The Mantle of Mays

Lyle Mays Quartet - Chorinho

I know I've been away for awhile but I am still alive, and here goes the first of several posts in a row to prove it.

These will all feature people I've covered as part of other groups before, but never on their own, as we pass 900 posts on this page this weekend.

This lovely looking chap amidst all the keyboards is someone I've always known deserved his own showcase here, so let's orchestrate his 72nd woulda-birthday today as a means to that end.

He left us a few years ago, but his music is so impeccably composed and timeless he'll never really fully depart the premises.

Of course everyone knows him from Pat Metheny's many groups, with him having essentially filled the role of PM's main collaborator over the course of multiple decades.

I'm kind of a heretic -- don't tell Pat -- but I actually prefer the music of Lyle Mays to his. Well, it's not that I don't love Pat Metheny. I just dig Lyle Mays a little bit more!

For me, Lyle's Fictionary record -- today's share fare dates from this period -- is as good as any PMG album I can think of. And I love me some New Chatauqua and am always down to fall into that Wichita Falls LP.

The touch, the harmonically daring sophistication clothed in an accessible simplicity, the beautiful and sensitive, dynamically varied compositions... I always thought Lyle Mays was the modern heir to Bill Evans, honestly.

Anyway he was born on this very day in 1953, so we're gonna fire up this unbelievable remaster my by idol PervFesser Goody, who was kind enough to supply me with his pitch-corrected version of this topnotch concert.

Lyle Mays Quartet

Jazz Jamboree 

Sala Kongresowa

Warsaw, Poland

10.25.1993

01 Hard Eights

02 Falling Grace

03 Chorinho

04 LM remarks

05 Suite:

   a) Disbelief

   b) Are We There Yet?

   c) Au Lait

06 LM remarks

07 Fictionary

08 August

Total time: 1:13:35

Lyle Mays - piano

Bob Sheppard - saxophones & flute

Marc Johnson - bass

Mark Walker - drums

 

PervFesser Goody's pitch-corrected remaster of an off-air capture of an FM broadcast of indeterminate origin
425 MB FLAC/direct link

This performance hits all the spots, with a great recording and a near-perfect capture from Polish radio.

Look out for Bob Sheppard -- not the Yankees announcer from last century, despite the stoopid baseball pun in the title of this post -- blowing his brains clear out of Warsaw's Sala Kongresowa on saxes and flute.

I'll be back with some more tomorrow, for post #900. I reckon that, with any luck, I should get to 1000 sometime before the sun explodes.

Meantime, let's commemorate the 72nd b'day of this legendary keyboard king with these 73 highly representative minutes of what made Lyle Mays a first ballot hall of famer in his own right!--J.

11.27.1953 - 2.10.2020