Solo: Improvisations for Expanded Piano

Solo: Improvisations for Expanded Piano Artist: Lyle Mays
Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Category: Music



Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 093624728429
EAN: 0093624728429
ASIN: B00004SYS5


Release Date: 2000-06-13

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Listmania:

  1. Jazz Piano at its Best
  2. MUSIC as RELIGION
  3. Consummation in 5 movements
  4. Lyle Mays' Best Works
  5. Great Contemporary Jazz Albums
  6. Just 88 keys
  7. Great Piano Albums

Tracks:

  1. This Moment
  2. Let Me Count The Ways
  3. We Are All Alone
  4. The Imperative
  5. Procession
  6. Black Ice
  7. Origami
  8. Lightning Field
  9. Locked In Amber
  10. Long Life

Similar Items:

  1. Lyle Mays
  2. Street Dreams
  3. Fictionary
  4. As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls
  5. Metheny / Mehldau

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Takes some getting used to.......2005-02-05

Lyle functions best in the context of the Pat Metheny Group, and of his other album I only liked the first one, which (surprise) is the most similar in setup to the Group.

This Solo album has flashes of brilliance, but too much of it meanders without any point. If you're willing to take the time to listen to this many times, you might get something out of it, but it might be more effort than you're willing to give.

5 out of 5 stars Not for everyone.......2004-04-17

I rarely write reviews of cds, but thought this one was interesting enough to spend the time to do it.

Take a look over the 28 other reviews and check out the stars that were given. Almost everyone gave this cd either 5 stars or 1 star. People either like this cd or hate it.

This cd shows a very advanced musician creating textures and melodies and atmospheres and moods at a very deep level. Another reviver actually said that this sounds like a little kid playing on the family piano with one finger?!?! I have no idea what you're hearing (or not hearing).

This is a very special and unique cd. If you're expecting it to sound like the Pat Metheny Group, than yes, you'll be disappointed. But if you want to be taken someplace new, this disk will take you there.

The music is very beautiful, free improvisations, with ethereal sounds, wonderful colors. This is what a genius sounds like when given free reign.

5 out of 5 stars Piano and more.......2003-01-24

This is a great disc of piano improvisations by Lyle Mays and I am suprised that it is not held in higher regard (I only bought it on a whim myself).His piano playing is singularly beautiful, full of passion without being rowdy and yet as delicate as a first kiss.
His improvisations are tuneful and full of purpose.This is an album for music lovers.

5 out of 5 stars What we were waiting for, and what we knew Lyle could do.......2002-07-01

There is often a tension between what an artist's own perception of his or her work is and how that work is received by the listener. This was the case, for me at least, with Lyle Mays's three solo efforts.

I remember reading an interview with Lyle in Keyboard magazine, right after "Street Dreams" came out, in which he expressed his supreme satisfaction with that album and said that his first, self-titled album was something just thrown together that he wasn't particularly satisfied with. Nothing could have come further from how I received the two albums against one another.

"Lyle Mays" has been one of my very favorite albums of all time since the day I was first exposed to it, and "Street Dreams" seemed less sincere and more fabricated by comparison. "Solo" taps again that rich vein that we haven't heard fully expressed since "Lyle Mays" - the beautiful, glassy piano textures, the ethereal backdrops of analog synth, the lyricism of a playing style that knows that it does not need to prove itself. To me, this is Mays at his best, and for those who preferred the arctic, "icy" sound over the urban, more Metheny-group-eqsue, this will be the album worth the wait of - what will it have been - 14 years?

5 out of 5 stars Wonderful if you get it..........2001-10-17

While it is true that most of this was created spontaneously, it does not sound like it. It sounds more coherent than most of Keith Jarret's (I like him too) stuff. The subtle synth textures added later - taken from MIDI data from the original piano improvisations, really enhance the music. Lyle Mays is the greatest Jazz pianist/synth player alive IMO. This is a beautiful album. Not everybody gets it. That's OK - not all music reaches all people. I'm thankful for this album as I am all of Lyle's work. The audio blips online don't scratch the surface. Highly recommended to anyone who appreciates creative piano music.

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  6. Live ~ Strunz & Farah
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  9. Fond Memories ~ Frank Rosolino
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