Bill evans piano transcriptions3/18/2024 Mays also composed "Distance" for Pat Metheny Group’s Grammy-winning and RIAA-certified Gold album, Still Life (Talking) (1987, Geffen), "Mindwalk" in 2009 for renowned marimba player, Nancy Zeltsman, and previously "Somewhere in Maine" in 1988 for her duo with violinist Sharan Leventhal, Marimolin, and "Street Dreams 3" for his solo album, Street Dreams (Geffen, 1988) with top classical performers in New York City.Īpart from his work with Metheny, Mays formed his own trio with Marc Johnson (contrabass), Jack DeJohnette (drums), and Peter Erskine (drums) and formed the Lyle Mays Quartet with Marc Johnson or Eric Hochberg (contrabass), Mark Walker (drums), and Bob Sheppard (saxophone). He composed several contemporary classical pieces, such as "Twelve Days in the Shadow of a Miracle", a piece for harp, flute, viola, and synthesizer recorded in 1996 by the Debussy Trio. Mays was regarded by both professional musicians and music fans as one of the most innovative and creative jazz pianists and keyboardists, but he personally considered himself more of a serious contemporary composer with an advanced approach to classical music, harmonic aesthetics, and structural development through long forms. Lyle's Oberheim analog synth pad and his voice counting the second hand of a clock at the recording session, "55., 3.," which can be heard from the bridge part of " As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls (1981)," was used for Christian Dior's Fahrenheit Cologne commercials for almost 30 years, from 1988 to 2016. In 1985, Metheny's and Mays's compositions were performed by the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago in the critically-acclaimed production of Orphans by Lyle Kessler. Jeremy Fisher and Tale of Peter Rabbit, read by Meryl Streep. He also composed, performed, and recorded dramatic scores for children's audiobooks, such as East of the Sun, West of the Moon, with text narrated by Max von Sydow Moses the Lawgiver, told by Ben Kingsley The Lion and the Lamb, narrated by Amy Grant and Christopher Reeve and The Tale of Mr. Mays composed, orchestrated, and arranged as a core member of the Pat Metheny Group, playing piano, organ, synthesizers and, occasionally, trumpet, accordion, agogô bells, autoharp, toy xylophone, and electric guitar. In an interview with JAZZIZ magazine in 2016, Mays said he had been working as a software development manager because of changes in the music industry. Īfter the Pat Metheny Group’s long-form recording The Way Up in 2005, and the unofficial Songbook Tour in Europe and Japan in 2010, Mays decided to retire from public music performance, although he did perform at the Western Michigan University Jazz Club in 2010 and at a Ted Talk event at Caltech in 2011 with his own groups. The group had 23 Grammy nominations, winning the award 11 times. Mays had an extraordinary career as a core musical architect and sound designer of the group for more than three decades. In 1975, he met Pat Metheny at the Wichita Jazz Festival and soon afterward they co-founded the Pat Metheny Group. Īfter leaving the University of North Texas, Mays toured in the US and Europe with Woody Herman's Thundering Herd (big band) for approximately eight months. He composed and arranged for the One O'Clock Lab Band and was the composer and arranger for the Grammy Award-nominated album Lab 75. He attended the University of North Texas after transferring from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. īill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival and Filles de Kilimanjaro by Miles Davis (both recorded in 1968) were important influences. During his senior year of high school, at summer national stage band camp in Normal, Illinois, he was introduced to jazz pianist Marian McPartland. At the age of nine, he played the organ at a family member's wedding, and fourteen he began to play in church. His teacher allowed him to practice improvisation after the structured elements of the lesson were completed. His mother Doris played piano and organ, and his father Cecil, a truck driver, taught himself to play guitar by ear. He had four main interests: chess, mathematics, architecture, and music. While growing up in rural Wisconsin, Mays had a lot of curiosity but had to learn many things all by himself due to a lack of available resources and information. Portrait of Lyle Mays by Michel Delsol (1988) Metheny and Mays composed and arranged nearly all of the group's music, for which Mays won eleven Grammy Awards. Lyle David Mays (Novem– February 10, 2020) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and member of the Pat Metheny Group.
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