Biography
Lyle David Mays (November 27, 1953 – February 10, 2020) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and member of the Pat Metheny Group. Metheny and Mays composed and arranged nearly all of the group's music, for which Mays won eleven Grammy Awards. While growing up in rural Wisconsin, Mays had a lot of curiosity but had to learn many things all by himself due to a lack of available resources and information. He had four main interests: chess, mathematics, architecture, and music. His mother Doris played piano and organ, and his father Cecil, a truck driver, taught himself to play guitar by ear. His teacher allowed him to practice improvisation after the structured elements of the lesson were completed. At the age of nine, he played the organ at a family member's wedding, and fourteen he began to play in church. During his senior year of high school, at summer national stage band camp in Normal, Illinois, he was introduced to jazz pianist Marian McPartland.Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival and Filles de Kilimanjaro by Miles Davis (both recorded in 1968) were important influences. He attended the University of North Texas after transferring from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. He composed and arranged for the One O'Clock Lab Band and was the composer and arranger for the Grammy Award-nominated album Lab 75.After leaving the University of North Texas, Mays toured in the US and Europe with Woody Herman's Thundering Herd (big band) for approximately eight months. In 1975, he met Pat Metheny at the Wichita Jazz Festival and soon afterward they co-founded the Pat Metheny Group. Mays had an extraordinary career as a core musical architect and sound designer of the group for more than three decades. The group had 23 Grammy nominations, winning the award 11 times.After the Pat Metheny Group’s long-form recording The Way Up in 2005, and the unofficial Songbook Tour in Europe and Japan in 2010, Mays decided to retire from public music performance, although he did perform at the Western Michigan University Jazz Club in 2010 and at a Ted Talk event at Caltech in 2011 with his own groups. In an interview with JAZZIZ magazine in 2016, Mays said he had been working as a software development manager because of changes in the music industry.
Filmography
all 12
Movies 11
self 5
TV Shows 1
Pat Metheny Group: The Way Up - Live (2006)
Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up (Live In Montreal) (2005)
Pat Metheny Group - Speaking Of Now Live (2003)
Pat Metheny Group: We Live Here Live In Japan (2001)
Pat Metheny Group: Imaginary Day Live (1998)
Rabbit Ears - The Lion and the Lamb (1996)
The Lion & The Lamb (1995)
Mustang: The Hidden Kingdom (1994)
Pat Metheny Group - More Travels (1993)
The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
Joni Mitchell: Shadows and Light (1980)
The Search for Solutions (1980)
Ratings
Information
Known ForActing
GenderMale
Birthday1953-11-27
Deathday2020-02-10 (66 years old)
Birth NameLyle David Mays
Birth PlaceWausaukee, United States of America
CitizenshipsUnited States of America
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