''Morning Dance'' is the second album by the
jazz fusion
Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...
group
Spyro Gyra. The album was released in March 9, 1979 and was certified gold by the
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
on September 19, 1979, and was certified platinum on June 1, 1987.
At ''Billboard'' magazine, the album reached No. 27 on the Top 200 albums chart, while the song "
Morning Dance" reached No. 24 on the Hot 100 songs chart and No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary songs chart.
In Canada, the album reached No. 47 in its 10th week, and returned to No. 49 in its 20th week of 25 in the top 100.
Critical reception
''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'' wrote that "''Morning Dance'' is too heavily produced and too tightly arranged to be a very impressive jazz record."
Track listing and personnel
# "
Morning Dance" (Jay Beckenstein) – 3:58
#*
Jay Beckenstein – alto saxophone
#*
Jeremy Wall – electric piano
#*
John Tropea
John Tropea (pronounced 'tro-pay'; born January 7, 1946) is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
Career
Tropea began guitar studies at the age of 12. His musical education continued at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied jaz ...
– electric and acoustic guitars
#* Jim Kurzdorfer – bass
#* Ted Reinhardt – drums
#*
Rubens Bassini
Rubens Bassini (January 26, 1933 in Rio de Janeiro – September 1985) was a Brazilian percussionist, who played bongos and congas above all. He played together with the band Os Ipanemas: Astor Silva; (trombone), Marinho (bass), Wilson das N ...
–
conga
The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest ...
s and percussion
#*
Dave Samuels –
marimba
The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...
and
steel drums
The steelpan (also known as a pan or steel drum) is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago from Afro-Trinidadians. Steelpan musicians are called pannists.
In 1992, the steelpan was declared Trinidad and Tobago’s national in ...
# "Jubilee" (Jeremy Wall) – 4:31
#* Jay Beckenstein – alto saxophone
#* Jeremy Wall – electric piano and synthesizers
#* John Tropea – electric guitar
#*
Will Lee – bass
#*
Steve Jordan – drums
#* Rubens Bassini – congas and percussion
#* Dave Samuels – marimba
#*
Randy Brecker
Randal Edward Brecker (born November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock music, rock, and R&B.
Early life
Brecker was ...
– trumpet solo
# "Rasul" (Jeremy Wall) – 3:57
#* Jay Beckenstein – soprano and tenor saxophones
#* Jeremy Wall – acoustic and electric pianos
#* Rick Strauss – guitar
#* Jim Kurzdorfer – bass
#* Ted Reinhardt – drums
#*
John Clark –
French horn
The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...
# "Song for Lorraine" (Jay Beckenstein) – 3:59
#* Jay Beckenstein – soprano saxophone
#*
Tom Schuman – electric and acoustic pianos
#*
Suzanne Ciani
Suzanne Ciani (; born June 4, 1946) is an American musician, sound designer, composer, and record label executive who found early success in the 1970s, with her electronic music and sound effects for films and television commercials. Her career h ...
– synthesizers
#*
Chet Catallo – guitar
#* Jim Kurzdorfer – bass
#* Eli Konikoff – drums
#*
Gerardo Velez – bongos, congas, percussion
#* Lani Groves,
Diva Gray and Gordon Grody – vocalists
# "Starburst" (Jeremy Wall) – 4:50
#* Jay Beckenstein – tenor saxophone (intro)
#* Jeremy Wall – electric piano and synthesizers
#* John Tropea – guitar
#* Will Lee – bass
#* Steve Jordan – drums
#* Rubens Bassini – congas,
timbales
Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfic ...
, percussion
#*
Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as a performer and composer, received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in ...
– tenor saxophone solo
# "Heliopolis" (Jay Beckenstein) – 5:34
#* Jay Beckenstein – alto saxophone,
boobams, percussion
#* Jeremy Wall – electric piano and synthesizers
#* Tom Schuman –
Rhodes electric piano solo
#* John Tropea – guitar
#* Will Lee – bass
#* Steve Jordan – drums
#* Rubens Bassini – congas, timbales, percussion
#* Dave Samuels – marimba
# "It Doesn't Matter" (Chet Catallo) – 4:27
#* Jay Beckenstein – soprano saxophone
#* Tom Schuman – electric and acoustic pianos
#* Suzanne Ciani – synthesizer
#* Jeremy Wall – synthesizer
#* Chet Catallo – guitar
#* Jim Kurzdorfer – bass
#* Eli Konikoff – drums
#* Gerardo Velez – congas
#* Lani Groves, Diva Gray and Gordon Gordy – vocalists
# "Little Linda" (Jeremy Wall) – 4:27
#* Jay Beckenstein – alto saxophone
#* Jeremy Wall – electric piano, acoustic piano, percussion
#* Rick Strauss – guitar
#* Jim Kurzdorfer – bass
#* Ted Reinhardt – drums
#* Rubens Bassini – bongos and percussion
#* Dave Samuels –
vibraphone
The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...
# "End of Romanticism" (Rick Strauss) – 5:00
#* Jay Beckenstein – soprano saxophone
#* Jeremy Wall – electric piano
#* Tom Schuman – synthesizer solos
#* Rick Strauss – 6 and 12-string electric guitars
#* Jim Kurzdorfer – bass
#* Ted Reinhardt – drums
#* Dave Samuels – marimba
#* John Clark – French horn
Additional Personnel Credits
*
Larry Fast – synthesizer programming
* Jeremy Wall – string arrangements and conductor, horn arrangements and conductor (1-5, 7-9)
* Jay Beckenstein – horn arrangements and conductor (6)
Horn section
* Lew Del Gatto –
flute
The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
s
* Jay Beckenstein – alto saxophone
*
Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as a performer and composer, received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in ...
– tenor saxophone
*
Tom Malone – trombone
*
Randy Brecker
Randal Edward Brecker (born November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock music, rock, and R&B.
Early life
Brecker was ...
– trumpet
Strings
* Charles McCracken – cello
* Alfred Brown – viola
* Harry Cykman – violin
* Charles Libove – violin
* Harry Lookofsky – violin, concertmaster
* Matthew Raimondi – violin
Production
* Jay Beckenstein – producer
* Richard Calandra – producer
* Jeremy Wall – assistant producer
* Michael Barry – recording, mixing
* Jack Malken – recording, mixing
* Charlie Conrad – recording
*
Mick Guzauski – recording
* Lawrence Swist – recording
* Jason Corsaro – assistant engineer
* Darroll Gustamachio – assistant engineer
* Candice Munson – assistant engineer
* Rick Rowe – editing
*
Bob Ludwig
Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...
– mastering at
Masterdisk
Masterdisk is an American multimedia company in New York, located at 8 John Walsh Boulevard in Peekskill. They provide production services such as audio mastering, vinyl cutting and enhanced CD and DVD production.
Their clients include such n ...
(New York, NY)
* Peter Corriston – art direction, design
* Julie Heffernan – illustration
Charts
References
{{Authority control
Spyro Gyra albums
1979 albums
MCA Records albums