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UID:2645717:Event:141334
DTSTAMP:20261014T074021Z
SUMMARY:Spyro Gyra @ The Hamilton Live!
DESCRIPTION:\nAs Spyro Gyra contemplates upcoming milestones to its st
 oried career, it’s tempting to fall back on the Grateful Dead lyric,
  “What a long strange trip it’s been” to describe it. During tha
 t time, they have performed over five thousand shows, released twenty-
 nine albums (not counting “Best Of…” compilations) selling over 
 ten million albums while also achieving one platinum and two gold albu
 ms. These upcoming milestones include 2012, which will be thirty-five 
 years since their first album release and 2014 will be forty years as 
 a band. They show little sign of wanting to slow down either, gaining 
 Grammy® nominations for each of their last four albums.\n Born in Bro
 oklyn, bandleader Jay Beckenstein grew up listening to the music of Lo
 uis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins and Dizzy Gillespie, and 
 started playing the saxophone at age seven. Beckenstein attended the U
 niversity at Buffalo, starting out as a biology major before changing 
 to music performance (read classical and avant garde). During summer b
 reaks, he and an old high school friend, keyboardist Jeremy Wall, play
 ed gigs together back on Long Island. Wall attended college in Califor
 nia, and after both graduated, Beckenstein stayed in Buffalo’s thriv
 ing music scene, where Wall eventually joined him.\n\n\"Not many peopl
 e know it, but Buffalo was like a mini Chicago back then, with a smoki
 ng blues, soul, jazz, even rockabilly scene, of all things,\" Beckenst
 ein muses. \"After being confined to classical music for so long, it w
 as heaven. I was in the horn sections around town, backing some great 
 vocalists.\"\n\nSpyro Gyra, whose odd name has since become world famo
 us, was first known simply as “Tuesday Night Jazz Jams,” a forum w
 herein Beckenstein and Wall were joined by a rotating cast of characte
 rs. Tuesday just happened to be the night when most musicians weren’
 t playing other gigs to pay their bills. Around this time, a young key
 boardist named Tom Schuman began sitting in when he was only sixteen y
 ears old. This young man, of course, remains a member to this day.\n\n
 \"Don't forget the interminable Dead-like solos we were taking,\" Beck
 enstein cracks. \"We were the kings of self-indulgence, but eventually
  we earned our right to charge a quarter at the door. It was a complet
 e shock when word of our psychosis got out and we started packing them
  in!\"\n\nThe group’s increasing popularity – combined with the pu
 rchase of a new sign for the club – prompted the owner to insist tha
 t Beckenstein come up with a name for his band. “It began as a joke.
  I said ‘spirogyra,’ he misspelled it, and here we are thirty year
 s later. In retrospect, it’s okay. In a way, it sounds like what we 
 do. It sounds like motion and energy.”\n\n\n\n\n\nFor more informati
 on visit https://washingtondcjazznetwork.ning.com/events/spyro-gyra-1
DTSTART:20150408T233000Z
DTEND:20150409T023000Z
CATEGORIES:jazz, concert
LOCATION:The Hamilton Live
WEBSITE:http://live.thehamiltondc.com/event/766605-spyro-gyra-washingt
 on/
URL:http://live.thehamiltondc.com/event/766605-spyro-gyra-washington/
CONTACT:202-787-1000
ORGANIZER;CN="The Hamilton":https://washingtondcjazznetwork.ning.com/p
 rofile/TheHamilton
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ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=ACCEPTED;RSVP=TRUE;CN="The Hami
 lton":https://washingtondcjazznetwork.ning.com/profile/TheHamilton
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