Lyle
Mays was my contemporary, and it was so sad to hear about his death
last week at the age of 66 from "a recurring illness". Lyle was an
integral part of The Pat Metheny Group for about 30 years, creating the
textures and colors that carried Pat's soaring guitar. His abilities
went far beyond jazz, and in many ways he was an under-appreciated
artist.
Here
is a live performance of their song, "September Fifteenth", dedicated
to Bill Evans. The song was recorded on their duo album, "As Falls
Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls," released in 1981. This live
performance is from 2000. About 5 minutes into this tune Lyle plays a
solo that is more Debussey and Ravel than Bill Evans; this is where his
heart lies.
Mays,
who cherished the technical and analytical aspects of his craft as well
as the improvisational part, also was a self-taught computer programmer
and architect who once designed a house for a relative.
During
a recent tour, Metheny said, he could tell that Mays had “had enough of
hotels, buses and so forth.” The lifestyle of constant touring is
challenging and takes a toll on musicians, Metheny said.
Mays
remained with the Pat Metheny Group until 2010—when he not only left
the group, but also began paying increasingly less attention to the
music business in general. “It’s not that I have a real desire
to leave the music industry—I kind of feel like the music industry has
left me. Or left all of us,” he said in a 2016 interview. “People don’t
want to pay for music anymore.”
No comments:
Post a Comment