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| A Night Before Christmas |
| Spyro Gyra |
| első megjelenés éve: 2008 |
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| (2008)
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CD |
| 4.161 Ft
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| 1. | O Tannenbaum
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| 2. | It Won't Feel Like Christmas
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| 3. | Winter Wonderland
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| 4. | Christmas Time Is Here
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| 5. | Baby It's Cold Outside
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| 6. | Carol of the Bells
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| 7. | Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
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| 8. | The First Noel
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| 9. | Silent Night
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| 10. | This Christmas
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| 11. | The Christmas Song
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Jazz / Christmas / Crossover Jazz / Smooth Jazz
Christine Ebersole - Vocals
Dave Samuels - Vibraphone
Janis Siegel - Vocals
Jay Beckenstein - Producer, Saxophone
Scott Ambush - Bass
Tom Schuman - Piano
* Dave Love - Executive Producer
* Kieran Pardias - Engineer
* Marc Urselli - Engineer
* Robert Harari - Engineer
* Robert Hoffman - Design
Since their earliest days in the mid-1970s, Spyro Gyra has always been about looking ahead, breaking new ground and seeking ways to reinvent themselves and their sound. However, this contemporary jazz quintet – saxophonist Jay Beckenstein, pianist Tom Schuman, guitarist Julio Fernandez, bassist Scott Ambush and drummer/percussionist Bonny B – has always understood the importance of not only staying connected to the roots of jazz, but also staying connected to the core values that define them as people.
As the seasons change and the end of the year draws near, even the most forward thinking and cutting-edge artists take a nostalgic moment to count their blessings. Spyro Gyra has spent more than three decades pushing the boundaries and definitions of jazz beyond the commonly accepted parameters. In so doing, they continue to forge an edgy, enduring sound that incorporates some of the best elements of jazz and merges them with R&B, pop, Latin and various other styles.
But it isn't always about breaking new ground. All five of these talented innovators - saxophonist Jay Beckenstein, pianist Tom Schuman, guitarist Julio Fernandez, bassist Scott Ambush and drummer Bonny B - agree that there's a time and a place for reconnecting with tradition and celebrating the fundamental values at the core of their music and their lives.
This year, Spyro Gyra celebrates the holiday season with A Night Before Christmas (HUCD 3145), a collection of eleven tracks that capture the yuletide spirit with a decidedly traditional jazz vibe.
"We've always had a yearning to do a record that was kind of a straightahead record - or at least something closer to a straightahead record than what we normally do," says Beckenstein. "But it's always been very difficult to make that work in the context of what we do on most of our records. But a Christmas record was sort of an opportunity to really go someplace a little more subtle, a little more acoustic and more traditional."
Beckenstein brings his own perspective to the project. "Christmas has always been a huge part of my life," he says. "There's so much about it that's universal, separate and apart from the religious aspects. It's a celebration of all the things that are good and redeeming about humanity - compassion, hope, generosity, forgiveness, renewal, family, all those things."
The traditional "O Tannenbaum" opens the set with an improvisational vibe. "It was set up as kind of a jam, and it went to some nice places," says Beckenstein. "It sounds sort of contemporary, without really losing the acoustic feel of the song."
Tony Award winning vocalist Christine Ebersole delivers a simple and pure rendition of "It Won't Feel Like Christmas," a new song that is destined to become a Christmas classic. "These days families are often so far apart physically and then there are people like us who travel for a living. It's important to get home, to be home. Then there are the folks who just aren't going to get home, like the situation a lot of military families are finding themselves these past few years."
No Christmas music is complete without bells, and guest vibraphonist Dave Samuels - founder of the acclaimed Caribbean Jazz Project - evokes the sound of holiday chimes on two tracks, "Winter Wonderland" and "Carol of the Bells" (the latter includes engaging phrases and snippets of the timeless traditional "What Child Is This" and Rodgers & Hammerstein's "My Favorite Things").
Guest vocalist Janis Siegel - a founding member of Manhattan Transfer - joins drummer Bonny B on the mischievous Frank Loesser wintertime duet, "Baby It's Cold Outside." Beckenstein recalls: "We wanted to go in sort of an Ella Fitzgerald direction, and that's Janis' turf big-time. She just does it so beautifully. When we got her into the studio, it was a breeze. The song is very much about projecting a personality, and Janis has personality to burn. She brings all kinds of fun and spunk to this track."
If Christmas is about tradition, then Spyro Gyra has tied both together in a festive package. "There's something about traditional jazz that harkens back to my childhood," says Beckenstein. "On top of that, I have many nostalgic memories of Christmas. The holiday, and this kind of music, have created some of the fondest memories of my youth. These connections make this a very heartfelt record for me and for everyone in the band."
Put another log on the fire. A Night Before Christmas might well be the best musical moment of this holiday season.
Spyro Gyra
Active Decades: '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: 1974 in Buffalo, NY
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Crossover Jazz, Fusion, Jazz-Pop, Smooth Jazz
Founded in 1974 by altoist Jay Beckenstein, Spyro Gyra have consistently been one of the commercially successfully pop-jazz groups of the past 20 years. Although originally a studio group, the band became a full-time venture in 1979 and has been touring ever since. Critics love to attack this band's lightweight and rarely changing music, which combines R&B and elements of pop and Caribbean music with jazz, but its live performances are often stimulating -- unlike many of its records, which emphasize the danceable melodies at the expense of improvising.
The roots of Spyro Gyra lay in Buffalo, NY, in the early '70s. Beckenstein and his longtime friend, keyboardist Jeremy Wall, had been leading a group with a revolving membership; every one of the many members in the band were loosely involved in the local jazz and rock scenes. Around 1974, the group was beginning to gel and cultivate a following. A club owner who wanted to advertise an upcoming appearance by the band asked Beckenstein for the group's name. The saxophonist told him "Spirogira," a word he learned in a college biology course. The owner misspelled the word as Spyro Gyra, and the band fell into place, featuring Beckenstein, Wall, electric guitarist Chet Catallo, bassist David Wolford, drummer Eli Konikoff, and percussionist Gerardo Velez. Not long afterward, the group added keyboardist Tom Schuman.
Spyro Gyra independently funded and recorded their debut album, releasing the record on the local independent label Amherst in 1976. The record slowly became a success and Amherst sold the rights to the band to Infinity Records, a division of MCA. Morning Dance, their first album for Infinity, was released in 1979. The record became a major hit, spawning a Top 40 single with "Morning Dance" and going platinum. In the wake of the record's success, Wall retired from live performance, leaving Schuman as the group's main keyboardist; Wall stayed with the band as an assistant producer and occasional composer.
Morning Dance firmly placed Spyro Gyra as one of the most popular artists in contemporary jazz, and throughout the '80s, their popularity continued growing. Their albums were consistent best-sellers, and their concerts often sold out. In 1983, vibraphonist and marimba player Dave Samuels -- who had played on several of the group's albums -- became a full-fledged member of the band. Over the course of the '80s, the membership of Spyro Gyra fluctuated, but Beckenstein and Schuman remained at its core, keeping the group's signature sound intact.
In 1990, MCA's jazz roster was absorbed by GRP, so Spyro Gyra switched labels, releasing Fast Forward, their first album for GRP, later that year. In 1993, Samuels left the touring band, but he continued to play in the studio. By the late '90s, the band featured Beckenstein, Schuman, Julio Fernandez, Joel Rosenblatt, and Scott Ambush, and released Got the Magic in 1999. Two years later the band moved to the Telarc-affiliated Heads Up label and released In Modern Times in 2001, followed by Original Cinema in 2003. Drummer Rosenblatt left the band and was replaced by Ludwig Afonso for 2004's Deep End. A fourth Heads Up album, Good to Go-Go, was issued in 2007. The holiday album A Night Before Christmas followed in 2008.
---Scott Yanow & Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide |
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