Bill Zafiros from SJNY recently sat down with Spyro Gyra's *Jay Beckenstein* for some insight into his music, his band, and the future of Smooth Jazz. *What inspired you to choose music as a profession?* More my parents than anything else. Music was around my house forever. My father's heroes weren't sports heroes, they were saxophonists like Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley and Stan Getz. I think that that sent me off in that direction. Ultimately, what did it was that I got positive feedback that rewarded progress that I made. That's what pushed me along. *Has there been a defining moment in your career?* I think that it wasn't a moment, but a short period of time in 1979 when we went from a bar band in Buffalo to being headliners at shows around the world. It almost seems like we were playing three sets a night at a club in Buffalo one week to selling out Carnegie Hall the next. It didn't happen that quickly, but in retrospect it seems like "a moment." *When did you start playing your instrument? When did you start performing live? Did you go to school for music? Are you self-taught?* I started playing piano at five and saxophone at age six. I did go to school for and I have a degree in music, but a lot of me as a musician is self-taught. *How much of your music is improvised? How much is written out?* There's no rules, but as a generalization, maybe 30% is pre-arranged and 70% is open ended for improvisation. But even the pre-arranged stuff gets improvised on. *What does the future hold for Smooth Jazz?* Well, I think of Smooth Jazz as a radio format, not a style of music, and I don't think the radio format as people know it has much of a future. But I know that people think of a style of music when they hear that term, so I'll talk about that. I know musicians, who audiences think of as Smooth Jazz, who have passion and energy in their playing. I hope that side of Smooth Jazz prospers because it's working. The part of Smooth Jazz that was all about being laid back and background music, I don't see much of a future for, because there's nothing intriguing about it. But, not to throw out the baby with the bath water, there are great players who are thought of as Smooth Jazz who don't play background music and whose music deserves to be heard. *Spyro Gyra will be performing live in concert this Wednesday July 1st on the Smooth Cruise on board the Spirit of New York. Showtimes are 6:30 and 9:30.* 2009-06-29T17:42:59-04:00 SJNY's Exclusive Interview with Spyro Gyra! 23 true 2009-06-29T17:39:00-04:00 2009-06-30T13:27:18-04:00