JAZZ: INSPIRATION BEHIND SPYRO GYRA

For leader Jay Beckenstein, playing in Spyro Gyra is “a cake-and-eat-it situation.”

“We’re getting away with murder,” he said in a phone conversation from a tour stop in Chicago. “We’re incredibly successful doing just what we want to do, and it’s not one of the current pop formulas.”

A lot of listeners would call the band’s multi-musical blend of jazz, R&B;, Latin, pop and classical jazz fusion, but Beckenstein doesn’t like that phrase.

“Fusion is a word that confuses me,” Beckenstein said. “If you define fusion as taking previously existing forms of jazz and adding outside elements to come up with a new hybrid, then I think that the entire history of jazz has been fusion.”

There’s plenty of pop music in what Spyro Gyra offers, but Beckenstein also rejects that mantle.

“If pop is a definition of the goals of the artist, no, we’re not,” he said. “But in terms of sales, I guess you’d say, ‘yes,’ but not by contrivance, such as including vocals.”

Well, then, what kind of music does Spyro Gyra play?

“I claim it’s jazz,” he said. “It’s a hybrid of sorts, but a great percentage of it is improvised and a lot of the background language comes from jazz players.”

Fusion, confusion, jazz, pop, whatever, Spyro Gyra is doing something right. The group has several gold LPs (the latest disc, “Breakout,” is currently No. 4 on the Billboard Jazz Charts and No. 77 on the Billboard Pop Charts) to its credit, yet Beckenstein says high sales have never been a central issue.

“Spyro began as a labor of love, with no pretensions about commerciality,” he said. “When our first record (“Spyro Gyra”) sold, I was utterly shocked and flabbergasted. And since then, I haven’t changed anything to be monetarily successful.”

The group, which plays Sunday at Hollywood Bowl, has built a strong and loyal following with a tried-and-true method: touring a lot. “The band plays 200-plus dates a year, and has for seven-eight years,” Beckenstein said. “So that alone is a factor that has given us a broad base of fans and support.”

Also, the band puts on a good show, with extended versions of recorded tunes and a relaxed stage atmosphere. “We really enjoy playing together and that comes across in concert, so there’s a positive vibe,” he said.

In its formative years, the group’s hits, like the lilting “Shaker Song,” highlighted Beckenstein’s singing alto sax. These days, everyone from bassist Kim Stone to front men Julio Fernandez, guitar, Tom Schulman, keyboards and Dave Samuels, vibes, gets plenty of solo space. Beckenstein likes it that way.

“I’ve felt very comfortable sharing the artistic end of it with the other guys in the band,” he noted. “I’m proud of an organization where all the members, not just the leader, feel they’re making a real contribution. I think the band works because I don’t throw myself in front.

“On the other hand, in making the production and career decision for the band, that’s been 100% in my hands. But that’s behind the scenes.”

Beckenstein feels the band has evolved in its first decade from a producer/arranger-oriented group to a players band. “We’ve found that the vitality of the band is the musicians themselves,” he said. “There’s been a trend to let the band dictate the direction of a tune, leaving more and more up to the men as far as the arrangements and improvisations.

“Morning Dance,” the group’s second LP, is more produced and rigid than “Breakout,” which was basically done live in the studio.”

The son of musical parents, Beckenstein started on piano at 4, on sax at 5 or 6. Majoring in classical saxophone at State University of New York in Buffalo, Beckenstein joined local blues bands right after graduation. “In school, I accented the avant-garde, which I found to be pretty emotionless, and frankly, after four years of that, I was ready to play the blues.”

After the blues bands came rock groups, and then Spyro Gyra.

Beckenstein’s main goal is to keep moving, musically. “I want to play for another 40 years. I just hope that when I look back 20 years from now, the stuff doesn’t all sound the same.”