Even after 50 years, Spyro Gyra electrifies audiences. See them at the Lucas Theatre, July 15

Savannah Jazz Festival is bringing fusion jazz legends Spyro Gyra to the Lucas Theatre as part of its exciting yearly concert series. With 35 albums under its belt, multiple platinum and gold selling records, and several Grammy nods, Spyro Gyra is on the cusp of another career milestone as they head into the band's 50^th year as one of the hardest touring bands in contemporary jazz.

Bandleader and saxophonist Jay Beckenstein co-founded Spyro Gyra in 1974 while gigging in the humble, but burgeoning Buffalo, New York, club scene. The unusual band name came when Beckenstein was asked by a club promoter to name his band and he jokingly responded with “spirogyra,” a type of algae he learned about as a biology major in college. The promoter spelled it wrong and the name stuck, but having a weird band name didn’t impede Spyro Gyra’s massive success in the jazz world.

“Buffalo is always a small club town,” Beckenstein said. “The benefit, in the old days, of being in Buffalo, was that you could make $25 a night and live on it. My Buffalo experience is 40 years ago. However, when we go back to Buffalo, the degree to which the city identifies with us and comes out for us is fantastic. I still identify with the place. I’m still a Bills fan.”

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Spyro Gyra’s melodic compositions and tight arrangements can partially be attributed to Beckenstein’s upbringing around Classical music (his mother was an opera singer), and his education in Classical music performance.

“As a writer/producer, classical music presents a fairly fastidious approach,” Beckenstein explained. “It’s supposed to be beautifully in tune, and beautifully done. Things are supposed to be somewhat orderly and tight. I think those are factors in Spyro Gyra’s music and I don’t think that comes necessarily from the jazz world.”

Another aspect of Spyro Gyra’s infectious jazz that’s stood out since their early hits (like the platinum-selling 1979 album “Morning Dance”) is their use of sun-kissed Latin grooves and Caribbean vibes.

“That comes from Buffalo, of course,” Beckenstein said with a laugh. Perhaps Caribbean music helped them survive the blisteringly cold Buffalo winters.

“I grew up in New York City, and New York City had a vibrant Latin music scene,” Beckenstein continued. “The biggest thing was that New York had great Latin radio.”

A little help from Rick James

Spyro Gyra received some help from an unlikely source at the beginning of their career, and if “The Chappelle Show” has taught us anything, it’s that it is always worth sharing a Rick James story.

“The band was creating our first record in a small studio in Buffalo,” said Beckenstein. “We were buying months of studio time because we had a production company and we were doing five or six little projects. Spyro Gyra was the project we did at the end of the night when we had some spare time. We had more spare time than we could use.”

Super Freak funk artist Rick James offered to buy up much of their studio time, which helped Spyro Gyra finish their first record. In return, Beckenstein played in the horn section on Rick Jame’s first album.

“We meet this larger-than-life category, all dressed up, all pimped out, with a big limo and a schmansy-pansy short skirt wearing girl on his arm,” recalled Beckenstein. “We were just a bunch of Buffalo yokels, so this was jaw dropping for us. He was a wild man, no question about it, and he jumped around like crazy, but as far as I’m concerned he was just an incredibly enthusiastic and creative guy.”

The story continued several years later when Beckenstein was in Los Angeles and met up with James again. James invited Beckenstein to Motown Records to meet legendary Motown founder Berry Gordy.

Beckenstein recounted, “After about three minutes of pleasantry, Rick excuses himself, no doubt to snort cocaine in the bathroom, and Barry leans across the table and says, ‘Hey dude, you don’t wanna be seen with this guy. Let me introduce you to someone you do want to know.’ He walks me down the hall and introduces me to Smokey Robinson, which was an honor, but it was the president of Motown warning me off of Rick James.”

Defying jazz categories for 50 years

Following in the footsteps of adventurous fusion luminaries like Weather Report and Return to Forever, Spyro Gyra combined pop, rock, funk, and salsa into a highly melodic and marketable instrumental jazz. Since then genre labels like “contemporary jazz” and “smooth jazz” have sprung up and claimed the band.

“We’ve gone about making our music without saying we’re going to fit into this category,” said Beckenstein. “We just plow forward, and sometimes we’re in an ocean all alone, and sometimes there are others around us.”

“There’s a commercial smooth jazz ecosystem, a regular jazz ecosystem, and a European jazz ecosystem, and we work all three. We don’t change the music whatsoever, and never have. We’re we influential on smooth jazz? Maybe, but it sure wasn’t what we thought we were.”

After composing hundreds of songs over the decades, Spyro Gyra’s most recent album, 2019’s “Vinyl Tap,” was surprisingly a covers record.

“We were bored with the process,” Beckenstein said of switching to covers. “After so many records where my demand was that every single piece be original, it was a cool idea. It was fun and we concentrated on a different creative aspect. It wasn’t writing a song, it was making a song new.”

One thing that hasn’t changed in 50 years has been Spyro Gyra’s reputation as a “well-oiled road machine.” What has kept Beckenstein on the road all these years?

“Not growing old,” Beckenstein answered. “It keeps me young and moving. It keeps me like I’ve got a real purpose. I learned during Covid that without purpose at my age, you start to fade. It’s great to be out on the road and putting out high energy and work at a high level.”

That high energy hasn’t wained and Savannah music fans can expect an outstanding show at the Lucas Theatre on July 15.

“If you come to the show and haven’t heard us, I almost guarantee that you’ll be shocked by how energetic and downright tight it is. We’re really proud of ourselves.”

If You Go >>

What: Spyro Gyra

When: 7 p.m., July 15

Where: The Lucas Theatre, 23 Abercorn St.

Cost: $45-58

Info: savannahjazz.org

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah Jazz Festival welcome Spyro Gyra for annual concert, July 15