that record would take off the way it did. We were just partying with a record company’s budget at the time.
“It was kind of a roller coaster. I have a memory of coming off stage at one concert and having somebody hand me a piece of paper with sales figures on them, and we had topped 500,000 and I just looked at that and said, ‘Wow, life here has changed.’ ”
By the end of the 1980s, the band was Billboard’s top-selling jazz band. Over the years, it has garnered several Grammy nominations and released 35 albums, including several gold and platinum ones.
The cover of Spyro Gyra’s album “Vinyl Tap.”
Spyro Gyra has not recorded a new album since 2019, when it released Vinyl Tap, a collection of reimagined classic rock songs. It is also planning to release an anthology, Jubilee, later this year.
And the band known for its near-constant road shows has organized a 50th anniversary tour that began in the spring.
“We’re a 50-year-old vintage wine with body,” Beckenstein said. “That combination of having people be so thrilled that we’re still strong, and us feeling proud about what we do right now … I get as much of a thrill out of it as I ever did.”
Speaking about the 50th anniversary tour, he said: “It’s a bit of a love fest. We put on — and I’m really proud of this — a high-energy performance that does not say that we are an old band … I think the 50th anniversary just represents an opportunity for both sides, audience and artists, to reaffirm that it’s still alive and strong. And with that in mind, it is not the end of the road. We have lots of tread on our tires.”
Spyro Gyra will perform at The Hamilton Stage of The Union Performing Arts Center in Rahway, Sept. 14 at 5:30 and 8 p.m. Visit ucpac.org.
For more on the band, visit spyrogyra.com.
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