 When the band started out in Buffalo NY, there was no name for the group. The beginnings of the band grew out of a weekly jam session at a club in Buffalo named Jack Daniel's. Since it was very informal, the weekly session was known only as "Tuesday Night - Jazz Jam". As the popularity grew, the club owner wanted to put a name of the group on a new sign that he had just bought for the front of the club. One late night, that owner was asking Jay to decide on a name for his sign. Jay jokingly said, "Call it spirogira." Spirogira is an algae that Jay had remembered from biology class that is commonly known as "pond scum." The next week, that name was on the sign incorrectly spelled as "Spyro Gyra." In short, it was a joke. The group moved its base of operations to the suburbs of New York City in 1981 where it remains today. Most of the individual members of the band live in the New York area, with a couple living in Maryland and Pittsburgh. Founded in 1975 by altoist Jay Beckenstein, Spyro Gyra has consistently been one of the commercially successfully pop-jazz groups of the past 20 years. Although originally a studio group, the band became a fulltime venture in 1979 and has been touring ever since. Critics love to attack this band's lightweight and rarely changing music (which combines R&B and elements of pop with jazz) but its live performances are often stimulating, unlike many of its records which emphasize the danceable melodies at the expense of the improvising.
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