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Spyro Gyra and Acoustic Alchemy slated for Jakarta concert

By Paul Blair [10 pts ML]

JAKARTA (JP): Two top-selling musical groups -- Spyro Gyra from the United States and Acoustic Alchemy from Britain -- will follow up on the considerable popularity of their compact discs and cassettes in Indonesia with a joint local appearance next Tuesday evening.

The venue is the Studio 21 Concert Hall at Ratu Plaza, which proved again last Tuesday evening (during a jazz concert by guitarist Christian Escoude's quartet arranged by the French Cultural Center) to be an ideal environment for musical presentations in terms of sound quality, lighting, sight lines and listener comfort.

Spyro Gyra's latest album, Dreams Beyond Control, is their 17th since the group was founded in Buffalo in the late 1960s.

The two longest-standing members are saxophonist Jay Beckenstein and mallet instrument player Dave Samuels. Beckenstein plays primarily soprano saxophone and functions as leader.

Samuels, heard on both vibraphone and marimba, also records under his own name for the GRP label.

His recent releases Del Sol and Conquistador are available locally as well.

Other members coming to Jakarta are Julio Fernandez (guitar), Tom Schuman (keyboards), Scott Ambush (bass) and Joel Rosenblatt (drums).

It's Spyro Gyra's second local appearance. They were here for two shows at the Jakarta Convention Center in late 1992.

Although Spyro Gyra's music is usually filed by retailers under "jazz," it might more accurately be characterized as instrumental music that often has a jazz-like tinge.

Newest release

On the group's newest release, the three tracks which come closest to the looseness of jazz are a Latin romp entitled South Beach that prominently features the sound of steel drums; a Brazilian-flavored Bahia that demonstrates Samuels' fleetness on vibes; and a Beckenstein original called Birks' Law apparently written as a tribute to the late John Birks Gillespie and featuring Beckenstein on tenor saxophone.

As with all Spyro Gyra collections, there are catchy instrumental touches throughout: the rocking organ sound that opens Walk that Walk, the rumbling baritone saxophone under the ensemble on Breakfast at Igor's, guest Howard Levy's witty harmonica playing on a couple of tracks and so on.

Dreams Beyond Control is also the first of the sextet's albums to feature vocals; there are two by another guest, Scottish-born singer Alex Ligertwood, who's best known for his work with Santana.

Opening the Tuesday concert is the other group, Acoustic Alchemy, a guitar duo whose members are Englishmen Nick Webb and Greg Carmichael.

Their recordings are characterized by intriguing voicings that blend the sounds of various nylon-string and steel-string guitars.

Their Jakarta admirers will no doubt be intrigued to see how Webb and Carmichael present material already familiar from seven previous CD and cassette releases, since their recordings generally feature the pair in the company of many other musicians -- horn men, keyboard players and percussionists.

New Edge

The most recent Acoustic Alchemy package -- The New Edge -- is a thorough delight in every respect, with none of the eleven tracks really resembling any of the others.

The Notting Hill Two-Step, described in the liner notes as a combination of ska, pop, lambada and country, features a quirky piano solo by one of the duo's studio guests.

There's a prominent cello part on Oceans Apart, some soulful dobro playing by Nashville whiz Jerry Douglas on Slow Ride Home, an exotic flamenco feel to Santa Cafe and some accordion seasoning sprinkled throughout Rive Gauche, which summons up the feeling of an old Django Reinhardt session.

Two tracks on The New Edge include backing by a full orchestra -- a pleasant contract to the sweetening with electronics routinely employed in recording studios these days.

Synthesizer effects scattered throughout this or other Acoustic Alchemy albums never sound like intrusions.

The Acoustic Alchemy collection released just before the current one is entitled Back in the Case.

It, too, can be highly recommended, as can their first effort, newly reissued under the title Early Alchemy. The New Edge, though, is a marvel of diversity and great musical taste.

It will be interesting to see how Webb and Carmichael distill these tunes in Tuesday's live performance.

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