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 S. Ginell
Tracklist
1 Highland Aire 7:02
Bagpipes [Uilleann] – Patrick Sky
2 Teiko 7:21
3 Slink 8:17
4 Mirror Of The Heart 4:58
Alaskan Suite (14:12)
5 Northern Lights
6 Invocation
7 Ascent
8 Close To Home 6:10
Credits
Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Billy Drewes
Composed By, Piano, Synthesizer, Autoharp, Producer – Lyle Mays
Double Bass – Marc Johnson
Drums – Alejandro N, Acuña
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Percussion – Naná Vasconcelos
