Mark Egan tribute to Lyle Mays

all right and if we talk about the Pat Metheny band I think we should talk about Mile maze we lost Lyle a few days ago and since you recorded a couple of albums with him and you were on the road with him for a while you know 300 days a year maybe you can say a few things about Lyle Mays you know something about his tremendous musical gifts something about him just as a person maybe there's a story or to know while you think about that let me share the one Lyle Mays story that I had and he was a piano player with the Woody Herman man and one night they played at my high school and what I remember is earlier in the day Lyle was at the piano I guess I walked into this and he was given kind of an impromptu clinic and what I most remember was him sitting there and and playing changes and saying this is how budwood played and this is how chick would play it and this is how Bill Evans would play it and so on you know when I came away from that knowing that I just saw probably for the first time a seriously talented jazz player in person you know and and I've held that experience in my head whenever I think about really knowing the music vocabulary do I really know it you know do I really know the distinctions and great players anyway that made a huge impression Fineman and that's what Lyle meant personally to me from from a long time so I guess you know maybe share your perspective on that maybe any stories that come to mind about about loud yes it was very sad news to hear about while most of the time that I spent with Lao was during the Pat Metheny group we were in touch but I didn't see him that much after I left a group in 1980 so but having played together for four years 300 days a year we were in close contact and well I was always why was a genius and I use that term very rarely you know and he really was a genius and just in this how he at that clinic you said that he showed people you could like 11 they could sound like no trickery or miles whoever Herbie Hancock he was a an incredible student of music and of jazz and he was very driven and not only in his piano study but also in his compositional study and even wrote for North Texas State for the big band before he went on to play with the Pat Metheny group woody Herman's fan um but Lau was I was very serious and he was very always studying and always a student of the music and but not only music he would be studying architecture on the road and studying train layouts you know whatever he did he did it to the fullest I've never seen anyone that quite had that type of burning energy you know if he played foosball he was a he was a champion pool player he studied pool and he was one of the top 16 in the world I think dan agape Tom he was it was heavy whatever he did he played juggled used to juggle we need to do sound checks or you know waiting for the sound check would be juggling three or four balls and you know he he was that type of person he was the most driven person in a good way about really really getting to the center of things and finding out every aspect of it and mastering it and when Lyle applied himself to have the Feeney's music unto Lyle and Pat's music into orchestrating Lyle created a whole backdrop for the Pat Metheny group that really made that sound of that band I mean you had the components of Pat's great sound was his his touch first of all his guitar touch the sound that he got with his digital eyes and his stereo imaging and just while his Pat's touch but then Lyle the way that he orchestrated around it and came up with parts and you can it's well documented on YouTube and videos and on the records but when you see him pet on these concerts you know he's playing three or four party at the Oberheim synthesizers going back and forth between the grand piano in the auto harlot then another synthesizer and he's just his mind was just wired to he was a real genius and one of the nicest people you'd ever know could ever me you know it's very compassionate so you know he'll be missed and like I said I wasn't in touch with him that much since I left the band but I always felt close to him and I was I feel real fortunate that I was able to be in his presence and learn so much from him because he taught me a lot about harmony and rhythm and melody and just by example by what he did in that band because for instance the beginning line of San Lorenzo that he wrote that you know and I played it on the record recorded it and doubled it you know it stood on the intro that's doubled twice doubled months don't double but so you know he'll be missed his music lives on and his spirit lives on like all other musicians and great artists that we know you know thankfully there's they've left that in their tracks you know for us to follow so really fortunate to be around him and you know when when Danny got we did called me when he had heard about it and so we have been in touch a lot because we were in that original band together Danny went on to play a few more years after I left for be on by you know talking about all the times and he brought up a lot of great stories that I had forgotten about that Lyle vice-versa with me and a very very very evolved person yeah well thank you very much that was a that was a beautiful tribute to him he will good missed [Music]

Channel: Music Savvy

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Id: xSTBml_oiec

Length: 6min 51sec (411 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 25 2020