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| Spyro Gyra New Years Week At Iridium Dec. 29-Jan. 2 Spyro Gyra New Years Week At Iridium Dec. 29-Jan. 2! The Deep End, Spyro Gyra's third album on Heads Up International was released to international acclaim in May. “We really do put our hearts into the music we make,” says Beckenstein, who founded the band 30 years ago. “I hope that you can hear the passion, regardless of the fact that the styles bounce all around, like on all of our records. When people come up to me and tell me how much our music means to them, well, first of all, I love hearing that. I know where that's coming from: it’s from that deep end inside each of them. That’s the place I want to keep going back to.” The eleven tracks on The Deep End embrace a broad range of styles and colors – and indeed, emotions – yet hold together cohesively. It's the kind of delicate balancing act that has made Spyro Gyra the contemporary jazz powerhouse that it’s been for three decades. With over 10 million albums sold, the group continues to break new ground with this latest outing, the follow-up to Original Cinema, which spent most of 2003 on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz chart. Their 2001 Heads Up debut, In Modern Times, logged 64 weeks on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart, peaking at #2. The Deep End is marked by solid musicianship on all fronts – as usual – and songwriting contributions from numerous sources within the Spyro Gyra ranks: Beckenstein, guitarist/ vocalist Julio Fernandez, keyboardist Tom Schuman and bassist Scott Ambush. The Deep End also introduces the newest member of the band, Ludwig Afonso on drums on “Joburg Jam.” write your comments about the article :: © 2004 Jazz News :: home page |