Celebrating a half century of modern contemporary jazz, Jay Beckenstein’s Spyro Gyra releases a two disc retrospective that also includes a handful of previously unreleased tunes. Of the latter, the upbeat “50/50” has the team of Beckenstein with Julio Fernandez/g, Chris Fischer/key, Scott Ambush/b and Lionell COrdew/dr in warm fashion, a tropical “Morning Dance” with Beckenstein’s alto tamed with Dave Samuels/ steel drum, and a samba’d “Shaker Song” focusing on the leader’s warm alto. Beckenstein’s soprano glistens on “Song For Lorrain” and “It Doesn’t M atter”, while switching around the reeds on “Sunflurry”. The attractive aspect of this anthology is the mix of melody and accessibility, while never falling into the trap of smooth jazz’s “elevator music” abyss. Smooth in the good way.