After four decades, Spyro Gyra gives the jazz world something it didn’t expect.

Spyro Gyra’s jazz-crossover 1979 Morning Dance (the title track was No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart) marked the outfit’s first taste of commercial success. It was also their last. And that’s cool with founding member, saxophonist Jay Beckenstein.

“I think that’s worked really well for us,” he says. “It’s a beautiful thing; we don’t have to play hits every time we’re on stage because we haven’t had any since ‘Morning Phase.’”

Spyro Gyra may have never burned up the pop charts, but they have managed to quietly sell more than 10 million loud copies of their 30 albums – plus a pair of gold records and one platinum. They’ve also piled up a dozen Grammy nods, including a string of four consecutive years from 2007-2010. Awards and sales are somewhat gratifying, but Beckenstein is more proud of the fact that Spyro Gyra is still going strong after 40 years.

“A lot of things have to go right,” Beckenstein while crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge toward home in Westchester, New York. “After all these years, everybody is kind and supportive and wants to work as a group. That’s testimony to a good creative work environment.”

He believes Spyro Gyra’s longevity is a direct result of the band’s ability to stay true to their art as they were scoring platinum records, even as execs pushed for the group to bring on a vocalist.

“We didn’t want to be some pop conglomeration,” Beckenstein says. “We wanted to be a creative ensemble.”

Seems the frontman cares just as much about fitting into a specific genre as he does about writing mainstream hits.

“The hell with categories,” Beckenstein says. “I have my own category and it’s called Spyro Gyra.”

While smooth jazz and fusion are genres ascribed to the band, Beckenstein avoids labels. Their most recent album, The Rhinebeck Sessions, was written and recorded over a three-day period of improvising. Inspired by those magical fleeting moments – that can happen during soundchecks­­ – was Spyro Gyra’s first song co-written by the entire band. From start to finish, the self-financed record is laden with uptempo funk, hard-bop rhythms and high-energy sharp grooves. Sessions comes from a planet nowhere near the solar system Spyro Gyra’s previous work hails from. Though Beckenstein doesn’t know what it’ll be, he thinks the next album may go even further out there.

“Another reason we’re still around is because we never know what we’re going to do next,” he says.

SPYRO GYRA 8pm Friday, Feb. 6. Sunset Center, San Carlos at Ninth, Carmel. $39; $49; $59. 620-2048.