''Three Wishes'' is an album by the American jazz band

Spyro Gyra Spyro Gyra is an American jazz fusion band that was formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1974. The band's music combines jazz, R&B, funk, and pop music. The band's name comes from ''Spirogyra'', a genus of green algae which founder Jay Beckenstein ...

, released in 1992 by

GRP Records GRP® Records (Grusin-Rosen Productions) is a jazz record label founded by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen (producer), Larry Rosen in 1978. Distributed by Verve Records, GRP® was originally known for its digital recordings that focuses on its jazz ...

Production

The album was produced by

Jay Beckenstein Jay Barnet Beckenstein (born May 14, 1951) is an American saxophonist, composer, producer, and the co-founder of the band Spyro Gyra. He owned BearTracks Studios in Suffern, New York. Music career Beckenstein was born in Long Island, New York, ...

. The band recorded the songs in less than a week, but spent two months in total working on ''Three Wishes''. There was more of an effort to record live in studio, after Beckenstein heard comments praising the band's live show over its albums. Beckenstein also considered the songs on ''Three Wishes'' to be more thematically linked to each other rather than merely a collection of whatever songs the band had worked up. "Jennifer's Lullaby" is dedicated to

Stan Getz Stanley Getz (February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of ...

Critical reception

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' deemed the album "a good deal less predictable and glossy than usual." The ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'' wrote that "the veteran group is inoffensively competent, swings lightly despite the ugly rock 'n' roll drumming but contains about as much inspiration as a night watching Valium-powered TV soaps." ''

The Indianapolis Star ''The Indianapolis Star'' (also known as ''IndyStar'') is a morning daily newspaper that began publishing on June 6, 1903, in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It has been the only major daily paper in the city since 1999, when the ''Indianap ...

'' determined that ''Three Wishes'' "is far more orchestrated than improvised, yet that keeps and perhaps deepens its entertainment edge."

Track listing

# "Pipo's Song" (Julio Fernandez) – 4:53 # "Introduction to Breathless" (

) – 1:05 # "Breathless" (Beckenstein) – 5:19 # "Introduction to Real Time" (

Dave Samuels David Alan Samuels (October 9, 1948 – April 22, 2019) was an American vibraphone and marimba player who spent many years with the contemporary jazz group Spyro Gyra. His recordings and live performances during that period also reflect his pr ...

) # "Real Time" (Samuels) – 3:56 # "Jennifer's Lullaby" (Beckenstein) – 5:40 # "Whitewater" (Beckenstein) – 6:12 # "Inside Your Love" (

Jeremy Wall Jeremy Wall is a musician, and along with Jay Beckenstein, was a founding member of the jazz fusion band Spyro Gyra. He contributed to the group as a pianist, producer, and composer. He is currently an assistant professor in the Music Industry de ...

) – 4:07 # "Nothing to Lose" (Beckenstein, Fernandez) – 5:03 # "Three Wishes" (Beckenstein) – 4:47 # "Gliding" (Beckenstein, Samuels) – 4:50 # "Cabana Carioca" (Wall) – 5:18 # "Rollercoaster" (

Tom Schuman Thomas William Schuman (born January 31, 1958) is an American jazz pianist, smooth jazz keyboardist, the co-leader, composer and arranger. of 13 Grammy nominated contemporary jazz group, Spyro Gyra. He has been the keyboardist for Spyro Gyra si ...

) – 4:29 # "Three Wishes (reprise)" (Beckenstein) – 1:41

Personnel

Spyro Gyra *

– saxophones *

– keyboards * Julio Fernández – guitars *

Scott Ambush Scott Antel Ambush is an American musician, best known as the bass player of jazz fusion band Spyro Gyra. Biography He was born April 28, 1960 in Frederick, Maryland to Webster and Jeanette Lofton Ambush. He attended Urbana Elementary School in ...

– bass guitar * Joel Rosenblatt – drums *

–

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

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 timbre ...

Additional Personnel *

Sammy Figueroa Sammy Figueroa (born November 16, 1948, The Bronx, New York) is an American percussionist. At 18 he joined the band of bassist Bobby Valentín and also co-led the Brazilian/Latin fusion group Raíces. Selected Discography Larry Williams Larry Williams (born Lawrence Eugene Williams, a.k.a. Lawrence Edward Williams; May 10, 1935 – January 7, 1980) was an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer, songwriter, producer, and pianist from New Orleans, Louisiana. Williams ...

– saxophones *

Bill Reichenbach Jr. William Frank Reichenbach Jr. (born November 30, 1949) is an American jazz trombonist and composer. He is the son of Bill Reichenbach, who was the drummer for Charlie Byrd from 1962 to 1973. He is best known as a session musician for television, ...

– trombone, bass trumpet * Gary Grant – trumpet *

Jerry Hey Jerry Hey (born 1950) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, horn arranger, string arranger, orchestrator and session musician who has played on hundreds of commercial recordings, including Michael Jackson's '' Thriller'', ''Rock with You'', ...

– trumpet, horn arrangements

Production

* Jay Beckenstein – producer * Jeremy Wall – assistant producer *

Dave Grusin Robert David "Dave" Grusin (born June 26, 1934) is an American composer, arranger, producer, jazz pianist, and band leader. He has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record w ...

– executive producer * Larry Rosen – executive producer * Larry Swist – recording, engineer, mixing * Kevin Becka – assistant engineer * Tom Bender – assistant engineer * Doug Rose – assistant engineer *

Bob Ludwig Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has 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 Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...

– mastering * Michael Pollard – production coordinator * Andy Baltimore – creative director * David Gibb – graphic design * Scott Johnson – graphic design * Sonny Mediana – graphic design * Andy Ruggirello – graphic design * Dan Serrano – graphic design * Michael Cobb – illustrations * Frank Linder – photography Studios * Recorded at

BearTracks Studios BearTracks Recording Studio was a recording studio complex in Suffern, New York, owned by Jay Beckenstein of Spyro Gyra and built in the early 1980s. Operating from 1982 at 926 Haverstraw Road in Suffern, the studio is no longer in business. It ...

(Suffern, New York); Carriage House Studios (Stamford, CT); Lighthouse Studios (Los Angeles, California). * Mixed at BearTracks Studios and Lighthouse Studios. * Mastered 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 no ...

(New York City, New York).

References

External links

Spyro Gyra official web site
{{Authority control Spyro Gyra albums 1992 albums GRP Records albums