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Lyle Mays is the first solo album by Pat Metheny Group keyboardist Lyle Mays, self-titled, and released in 1986. The album was recorded at The Power Station in New York in 1985. The album has had re-releases in 1993, 1998, and in digital format in 2010.

“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.” – Scott Yanow/AllMusic.

Track listing:
All music is composed by Lyle Mays.

Side I
1. “Highland Aire” 7:04
2. “Teiko” 7:24
3. “Slink” 8:18

Side II
1. “Mirror of the Heart” 5:04
2. “Alaskan Suite: Northern Lights” 3:17
3. “Alaskan Suite: Invocation” 3:57
4. “Alaskan Suite: Ascent” 6:58
5. “Close to Home” 6:13

Personnel:
Lyle Mays – piano, synthesizer, autoharp
Alejandro N. Acuña – drums
Billy Drewes – alto & soprano saxophones
Bill Frisell – guitar
Marc Johnson – acoustic bass
Nana Vasconcelos – percussion
Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, NYC – mastering

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Released: 1986
Recorded: 1985
Studio: The Power Station, New York
Length: 48:20
Label: Geffen
GED24097
Producer: Lyle Mays, Steven Cantor