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Lyle Mays 1953 - 2020


HemiBeers
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Lyle was a long-time contributor with Pat Metheny. He died yesterday after a long illness. Pat and Lyle were a true team that clicked for many years. RIP.

 

https://www.billboar.../lyle-mays-obit

 

a sample of his brilliance....

 

Edited by HemiBeers
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Very sorry to hear it. Lyle was great. Too many people passing away too young ... :(
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I'm so sorry to hear this. I remember seeing The Pat Metheny Group on the Travels Tour in around 1983 at Meadowbrook Music Theater in the Detroit Metro area. I went with a couple of my band mates from high school. I was fortunate to see many great musicians at this intimate outdoor venue around that time period, JLP, Zappa, SRV, Buddy Rich, even Loretta Lynn, as well as many others. When we went to see The Pat Methany Group, we were stunned at how good they were. It was one of the few shows where we literally drove home and no one could say a word to each other. We would simply look at each other with stunned, knowing eyes and jaws on the floor, and mumble something like, wow... We had never witnessed that level of musicianship. I've certainly had my share of shows that left me speechless, many from the band we follow on this website, but this show was astounding at a whole new level for me at the time. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to see Lyle and The Pat Petheny Group, especially during such an impressionable point in my life.

 

RIP Lyle Mays

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I'm so sorry to hear this. I remember seeing The Pat Metheny Group on the Travels Tour in around 1983 at Meadowbrook Music Theater in the Detroit Metro area. I went with a couple of my band mates from high school. I was fortunate to see many great musicians at this intimate outdoor venue around that time period, JLP, Zappa, SRV, Buddy Rich, even Loretta Lynn, as well as many others. When we went to see The Pat Methany Group, we were stunned at how good they were. It was one of the few shows where we literally drove home and no one could say a word to each other. We would simply look at each other with stunned, knowing eyes and jaws on the floor, and mumble something like, wow... We had never witnessed that level of musicianship. I've certainly had my share of shows that left me speechless, many from the band we follow on this website, but this show was astounding at a whole new level for me at the time. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to see Lyle and The Pat Petheny Group, especially during such an impressionable point in my life.

 

RIP Lyle Mays

 

1983.07.12 - Rochester Hills, MI, United States - Oakland University, Howard C. Baldwin Memorial Pavilion - Meadow Brook Music Festival

 

This confirms the above mentioned tour date here, along with an article here.

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I'm so sorry to hear this. I remember seeing The Pat Metheny Group on the Travels Tour in around 1983 at Meadowbrook Music Theater in the Detroit Metro area. I went with a couple of my band mates from high school. I was fortunate to see many great musicians at this intimate outdoor venue around that time period, JLP, Zappa, SRV, Buddy Rich, even Loretta Lynn, as well as many others. When we went to see The Pat Methany Group, we were stunned at how good they were. It was one of the few shows where we literally drove home and no one could say a word to each other. We would simply look at each other with stunned, knowing eyes and jaws on the floor, and mumble something like, wow... We had never witnessed that level of musicianship. I've certainly had my share of shows that left me speechless, many from the band we follow on this website, but this show was astounding at a whole new level for me at the time. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to see Lyle and The Pat Petheny Group, especially during such an impressionable point in my life.

 

RIP Lyle Mays

 

1983.07.12 - Rochester Hills, MI, United States - Oakland University, Howard C. Baldwin Memorial Pavilion - Meadow Brook Music Festival

 

This confirms the above mentioned tour date here, along with an article here.

 

Thanks RushFanForever, that was the show! Appreciate the links. Particularly: $9.00 lawn / $11.50 Pavilion referenced in the pre-show article. Man, I miss those days... no wonder I saw so many shows back then!!!

 

I know I'll be throwing on "Travels" this weekend, as well as some other Pat Metheny with Lyle Mays.

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An eloquent post from Pat Metheny's facebook page regarding Lyle.

 

"As a few days have passed here, I am getting so many requests to comment on Lyle’s passing. Over the past hours, in response, I took a few moments to further reflect….

There was a valuable lesson I learned early on from my most important mentor, Gary Burton; when you start a group, you have an obligation to choose the best musicians you can possibly find. And then, if you are lucky, once you have great people in place, you have an even more important obligation; to create an environment for them to do their very best.

The mandate of the bandleader as I understood it from Gary, (and I believe he understood it from Stan Getz who got it from —… who got it from —…ad infinitum) was to offer the most talented players every opportunity to develop the things that they are most interested to the highest degree possible under your auspices; to create a platform that intersects with what your goals are as a leader, but also a zone that provides a world open to exploration and expansion for everyone. When the moment comes that that intersection is no longer in sight for either side of the equation, that is when it is time to make a change.

With Lyle, as with Steve Rodby, that moment never came. There was always plenty to talk about. In fact, it seemed infinite.

My initial attraction to Lyle’s talent came first and foremost by way of his sensational abilities as a piano player. And I noticed from the first time I heard him that his playing reflected a deep and natural sense of orchestration. From there, things naturally led to an unmatched ability to do a kind of on-the-spot arranging/orchestration that was unprecedented - only Joe Zawinul had explored that aspect of small group playing in similar ways that provided inspiration. As the mandate of what the group was to be naturally and quite organically embraced the emerging musical instrument technology of the times, a new kind of sound became possible. Importantly, Lyle also carried a deep awareness of guitar - he was actually a very good guitar player, thanks to his dad, who also played. But he had so many skills and interests that paralleled mine, endless possibilities ensued.

Between the two of us, with Steve Rodby often as our essential and often unheralded guide, there was always a shared focus on the destination of music itself, and what an idea might become. Whenever we were working on anything or playing together in any capacity, it was always about it (the music), not us (the musicians).

I am so grateful for the time and music we shared together, and I am happy and proud that so much of it is well documented. People always ask if there might have been more. The answer is yes. The lifestyle of going out on the road night after night, for sometimes hundreds of nights at a time, is not for everyone and has real challenges - it is never easy for anyone and it is almost impossible to describe what it is really like. But, no matter what was happening in the day-to-day of it all, Lyle always gave it his all on the bandstand.

We did a brief round of gigs a while back, and it was clear in every way that he had had enough of hotels, buses, and so forth. But we had talked about doing a part 2 of “Wichita” at some point, there was a really wacky almost indescribably odd project that came up a few years back (maybe someday I will talk about it in detail) and we both agreed it could be a fun thing for us to do together, but in the end it didn’t pan out. No doors were ever shut between us.

I absolutely respected his privacy over all our time together, and it became a primary thing for me to protect that in recent years, as it will be going forward. As I wrote earlier. I will miss him with all my heart.

In addition to everything else; Lyle, Steve, and I were friends for going on half a century, and together we shared many of the ups-and-downs of our lives together here on the planet, on and off the bandstand. I am most grateful for that above all.

Thank you for all the amazing outreach at this difficult time. Steve, Aubrey, and I and his extended family appreciate the heartfelt condolences we are getting from around the world."

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I'm so sorry to hear this. I remember seeing The Pat Metheny Group on the Travels Tour in around 1983 at Meadowbrook Music Theater in the Detroit Metro area. I went with a couple of my band mates from high school. I was fortunate to see many great musicians at this intimate outdoor venue around that time period, JLP, Zappa, SRV, Buddy Rich, even Loretta Lynn, as well as many others. When we went to see The Pat Methany Group, we were stunned at how good they were. It was one of the few shows where we literally drove home and no one could say a word to each other. We would simply look at each other with stunned, knowing eyes and jaws on the floor, and mumble something like, wow... We had never witnessed that level of musicianship. I've certainly had my share of shows that left me speechless, many from the band we follow on this website, but this show was astounding at a whole new level for me at the time. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to see Lyle and The Pat Petheny Group, especially during such an impressionable point in my life.

 

RIP Lyle Mays

 

thats some good shit! I have had a few experiences like that. most notably ozric tentacles

 

I saw pat late 80s in buffalo ny.

 

RIP Lyle

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