Spyro Gyra's first album for MCA after their longtime label, GRP-Crescendo, was absorbed into its corporate parent, 1990's Fast Forward carries the curious band subtitle "featuring Jay Beckenstein." Saxophonist Beckenstein has certainly always been the band's leader, writing a good chunk of the material and producing the albums, but given that the lineup is basically unchanged from the previous few Spyro Gyra albums, the new nomenclature is puzzling.
It also goes against Spyro Gyra's entire musical aesthetic, as the group's unabashedly commercial and melodic style works against the traditional jazz concept of soloists and sidemen.
Everyone on Fast Forward plays the melody, the whole melody, and nothing but the melody, with no improvisations or sidebars.
The resulting tunes are unfailingly pleasant -- there's nothing here that would cause anyone to leap immediately to the forward skip button on their CD player -- but this relentlessly safe smooth jazz is unfortunately deficient on memorable songs, expressive playing, or foot-tapping tunes.
It doesn't really "feature" anyone in particular.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bright LightsDave Samuels | Spyro Gyra | Play | 05:23 | 12 MB | 33 MB |
| 2 | Para Ti LatinoOskar Cartaya | Spyro Gyra | Play | 04:16 | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| 3 | AlexandraJay Beckenstein | Spyro Gyra | Play | 04:42 | 10 MB | 28 MB |
| 4 | Ocean ParkwayJeremy Wall | Spyro Gyra | Play | 04:33 | 10 MB | 29 MB |
| 5 | Speak EasyJeff Beal, Jim Kurzdorfer | Spyro Gyra | Play | 05:01 | 11 MB | 28 MB |
| 6 | FuturephobiaTom Schuman | Spyro Gyra | Play | 04:23 | 10 MB | 26 MB |
| 7 | 4MDJeremy Wall | Spyro Gyra | Play | 04:37 | 10 MB | 30 MB |
| 8 | Shadow PlayJay Beckenstein | Spyro Gyra | Play | 05:06 | 11 MB | 30 MB |
| 9 | Escape HatchTom Schuman | Spyro Gyra | Play | 05:11 | 11 MB | 34 MB |
| 10 | Tower of BabelJay Beckenstein | Spyro Gyra | Play | 05:30 | 12 MB | 31 MB |
| 48 mins | 111 MB | |||||
| 48 mins | 300 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeff Adamoff | Art Direction |
| 2 | Randy Andos | Trombone, Trombone (Bass) |
| 3 | Jay Azzolina | Guitar |
| 4 | Andy Baltimore | Creative Director |
| 5 | Jeff Beal | Arranger, Composer, Trumpet |
| 6 | Jay Beckenstein | Composer, Producer, Saxophone |
| 7 | David Broza | Guitar, Vocals |
| 8 | Chris Bubacz | Engineer |
| 9 | Oskar Cartaya | Bass, Composer |
| 10 | Barry Danielian | Arranger, Flugelhorn, Horn Arrangements, Trumpet |
| 11 | Paul DInnocenzo | Photography |
| 12 | David Gibb | Design |
| 13 | Ted Jensen | Mastering |
| 14 | Scott Kreitzer | Sax (Tenor) |
| 15 | Jim Kurzdorfer | Composer |
| 16 | Jacki McCarthy | Design |
| 17 | Richie Morales | Drums |
| 18 | Marc Quiñones | Percussion |
| 19 | Doug Rose | Assistant Engineer |
| 20 | Andy Ruggirello | Design |
| 21 | Dave Samuels | Composer, Marimba, Percussion, Synthesizer, Vibraphone |
| 22 | Tom Schuman | Composer, Keyboards |
| 23 | Dan Serrano | Design |
| 24 | Spyro Gyra | Primary Artist |
| 25 | Larry Swist | Engineer, Mixing, Recorder |
| 26 | Jeremy Wall | Assistant Producer, Composer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |