RIP Lyle Mays

[Firth]

Mays seemed to want to keep his private life private. No explanation necessary.

[aith01]

Mays seemed to want to keep his private life private. No explanation necessary.

Of course it's not necessary, I thought that was pretty obvious.

[Gizmotron]

Not everyone wants the world to know what their illnesses are. This isn’t being cagey; it’s just a simple matter of privacy and, as has already been said, Lyle was a very private person, and so likely wouldn’t want his business out there. I see nothing wrong or cagey with this, but as far as I know he absolutely had no issues with substance abuse, any more than Metheny did or does.

Sorry, but Lyle’s passing is a particularly tough one for me as his music meant so much to me, and I don’t understand why it’s necessary, nor do I believe that this is the right time, to start postulating that he might have had substance abuse issues, simply because they won’t divulge the full nature of his illness.

A lack of information is not necessarily an indication of anything other than a lack of information, after all, and we are entitled to no more and no less information than his family is prepared to provide. And suggesting substance abuse problems, as one example, only serves to unfairly tarnish his reputation and legacy, especially if there’s no real information to substantiate it.

Sorry to rant, but it just seems like the wrong time to start making such suggestions, unless you’ve got hard evidence that they are true.

Great post.

It is normal to want to know everything about our public heroes, especially when they leave us. We feel the need to want to close all of the loops and somehow make peace with it all.

But even more normal are the wishes for some public people to keep some things private. And that overwhelms our needs.

I do know the tendency to suspect something...not so nice...when things are withheld. But I often think of the many situations that turn to be innocuous. Remember when Steve Howe's son died? There was no word on the cause. Everyone talked about it. People thought the worst. And then the news quietly came out that is was a very normal, sudden thing. No drama. No drugs.

Life is full of mysteries. The biggest mystery for me with regards to Lyle is how on earth did he access that MUSIC? How did he have those skills?
He just did. And we are the beneficiaries.

Play the records. Celebrate the life.

[aith01]

Great post.

It is normal to want to know everything about our public heroes, especially when they leave us. We feel the need to want to close all of the loops and somehow make peace with it all.

But even more normal are the wishes for some public people to keep some things private. And that overwhelms our needs.

I do know the tendency to suspect something...not so nice...when things are withheld. But I often think of the many situations that turn to be innocuous. Remember when Steve Howe's son died? There was no word on the cause. Everyone talked about it. People thought the worst. And then the news quietly came out that is was a very normal, sudden thing. No drama. No drugs.

Life is full of mysteries. The biggest mystery for me with regards to Lyle is how on earth did he access that MUSIC? How did he have those skills?
He just did. And we are the beneficiaries.

Play the records. Celebrate the life.

Wow, great post man. Very eloquent. Thank you.

[chalkpie]

The Way Up DVD tonight. For Lyle.

[aith01]

The Way Up DVD tonight. For Lyle.

Got the CD playing at work right now. This was a great one.

I still need to get the DVD...

[StarThrower]

Got the CD playing at work right now. This was a great one.

I still need to get the DVD...

Do it! That's the one release where I always go fo the DVD. Pat plays about five different guitars in the first ten minutes making all that beautiful music. It's great to watch, as is the whole ensemble.

[proggy_jazzer]

Do it! That's the one release where I always go fo the DVD. Pat plays about five different guitars in the first ten minutes making all that beautiful music. It's great to watch, as is the whole ensemble.

Agreed!

[pb2015]

I saw The Way Up show and as I recall Pat's guitar assistant Carolyn Chrzan (sp?) got a workout taking his guitars on and offstage. I also remember Antonio Sanchez tossing a percussion instrument overhead to a roadie after he was done playing it and needed to get back to the drums.

[chalkpie]

That DVD never fails to blow my mind. The composition itself is amazing but they pull it off with ease.

[Firth]

The song that made me a fan of PMG and Lyle Mays for life:

[StarThrower]

I saw The Way Up show and as I recall Pat's guitar assistant Carolyn Chrzan (sp?) got a workout taking his guitars on and offstage.

That poor girl works her tail off. Saw her at a show last year. She was tearing down everything for the whole trio after the show.

[markwoll]

RIP. I watched Imaginary Day Live yesterday a nice show. Mays demonstrated his skill and versatility keys and guitar on Roots of Coincidence.
Back in the day , Onramp timeframe , some friends used to joke that Mays could shake his hair better than anyone. ( that was pre-hairmetal so it might have been true. )
WRT guitar tech, I would think that dealing with the Picasso guitar would be a job in itself.

[SunRunner2]

The song that made me a fan of PMG and Lyle Mays for life:

Amen to that. That song changed the way I looked at jazz rock/fusion and I never looked back. It's one of those songs that makes me feel happy and melancholy at the same time. M & M at their finest.

[interbellum]

Lito Vitale (known from M.I.A.) recorded the song Ese Amigo Del Alma as the title track for his Cuarteto-album from 198. He dedicated the piece to Lyle Mays.
Here are two version of the track: first the piano-only one and then the album-version.

[jkelman]

WRT guitar tech, I would think that dealing with the Picasso guitar would be a job in itself.

First, Pat has used the same guitar tech for well over 30 years...she knows her shit, so the Pikasso would be no more challenging for her than it would be for Pat.

But an interesting story about the Pikasso (I interviewed Linda Manzer, the luthier for most of his acoustic instruments quite some years ago for a Canadian magazine). She made two of them: one for Pat, one for another guy who bought her instruments (more a collector than a player). Before she delivered Pat’s to him (she did it personally), she brought together a group of Canadian guitarists (she lives in Toronto) like Bruce Cockburn, Don Ross, Stephen Fearing and others to check it out. They all looked at it like it was from another planet.

When she brought it to Pat, whose only instructions to Linda were “build me an instrument with as many strings as possible” (and she used the harp-guitar as her model to start), and apparently he picked it up. Tuned the strings (he uses many alternate tunings on it) and..,just started playing it.

That, to me, was remarkable.

[dropforge]

The song that made me a fan of PMG and Lyle Mays for life:

I lurve it when Lyle duals his line on the Oberheim.