Lyle Mays
May 2001

Part 1
Part 2

"There's times when I get done with a tour and I'm just exhausted. Plus, I don't quite see the virtue in just being busy all the time. I've a lot of other interests and I guess I don't feel a particular pressure to have a career. I'm just interested in exploring music."

Solo
Warner Bros
2000

By Mike Brannon

What if you were to look beyond the obvious of what you normally do each day, and you learned to see beyond? What if your mind, and ears were always open yet you stayed deeply focused and unwavering from your concentration on the moment?

For Lyle Mays, it was to pull that which is not obvious from the piano to create the improvised compositions of his long-awaited new record, "Solo - Improvisations for Expanded Piano". Yet at the same time, this what he has always done with the Pat Metheny Group: surprise us...baffle, mystify, intrigue and inspire.

Extremely thoughtful, intelligent, articulate, insightful and thoughtful in nature, yet with energy, soul and a quirky sense of humor, Mays is also principled, as evidenced by his attitude regarding the absence of the monumental works of Weather Report (and others) from the recent Ken Burn's Jazz 'documentary' (which also 'overlooked' all of jazz guitar - save Wes and Jim Hall - the organ groups, the avant guard, fusion and the 70's altogether). In listening to Mays, you hear the strains and references to the countapuntal music tradition of Europe but used in the unconventional context of high energy, real-time improvisation. All the traditional techniques far older than the jazz idiom, with which he is most closely associated, are continuously reworked, re-invented and used to great effect in the PMG (hey, long hair is still long hair).

Upon hearing Mays latest record, "Solo...", it should come as no surprise that his interests extend to things beyond music, and which bring new perspective to it, least of all his interest in architecture (particularly Wright), to the point of having designed his sister's home. The similarity in the reference both to the design and creation of structure and form in the abstract, from the ground up, is clear. And this is what Mays is all about... creation of structure: the new from the old and back again. It's all relative. He makes it very clear that you can get to anywhere from anywhere else and everyone does this in their own way.

Though an integral part of the Pat Metheny Group as a player for over a generation, Lyle Mays' focus remains primarily on composition and arranging. Sifting for what's new and unusual and presenting it in ever more creative ways. While Metheny is the obvious predominant force in that group, it's due to May's and the band's setting and support that Metheny's brilliance shines as well as it does. And vice versa. It's symbiotic, as the best, most lasting and timeless collaborations are.

One of the most talented and underated composers and improvisors remains so in part due to the lack of a need to strive for attention in a business where that could easily keep a career from even starting. Between the endless touring and thinking outside the box with the PMG, Mays recently managed to release his fourth solo recording, which truly is a solo piano excursion, yet in its own way, as ambitious an album as he has done to date. It's anything but a traditional piano record, as it was mostly improvised. At times there are as many as a hundred tracks flowing in and out of the audible range, yet what is heard are mostly the central instrument with influences ranging from Evans and Jarrett to Stravinsky, Ravel and Berg, but all as only Mays could direct.

May's first record ("Lyle Mays") remains a testament to creativity and nuance in the pursuit of evocation of mood and imagery. The casting of impressionists Bill Frisell, Billy Drews and others was almost as much a part of the compositional process for this music as the scores themselves. They were trusted to carry out a very unique and specific vision. With Frisell again emplyed as foil, this continued into the next release, "Street Dreams" where Lyle really shines in the extensions and answers of what the first release posed and promised.

This takes us to "Fictionary", May's previous release with the interactive brilliance of Jack Dejohnette and Marc Johnson, which is as untraditional a trio record as you're likely to find.

And finally, "Solo", a somewhat misunderstood recording of brilliance, release, exposure, confrontaion and dark beauty where Mays allows psyche and sensibility, soul vs. symmetry and precision to travel across the keyboard in an improvised, real-time journey of personal discovery. Among the other notable projects Lyle has been involved with are the film score to "Falcon and the Snowman", Steve Swallow's "Home", Rickie Lee Jones "Girl at Her Volcano", "Later That Evening" Eberhard Weber, Currently Mays and Metheny are sequestered away in New York writing for the sessions that will be the next Pat Metheny Group record (with new drummer Antonio Sanchez). The expected street date is for this Summer with a support tour to follow.

AAJ: I was surprised you're out in LA. How’s that working out for you?

LM: Well, its beautiful out here and I'm lovin’ it.

AAJ: Yeah? How long's it been?

LM: Its been about...over three years now, close to four.

AAJ: How much a part of what you do is instinct...would you say?

LM: Ah...one of the best questions anyone's asked me. It gets to the nature of instinct and how we train ourselves, because I don't think we're born with musical instincts. I think we need to be exposed to things, to study things, to have musical experience before the word 'instinct' even applies. So, what I've said in the past is that I view soloing or composition or almost any musical endeavor... sort of like withdrawing from a bank account. And its like the more that you invested, over the years, the bigger the withdrawal you can make when it comes time to make that withdrawal.

AAJ: That's a good analogy.

LM: So having said that, I would say that there's a fair amount of instinct going on, especially in improvisation, because its almost instantaneous, its almost thinking in real time. You might be able to think a fraction of a second ahead of what you play but that's about it. So I'd say in improvisation instinct is a huge part, but its with the caveat I mentioned before.

AAJ: Right. I guess I've heard it said that that some of the better improvisers in Jazz history supposedly were said to have been thinking way ahead.

LM: Well, the great grandmaster, chess grandmaster, Emanual Lasker, was asked how many moves he thought ahead and his answer was wonderful, he said 'just one, but its always the best one'.

AAJ: (laughs)

LM: I love that.

AAJ: Its perfect.

LM: Because it debunks the notion that deep thought is somehow so advanced in time.

AAJ: I was going to ask you about your influences. You've mentioned Jarrett, Evans, Chick, Herbie, Paul Bley...McGlaughlin, Zappa, Stravinsky, Bartok. How have these affected your sound and conception? How have they each made an impression on you?

LM: Well...again, some caveats. In the past I've often been asked which piano players influenced me and I'd glad you broadened this out. In the past I think it was a mistake to simply answer which piano players had influenced me because that's such a small part of the influence. I would say I'm influence by improvised thought and also compositional thought. I listen to a whole lot of Classical music, so, I mean its probably such a broad question I'm not sure I can answer it or do justice to it in just this one phone call. Suffice it to say that I've been influenced by a lot of things and not just playing. And I dot think of my jazz playing as coming from a players standpoint. I'm trying to always think more compositionally.

AAJ: Right. I've heard you say that you never set out to be a player, per se.

LM: Yeah, and I still dot, in a sense that I dot practice playing, like an athletic event. I'll try to keep the mind in shape. I'll try to keep the flow from the mind to the hands in some kind of shape. But I'm a little afraid of practicing certain things for fear that it would come out when I went to improvise and wouldn't really be what I was thinking at that moment. It would be some kind of habit or something.

AAJ: I'm sure there are a lot of players that would afraid of the opposite: that it wouldn't come out...what they practice.

LM: Well, I'm not advocating it. It works for me, you know. I cant, you know (laughs) I don't feel right telling people not to practice, I guess.

AAJ: It seems like you're more interested in keeping the mental aspect sharp than just going through the rote licks with your fingers all the time.

LM: And I seem to be very lucky in that, you know, the hands usually respond.

AAJ: Yeah, well I guess everything coming from the mind anyway. If you think that way then that tells the fingers what to do. What do you tend to listen to these days?You mentioned the Classical.

LM: Yeah, unfortunately almost nothing current. There's very little out there... although Oregon's got a very interesting record out they did with an orchestra in Moscow. And I tend to like ambitious (laughs) projects in general, so, plus I'm really a fan of Paul McCandless.

AAJ: Sure. I know you did a record with him.

LM: Yeah, I think he's a really thoughtful player. A very interesting musical soul. I used to listen to a fair amount of Brazilian music but I feel almost like modern Brazilian music has gotten too Americanized. Its kind of lost its charm for me, as opposed to the early Milton (Nascimento) stuff.

AAJ: Its gotten kind of a homogeneity with all the American groups co-opting it.

LM: Yeah, its interesting. I mean there's still some very talented players down there but I'm not as much of a fan as I was. I guess I keep going back to Brahms and Bach and Stravinsky and Ravel and Debussey.

AAJ: Bartok.

LM: Bartok, Berg. Love Berg's music, especially the violin concerto, But I have this disc network system and they have one of the greatest jazz radio stations I've ever heard. They play a lot of Bluenote era stuff. Completely without commercial interruption - no DJ - its just one hip cut after another. I take lot of pleasure in that.

AAJ: I live on that stuff.

LM: Well, you should check it out...on a personal level. I mean its really the greatest jazz radio station ever, plus, on the screen while the music is playing, they show the artist, the record, the label, the title, I forget... Its really pretty hip.

AAJ: I did an interview with Pat a long time ago and he mentioned that he will tend to start a piece and of course, you may finish it - of course that may be a real generic way of describing how you work - and then arrange and orchestrate them. Do you still work this way?

LM: What I've said in the past is that the way we work together keeps evolving, keeps changing. Its hard to pin down. We've tried everything from sitting together to write together to going off into other rooms or each trying to come up with everything (laughs) and we've done a little bit of everything, I guess. What doesn't work is sitting down together and say, ok we're gonna write something together. What seems to have to happen is one or the other has to come up with a mood or a melody or some defining sort of ... musical nugget...that is really the main element of the piece. And then we can each add details later, but that impulse for the piece, the sort of reason for being...its ming (laughs), its thing, whatever has to come from one or the other.

AAJ: So did you tend to bring these to each other... just play them off tapes or the Synclavier or how does that work?

LM: Yeah, we both tend to make sequencer demos - real rough - of an idea. Usually not too complete...so that they can be really finished later. Like I say, we're tried everything, we've tried all sorts of things.

AAJ: I think its attributed to Picasso saying that 'try everything, but only once'. I don't know if you've heard that one. I liked that.

LM: (laughs) That's very interesting. Certainly good advice.

AAJ: How do you go about composing music for yourself? Is it any different?

LM: Oh, I wish I knew (laughs).

AAJ: You can still say that. You can still put it that way.

LM: Oh yeah. At some level its mysterious to me. But I guess its a two stage process. There's the dreaming and the editing and I think you have to be good at both to write music. You have to let your mind go so those unexpected thoughts can come in. But you also have to be able to recognize what's good about a thought; throw out what's not, expand on what's good; find continuations. I guess in that kind of general way that's the way I go about writing. I'm not sure I said anything.

AAJ: Yeah, you did actually. You've said before that basically you're never going to write again every time you're trying to write, you know. I think a lot of writers say that. I think they feel that terror you're talking about.

LM: Well, I think, yeah, I've heard that too and I think its because its such a mysterious process. We really cant codify it.

AAJ: But why all that self doubt? I mean, how much material do you have to amass before you stop feeling that way each time you sit down?

LM: Well, lets clarify it a little bit. I'm not scared that I can't come up with anything anymore.

AAJ: well, I mean, up to your (minimum) standards.

LM: Yeah, that it wouldn't be up to my standards.

AAJ: But then there is writer's block, too.

LM: That's true. Its a very real thing. I mean, there some times when I've committed to a project and I've sat down to start it and nothing comes. And I'll just sit at my rig (laughs) and put in the time, you know. I mean I wont...I know I'm gonna have to come up with it. Try different things. I guess at some point there's no substitution for just sticking to it.

AAJ: Do you ever find yourself just needing to like: 'I just gotta get out'; go see a movie or take a walk or something?

LM: Oh sure, there's times when that's helpful...but you know, there's a trap there, too, because you could end up just constantly distracting yourself (laughs).

AAJ: I know...its a balance.

LM: Yeah, at some point you have to back to the business of coming up with something. Its a fascinating thing, you know? I don't know.

AAJ: Was 'Falcon and the Snowman', you and Pat's first film score?

LM: Of any significance, yes.

AAJ: What was that experience like for you both?

LM: I was scared to death.

AAJ: Its incredible.

LM: Oh, well, thank you. I've been afraid at times that it was was a bit too musical and might've distracted at times from...

AAJ: That's a strange thing to say.

LM: Too complete, maybe, musically.

AAJ: Did you think distracting? is that what you're saying?

LM: I was afraid...people haven't really said that but, you know, we tried to make every little cue also have, tell a musical story, as well as fit with the film.

AAJ: I think that's a big point of film scoring.

LM: Well, there's also a time for music that doesn't really tell a story, its just part of the story being told.

AAJ: You don't want to give something away in advance, sure.

LM: Or tell a conflicting story. There is a danger there but in general it is a fascinating experience. The first (laughs) thing I did on my old Apple computer when we started work was to write a program that converted musical tempos into SMPTE duration's and frames so I could, you know, we could figure out how long a cue had to be. Now there's commercial software that does it.

AAJ: Of course. And you developed it...no, just kidding (laughs).

LM: No (laughs). I'm not Al Gore...I didn't invent the internet.

AAJ: (laughs) Does that mean you're not a Democrat?

LM: (laughs). I leave politics completely out of music.

AAJ: I do too. I'd just rather not be involved.

LM: But to complete the answer to your question: it was really hard work, really stimulating work. And an opportunity to use some forces that, up until then I hadn't really been able to use. Writing for that boys choir was a really interesting experience.

AAJ: I mean stylistically you guys have really gotten around now.

LM: Well, you know, we have wide ranging interests.

AAJ: I think that's real important to get what you've gotten, really. Why do you think you were approached for that project, having not done something that large of that nature...up to that point?

LM: Well, I would just say hats off to Schelsinger for having the courage to hire these two kids. Unproven.

AAJ: I'm sure he saw something.

LM: He's very smart about using music in films. Like 'Cowboys', who can forget that haunting theme, you know?

AAJ: Absolutely. I think what's really rare and impressive in what you do is something that many soloists in jazz don't do, which (for them) is sublimate the ego, where you sometimes say you will not go for the second solo, in lieu of new musical material.

LM: Well, I guess my motivation for it is concern for the listener. It makes for a more interesting musical experience...not a string of solos. My one criticism of traditional Jazz, these days. I guess when it was first developed it made sense, you know, people had things to say and you wanted to hear what each person had to say. But now, yeah, forty, fifty (laughs) years, you know, down the road, its like, let's find some new models, folks. That was then, this is now.

AAJ: Right. No, I think it makes a lot of sense and I'm surprised more people aren't doing it. I mean, I've heard Michael Brecker do it and very few others. Mike Stern, those kind of guys, you know, where they'll actually add some material between soloists, change the key, just actually put more thought into the structure (and journey).

LM: Yeah. I mean, when you think about a piece like, "Are You Going with Me?", you know, it has nothing to do with the traditional Jazz form.

AAJ: Right.

LM: If you tried to play that tune with a jazz band it would sound ridiculous (laughs). You know, the whole point is its Bolero-like build, you know? So, anyway, I've always been interested in putting some different kinds of forms into the jazz environment. And I think on "Imaginary Day" its kind of the pinnacle of that. Its fairly ambitious.

AAJ: On your own record, "Fictionary" you did "Falling Grace". I thought that was such a great choice. Besides the strong melody and emotional impact of a tune like this, are you attracted to the circular, through composition aspect? Did that have anything to do with it?

LM: Well, I'm a huge fan of Steve Swallow.

AAJ: Of course. Apparently that's the first tune he ever wrote. That's what I've heard. (Note: Steve Swallow confirmed "Falling Grace" was his second tune)

LM: Really? Hmm... I've never heard that. If that's true, that's incredible! I remember my first tune (laughs). No one else will!

AAJ: Well, I try not to remember my first one (laughs)...first ten or twenty.

LM: But, I love the form of "Falling Grace". But also the internal logic of the chord changes. I mean, there's references ... its almost like there's development within just the piece itself. Ideas get developed just in the flow of the chord changes. I find that very stimulating. That and the fact that its an attempt to be a modern tune. Its not a throwback tune, its not trying to be like early jazz, it is what it is. As a matter of fact, the whole record of "Fictionary" I was trying to say that this is not retro, this is not be-bop, this is trying to write modern tunes in a straight-eighth style to be played in the traditional trio...format. But I don't want to make a traditional trio record.

AAJ: Right. And looking at it...DeJohnette, and all, it looks like a traditional trio format ...but not the way you treated it.

LM: I think part of that was the compositional framework.

AAJ: Right. And your conception of what you've described before in that you're thinking: larger compositions, more extended type things and that came across I think in that record where it wouldn't in a lot of trios, where they're just blowin' changes.

LM: Yeah, I think take for example a piece like, "Lincoln Reviews his Notes". Its a very different kind of ensemble playing...rubato interspersed with a steady beat and very interactive playing. I mean, you can follow the form but its a very free interpretation of it. I was trying to stretch things a little bit, I guess.

AAJ: I think one of my favorite recordings period is actually your first one, with Bill Frisell. From the very first piece you get a sense of freedom and expansiveness in the way the pieces unfold. You get a sense that they can go anywhere and that they're timeless. I don't know how to better describe it.

LM: Those are very kind words.

AAJ: Thank you. Its very inspiring to listen to.

LM: Its a sentimental favorite of mine, too. There's an element of luck, I think, in that album in that that particular ensemble came together as a band very quickly; very little rehearsal. And still to this day, it sounds like a band, not just some guys that got together to make a record. And I can only thank the stars for that, 'cause that doesn't happen (laughs) very often

AAJ: Was there much rehearsal?

LM: There was enough for me to really get my ideas across about the dynamic shape of the piece and the stylistic areas that I wanted to explore, but those are very talented people. It took very little time (laughs) to get those ideas across. So, I guess they were pretty specific rehearsals and not really overly long.

AAJ: You really seem to have an affinity for guitarists. Frisell and Pat, especially, I guess. Is it the blend with strings that makes it work for you?

LM: I would say that Pat and Bill are two of the most non-guitarlike guitar players. They really transcend their instruments. What I'm drawn to is that they're not guitar players. They're much more than that. They can color music. Their sonorities are so different than the average guitar, so I guess, I'm not putting down guitar, I'm just saying, its not so much the nature of guitar its what individuals do with it.

AAJ: They happen to play guitar...

LM: And, yeah, they're great musicians; they happen to play guitar.

AAJ: That's true. How did you pick the players for that record? I mean, did you say to yourself, 'this has to be Bill Frisell's or it has to be someone who can get these sounds that are in my head?

LM: Well, I knew I wanted to use Frisell because I was just such a fan and I thought that his sensibilities would be perfect for the music. But after that Steve Cantor who's listed as the producer on the record did a lot of great things and talked a lot over the music, suggested a bunch of them. Of course I wanted to use my friend, Marc Johnson who I've been playing with since North Texas, and who I think has played everything I've ever written (laughs), at some point or another. Except the stuff with Pat, but I mean stuff I've written on my own. So, Steve Cantor really put that ensemble together. He has real gift a for envisioning what people would sound interesting with...together.

AAJ: Yeah, its amazing when you get a team behind the scenes and in the studio all working together so well to produce something like that. I mean, they had to, I would say. The new record, the 'Solo' record: you mentioned its the most honest thing you've done?

LM: Yes, I have said that and I'm not sure how people interpret it (laughs).

AAJ: Yeah, I was just going to say what is the importance of honesty to you, musically and personally. How does it manifest in your life and music?

LM: I don't think it has a big part. I mean, the actual root of the word 'art', is 'artifice'.You know, at times you want to make something that's isn't you...something that's beyond you. And I don't know if that's dishonest but I'm not a big fan of just raw honesty. I'm not really bragging about the record being honest, you know (laughs). I don't think its necessarily a virtue. It just happened to ...strike me - when I listened to it - as almost biographical. So, I'm probably getting more of that honesty out of it than other people. From another angle its very honest in that its what I was thinking at the time. There's no additional musical material, other than the overdubbed solo on the last piece, but again, that was what I was thinking at the time. And its also honest in that its a solo project but its really using the instrument as I've come to see it, which is the acoustic piano combined with the synth world. But I felt it was me performing on my instrument and along those lines a solo piano record wouldn't have been as honest, because I'm not really just a piano player. I don't devote my time to that.

AAJ: Well, at least in the sense that you didn't pre-compose a lot of material and then re-create it. I guess in that sense...being in the moment...that anything in the moment would be considered more honest, I suppose.

LM: Yeah, there's a number of ways of looking at it.

AAJ: Yeah. Why's it been so long since your previous release...just other projects?

LM: Well, I personally need lots of time between these grueling PMG records and world tours.

AAJ: (laughs) Yeah.

LM: There's times when I get done with a tour and I'm just exhausted. Plus, I don't quite see the virtue in just being busy all the time. I've a lot of other interests and I guess I don't feel a particular pressure to have a career. I'm just interested in exploring music. And I'm not gonna do it at the pace that maybe some people expect.

AAJ: Do you feel that most of that can be satisfied within the PMG: your ability to express yourself?

LM: Well, certainly a lot of can be satisfied within the PMG because there's so much variety (laughs) and also I've had something to do with the structure and the notes that we're playing, so I feel like there's a part of me whenever we perform. Yeah, it satisfies quite a lot. Also, there's the potential for reaching far more people playing with the PMG than if I would tour on my own.

AAJ: Absolutely. Have you done that much?

LM: I've done, I think, just a handful of tours. I did some quartet, acoustic quartet tours after "Fictionary" came out.

AAJ: Who was on that?

LM: Marc Johnson, of course, on bass and Mark Walker on drums; a very talented drummer; used to live in Chicago. He's on the Oregon record. Wonderful drummer. People are just starting to find out who he is. A very smart drummer. He's the kind of drummer that can call out the chord changes to a tune.

AAJ: (laughs).

LM: If the bass player or the piano player doesn't know (laughs).

AAJ: Well, that's annoying.

LM: (laughs) But its a demonstration of his musical knowledge.

AAJ: Oh yeah, I'm kidding. Who else?

LM: And my good friend, Bob Sheppard. Tenor and a bunch of other instruments. He's a great doubler. He gets calls for symphonic clarinet dates, you know, in the studios. He's a great, great doubler.

AAJ: Did any of that get recorded? Any plans for that?

LM: There wasn't plans to record it. It was really, you know, just to go out and play some jazz, yeah.

AAJ: Why the 'Expanded' piano...for this record?

LM: Well, Pat came up with that title and I thought it was a pretty clever way of letting people know that the notes you're hearing are all coming from the piano. I didn't add any counter lines, any additional harmony. What you're hearing is what I improvised ...and the piano is at the core of it, but the sonic environment is much different than (laughs) solo piano. Its larger, there's more detail, there's more stuff. I hope people feel there's a connotation of 'improved piano', or something. I thought that it was a clever way of packing a lot of information into a few words. And I also liked the two-part nature of the title. It almost reminded me of an academic work; they all seem to have two titles (laughs), you know. And I like that it kind of tipped the listener off that maybe this wasn't just a lark.

CONTINUE...