Lyle Mays - Lyle Mays (1985)

Front Cover	Album Info
	Artist/Composer Lyle Mays Title Lyle Mays Length 48:06 Discs: 1 Tracks: 8 Format CD Packaging Jewel Case Label Geffen Cat. Number GED24097 Style General Jazz Rating Recorded 1985  at  Power Station, NYC Comment Uillean Pipes = irlandzka kobza

Musicians	Credits
Lyle Mays piano, synth. Bill Frisell guitar Billy Drewes sax alto, sax soprano Marc Johnson bass Alejandro "Alex" Acuńa drums Nana Vasconcelos percussion Patrick Sky Uillean Pipes	Producer Pat Metheny Engineer Rob Eaton Engineer Jon Goldberger Engineer Jon Goldberger Mastering Ted Jensen Mixing Jan Erik Kongshaug Producer Steven Cantor

Track list

01 Highland Aire 07:03 02 Teiko 07:22 03 Slink 08:16 04 Mirror Of The Heart 04:58 05 Alaskan Suite: Northern Lights 03:19 06 Alaskan Suite: Invocation 03:59 07 Alaskan Suite: Ascent 06:57 08 Close To Home 06:12

Notes

AMG Review (4 1/2): Lyle Mays waited a long, long time before straying from the Pat Metheny Group to issue his first solo album, but when he did, the results were at once removed but not totally untethered to the Metheny sound and feeling. On his own, Mays' synthesizer solos and textures are close in sound to what he was doing in the Metheny group, but the turns of phrases in his acoustic piano solos reflect the heavy shadow of Keith Jarrett. "Highland Aire" naturally has a buoyant, wistful Scottish flavor; "Teiko" begins with a wash of synths and then offers a mechanical rhythm that is vaguely Asian in feeling; and "Slink" is the closest the album comes to the floating Metheny groove. Although the 14-minute "Alaskan Suite" forms the centerpiece of the LP's side two, the entire side could be considered a suite as a whole, with a ruminative piano solo "Mirror of the Heart" preceding "Alaskan Suite," and "Close to Home" reprising the twinkling, burbling shafts of synthesizer of "Alaskan Suite"'s opening. Bill Frisell gives Mays a different yet no less musical and enterprising guitar foil; drummer Alex Acuna and Metheny group percussionist Nana Vasconcelos are as flexible a team as Mays could want. Marc Johnson is on bass and Billy Drewes is on alto and soprano sax. A very pleasing, thoroughly musical solo debut. — Richard Ginell