"I've been a fan of Lyle’s writing and playing forever and It was somewhat daunting to play a keyboard with Lyle listening. He's truly shaped the landscape of piano and synth playing forever. So proud and honoured to play rhythm keys to Lyles lead. I'm honoured to have gotten to know him as a friend.". Mitchel Forman.
From a TEDX performance in 2011.
Lyle Mays has been an integral part of the Pat Metheny Group since its inception in 1977, and has co-written much of the consistently engaging music for the multi-Grammy-winning group's albums. Lyle's sense of melody, crystal clear virtuosity and almost cinematic scope of orchestration has clearly distinguished the group's sound. Born into a musical family in Wausaukee, Wisconsin, in 1953, he was always encouraged to explore new forms of expression. As a teenager, Lyle attended jazz summer camps and studied with such talents as Rich Matteson and Marian McPartland. He then studied composition and arrangement at North Texas State University before touring with Woody Herman's Thundering Herd. While appearing at the 1975 Wichita Jazz Festival, Lyle met twenty-year-old guitarist Pat Metheny, and the two formed a musical alliance that has proven to be among the most artistically successful of the past three-plus decades.
I was fortunate to have seen Lyle play live many times over a period of 25 years... accompanying Pat Metheny and other wonderful musicians.
Here's a classic track and performance.
I also have all of Lyle's solo albums which are varied and creative and wonderful.
When watching concerts, a highlight was when you knew Lyle was going into one of his piano solos...
Lyle Mays was a key member of Pat Metheny's band for many years.
A favourite piece of music is 'Close to Home' from Lyle's first solo album - could easily have been a PM Group piece... capturing that feeling of getting close to home... also check out his tribute to the bass player Eberhard Weber - more on him to come in future blog posts.
And here's a classic performance from a jazz festival performance similar to one I had on VHS back in the day.
A song called Ozark which featured Pat and Lyle along with the wonderful Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos (playing a berimbau - a Brazilian percussion instrument made with a dried gourd) who I saw playing with Andy Sheppard. Check out that piano solo....
No comments:
Post a Comment