Born: May 14, 1951 Primary Instrument: Saxophone
Jay Beckenstein (born in Brooklyn, New York) is a saxophone player, smooth jazz artist and together with Jeremy Wall founded Spyro Gyra. He also owned a studio in New York that was called BearTracks Studios.
He also played the saxophone solo on American progressive metal band Dream Theater's “Another Day”, from the album Images and Words and single version of song “Through her Eyes”, from the album Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. He also played a solo part in “Take Away My Pain” on the live album Once in a Livetime as well as “Another Day” during the performance of Metropolis 2000: Scenes from New York.
Jay's mother was an opera singer and his father's love of jazz introduced him to Charlie Parker and Lester Young when he was a baby. He started playing the piano at age 5 when he moved to Farmingdale, LI. He was given his first saxophone at the age of 7. He received a BA in music from the University at Buffalo in 1973.
