Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Something in the Water

When saxophonist Jay Beckenstein threw out the name “Spirogyra” for his jazz-fusion group in the 1970s, he did so as a joke. Generally known to mean “pond scum,” the word was just something that came to mind from biology class. But the moniker, misspelled by a nightclub, stuck — and so did the band. Thirty-some years later, the members of Spyro Gyra likely got the last laugh, with more than 25 albums under their belts and a dozen Grammy nods. Weaving in influences from R&B, Latin music, funk and pop, the flashy instrumentals on their 2009 recording Down the Wire sum up the band’s accessible take on jazz.