Jazz Articles about Bill Mays

Bill Mays: Fantasy

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
August 28, 2007

Between them, pianist/composer Bill Mays and trumpeter/educator Marvin Stamm have been around for approximately 634 years. These two have done it all, including duos and trios and quartets and quintets; big bands and studio work and TV and movies. They've also been friends for much of it, and aside from all the innovation and superb playing on this release, there's also the sound of a fond and enduring relationship.

That sound virtually defines the first track, a duo ...

Bill Mays Trio at the Kitano Hotel: Movie Themes

by Victor L. Schermer
May 2, 2007

Bill Mays Trio Kitano Hotel New York City April 13-14, 2007

This was my first visit to the jazz club at the Kitano Hotel on Park Avenue in New York. I was spending the day in Manhattan with a lady friend, and when I learned that pianist Bill Mays was going to perform, I made a reservation for us. The experience was a real pleasure. Mays was in peak form, and bassist Rufus ...

Bill Mays Trio: Live at Jazz Standard

by Ken Franckling
November 5, 2005

After six years together, pianist Bill Mays, bassist Martin Wind, and drummer Matt Wilson decided to record in the setting where most musicians say magic really happens: feeding off the energy of a live audience. This disc was recorded over three nights last December at New York's Jazz Standard. Mays is one of the deeper mainstream pianists around, and his many years of accompanying singers from Sarah Vaughan and Sheila Jordan to Peggy Lee and Helen Merrill ...

Bill Mays Trio: Live at Jazz Standard

by John Kelman
August 24, 2005

Pianist Bill Mays, now in his early sixties, is proof positive that aging needn't necessarily imply either slowing down or settling into a comfort zone. He has been an active collaborator with artists like Bud Shank (with whom he performed at this year's Ottawa International Jazz Festival), Shirley Horn, and Gerry Mulligan, but he's also established a parallel career as a session player on film soundtracks, including Being John Malkovich, Jaws, and Rocky.

Mays has always been considered--and with some ...

The Marvin Stamm/Ed Soph Project: Live at Birdland

by Rick Bruner
June 28, 2005

There's often a vibe in live performance that isn't easily captured in the studio, especially when the musicians are highly accomplished jazz veterans performing before an appreciative audience. Trumpeter Marvin Stamm and drummer Ed Soph co-lead this wonderful band, recorded live at Birdland in New York City. Bassist Rufus Reid and pianist Bill Mays complete the quartet, which is augmented on four tunes by guitarist John Abercrombie. Stamm's warm, burnished tone on trumpet and flugelhorn melds wonderfully with the tight ...

Bill Mays: Going Home & On The Road Again

by Elliott Simon
November 28, 2004

Well traveled pianist Bill Mays has chosen to pay respect to the two disparate but coexisting worlds of the working musician: home and the road. For Mays and his top trio, which consists of drummer Matt Wilson and bassist Martin Wind, Going Home can mean different things while On the Road Again teams him with guitarist Peter Sprague in a reprise of their '80s quartet Road Work Ahead. Bill Mays Trio Going Home ...

Bill Mays: When Mays Plays, Musicians Listen

by Jason West
May 17, 2004

O the infinite particulars of modern jazz. Promoters can't sell it. Audiences are hesitant to pay for it. Most players make next to nothing. There're no hits. No stars. Minimal airplay. A distant third on the priority list behind dinner and conversation.

But occasionally there is magic. Life-affirming magic. The most immediate and intimate kind. If you listen close you can feel it along with the musicians as it happens ï" and then it's over.

The magic of jazz improvisation ...