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Lyle Mays
Background information
Birth name	Lyle David Mays
Born	(1953-11-27) November 27, 1953 (age 65) Wausaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, jazz fusion, contemporary classical
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, software manager
Instruments	Keyboards
Years active	1975–present
Labels	ECM, Geffen, Warner Bros., Naxos
Associated acts	Pat Metheny Group

Lyle David Mays (born November 27, 1953) is an American jazz pianist and composer best known as a member of the Pat Metheny Group.^[1][2] Metheny and Mays composed and arranged nearly all of the group's music, for which Mays has won eleven Grammy Awards.^[3]

Biography

While growing up, Mays had four main interests: chess, mathematics, architecture, and music. His parents were musically inclined – his mother was a pianist, his father was a guitarist – and he was able to study the piano with the help of instructor Rose Barron. She allowed Mays the opportunity to practice improvisation after the structured elements of the lesson were completed. At age 9 he played organ at a family member's wedding, and at age 14 he began to play organ in church.^[4] In summer camp he was introduced to important jazz artists.^[3]

Bill Evans' album Live in Montreux and Miles Davis' album Filles de Kilimanjaro were important influences on his formation as a jazz musician. He graduated from the University of North Texas after attending the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.^[5][6][7] He composed and arranged for the One O'Clock Lab Band and was the composer and arranger of Grammy-nominated album Lab 75.^[8]

After leaving North Texas, Mays toured with Woody Herman's group for approximately eight months. In 1974, he met Pat Metheny with whom he later founded the Pat Metheny Group. Mays has won eleven Grammy Awards with the Pat Metheny Group and has been nominated for four others for his own work.^[9]

In an interview with JAZZIZ magazine in 2016, Mays revealed his current career as a software manager.^[10]

Work

In the Pat Metheny Group, Mays provides arrangements, orchestration, and the harmonic and metric backbone of the group's musical signature. He occasionally performs on electric guitar as well. He played trumpet on the songs "Forward March" and "Yolanda You Learn" from the album First Circle (1984) and during the tour for that album.^[3]

His albums as a leader reflect a variety of interests. Lyle Mays and Street Dreams build on the content of the Pat Metheny Group, while Fictionary is a straight-ahead jazz trio session featuring fellow North Texan Marc Johnson on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums.

He has also composed and recorded music for children's records, such as Tale of Peter Rabbit, with text read by Meryl Streep.^[3]

The Steppenwolf Theater Company of Chicago featured an assortment of compositions by Lyle Mays and Pat Metheny for their production of Lyle Kessler's play Orphans.^[11]

He has composed classical music 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).^[12]

Instruments

Mays plays a Steinway Grand Piano with built-in MIDI. He has used an Oberheim 8 Voice Synth, a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, Kurzweil K250, Korg DW-8000, Korg Triton keyboards, and many more.

Select discography

Solo

• 
  Lyle Mays (Geffen, 1986)


• 
  Street Dreams (Geffen, 1988)


• 
  Fictionary (Geffen, 1993)


• 
  Solo: Improvisations for Expanded Piano (Warner Bros., 2000)


• 
  The Ludwigsburg Concert (Naxos, 2016)

Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays

• 
  As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls (ECM, 1981)

Pat Metheny Group

Pat Metheny

• 
  Watercolors (ECM, 1977)


• 
  Secret Story (Geffen, 1992)

As sideman

• 
  The Sound of the Wasp, Phil Wilson (ASI, 1975)


• 
  Home, Steve Swallow (ECM, 1979)


• 
  Shadows and Light, Joni Mitchell (Asylum, 1980)


• 
  Later That Evening, Eberhard Weber (ECM, 1982)


• 
  When Elephants Dream of Music, Bob Moses (Gramavision, 1982)


• 
  Girl at Her Volcano, Rickie Lee Jones (Warner Bros., 1983)


• 
  Contemplación, Pedro Aznar (Tabriz, 1984)


• 
  Mrs. Soffel, film soundtrack, released on Film Music, Mark Isham (Windham Hill, 1985)


• 
  Betty Buckley, Betty Buckley (Rizzoli, 1986)


• 
  The Story of Moses, Bob Moses (Gramavision, 1987)


• 
  Heritage, Earth, Wind & Fire (Columbia, 1990)


• 
  Medicine Music, Bobby McFerrin (EMI, 1990)


• 
  Premonition, Paul McCandless (Windham Hil, 1991l)


• 
  Live in Warsaw (1976), Woody Herman (Storyville, 1992)


• 
  Falling Out, Igor Butman (Impromptu, 1994)


• 
  Points of View, Nando Lauria (Narada, 1994)


• 
  Noa, Noa (Geffen, 1994)


• 
  East Coast West Coast, Toots Thielemans (Private Music, 1994)


• 
  Schemes and Dreams, Pat Coil (Sheffield Lab, 1994)


• 
  Fifteen Year Anniversary, Betty Buckley (K.O., 2000)

See also

• Jim Beard


• Russell Ferrante


• Joe Zawinul

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lyle Mays.

• 
  Lyle Mays: Shop Talk at JazzTimes
  


• The Low Down on The Way Up – The making of The Way Up