Spyro Gyra - Carnaval (1980)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape, later replaced by a CD.

Early Spyro Gyra, back when they were experimenting a lot with electronic manipulation of saxophone and trumpet sounds. I don't care for that too much, but I understand they were just experimenting with new sounds. Maybe messing with oscillation was that era's autotune - you did it because everybody else was doing it. As the title implies, this album has a very Latin-flavor, even more than usual for a SG disc. There's also more use of a horn section (featuring The Brecker Brothers) than normal. Interestingly, the bass player on this album is Will Lee, the long-time bassist in David Letterman's house band.

Reviews/ratings:

• CashBox: "delivers its most melodic effort yet"
• Record World: "tunes are still jazzy, but heavy brass, salsa and funk have been thrown in for good measure"
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #49
• Billboard Jazz: #2
• Billboard R&B: #24
• CashBox: #40
• CashBox Jazz: #2
• Rolling Stone: #36

Tracks: Of the 8 here, my favorites are Cafe Amore, Cachaça Fox Trot, I never skip any of the tracks, but the weakest one is Sweet 'N Savvy. The title track is fun and cheesy in a game-show-theme kind of way.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I originally bought this music in 1984 on a 2-for-1 cassette at the Sound Warehouse in West Oak Malls in Houston. Since I could listen to the whole album without having to flip the cassette, I always listened to the album as a whole which probably explains why I never skip any tracks. Remember when they came out with auto-reverse tape players and we thought life couldn't get much easier? Man, we've come a long way.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Good To Go-Go (2007)
Original Cinema (2003)
20/20 (1997)
Stories Without Words (1987)
Breakout (1986)
Access All Areas (1984)
Incognito (1982)
Morning Dance (1979)