Posted on 02/11/2020 9:15:26 PM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder
Lyle Mays, a keyboardist, composer and orchestrator who helped carve a new channel for contemporary jazz with The Pat Metheny Group, died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 66.
His niece, jazz vocalist Aubrey Johnson, announced his death on social media, noting that he passed away “surrounded by loved ones, after a long battle with a recurring illness.”
[excerpt]
Lyle was an incredible musician and a synthesizer pioneer. Most commercial synthesizers have at least one sound named after Lyle. Check out the piano solo on Pat Metheny’s “Phase Dance” or the long-term “As Falls Witchita Falls” to hear his brilliance.
Cannot remember where, but I really do remember the name Lyle Mays.
Unfortunately most of my Pat Matheny stuff is LP vinyl stored without a way to play it.
I had just posted my own thread
A Tribute to Lyle Mays 1953-2020
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3815724/posts
Been a fan for over 40 years, discovered them on TV one day, when I heard “San Lorenzo” for the first time.
Sorry to hear. One of the band members lived up the street from me when we were growing up, Steve Rodby.
RIP.
So sorry to hear this. Really an awesome cat.
Buy a record player. They’re available. Lots of folks are getting back into their old vinyl.
Some marvelous journeys to be had for sure.
bookmark
Get yourself a TEAC & record your vinyls onto CDs. (Other companies produce similar devices which DO NOT WORK, trust me. Get the TEAC.)
Sorry to hear this! He was amazing with that keyboard set up. I saw him several times with the Pat Metheny Group. RIP
Mays and Metheny created two of my ten “take them to a desert island” albums. “As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls” is mesmerizing, worthy of the nearly daily listening I have given it for the past almost 40 years.
https://www.npr.org/2010/07/30/15124540/pat-metheny-on-piano-jazz.
Never heard of him. But for the link deprived...
Not often able to say this, but Mays was the equal of any classical concert pianist, and a credit to the heightening of jazz into the realm of music that is inexhaustible across the generations.
I posted this on another thread before it was pulled.
Wow. So sad. Incredibly talented man. RIP.
I learned “Letter From Home” on piano per my hubby’s request years ago.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hv8kXOMaaU
The music ebbs and flows like a loved-one reading a letter from someone far away. Just beautiful.
Just curious, did you learn the tune from the record by ear or did you learn by reading sheet music?
I for one like Lyle’s music with Metheny more than his solo work...not to disparage his solo work at all. But as one who has known and been a fan of Metheny since the early 70’s (before Lyle joined with him) he was such a fantastic accompanyist, eg; sideman.
Metheny, if you read about his career, led such a charmed life. Meeting Jaco Pastorius as the first one he met at Berklee, for one thing. I think Lyle had a tremendous influence on Metheny, in terms of Metheny’s musical development over the years. I play guitar, and I can tell you that I’d be a far better player if I had a sidekick like Lyle Mays or even 25% of Lyle Mays as a steady accompanyist over the years.
My endocrinologist
A split tail
Is Pat Methenys first cousin
When I first met her before I could finish the question she said cousin ..lol
For twinkle fingers I’m more McLaughlin than Metheny
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