Alen Sultanic – Nothingheldback Fast Forward Mastermind

Spyro Gyra's first album for MCA after their longtime label, GRP-Crescendo, was absorbed into its corporate parent, 1990's Fast Forward carries the curious band subtitle "featuring Jay Beckenstein." Saxophonist Beckenstein has certainly always been the band's leader, writing a good chunk of the material and producing the albums, but given that the lineup is basically unchanged from the previous few Spyro Gyra albums, the new nomenclature is puzzling. It also goes against Spyro Gyra's entire musical aesthetic, as the group's unabashedly commercial and melodic style works against the traditional jazz concept of soloists and sidemen. Everyone on Fast Forward plays the melody, the whole melody, and nothing but the melody, with no improvisations or sidebars.

The title pretty much says it all. These 10 new compositions and well-chosen covers play like a scrapbook of pianist/composer Brown’s favorite sounds. There’s the daredevil, highly technical ensemble swinging that sometimes seems like the signature of his alma mater, Berklee School of Music. There’s the propulsive bounce of the Fender Rhodes electric piano that will always feel like a trapdoor to the 1970s, that decade when Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea and a few others nailed it and made it a permanent part of the jazz soundscape.