Bill Mays: cd, dvd, live performance reviews

JazzTimes, November 2005 (pp. 137-138)

Live At Jazz Standard (Palmetto)

It was recorded live at one of the most hospitable settings for jazz in Manhattan by one of the best engineers in the business, A. T. Michael MacDonald. Mays’ freedom to open things up comes from the trust engendered by playing with the same trio for six years, with articulate bassist Martin Wind and droll drummer Matt Wilson.

“Willow Weep for Me” is deconstructed and reconstituted in plucked piano strings (a device that Mays used with rare musical expressiveness) and takes forever (about four minutes) to launch into a sprawling tour de force that lasts another six. Mays’ Monk tribute begins with a stream-of-consciousness medley of many Monkian melodies before settling on one, “Let’s Call This.”

Not many pianists could organize a journey from “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?” through Ornette Coleman’s “When With the Blues Leave?” to Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile.” The witty and serious Mays nails all three, with major contributions from Wind playing arco, pizzicato and arco, respectively.

Bill Mays Trio: Live At Jazz Standard (Palmetto/MV)

Joyful, Spirted

Many pianists as well as piano trios are working inside a relatively narrow scope. Not so 60-year-old Bill Mays and his longtime trio mates Martin Wind (b) and Matt Wilson (dm). You might call their approach multi-stylistic openness. The members of this unit are well known for their musical wit, high musicality, imagination and the ability to react in no time to their partners, not to mention their technical know-how on the instruments that is absolutely amazing. Paired with all this is an almost unlimited desire to take risks and to go to the edges within the musical possibilities offered by the material they are working off. No wonder the live CD recorded at the sophisticated New York “Jazz Standard” in December, 2004 offers an impressive insight into Mays’ trio music in front of an enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable audience. It’s absolutely spellbinding to listen to the trio in action, working out new aspects in melody, harmony and rhythm off so-called worn-out standards that become true jewels in the hands of such talented artists. Surprising new light on old songs!

"Bill Mays Trio Live at Jazz Standard"

(Palmetto)*** 1/2

Here on his latest CD, veteran jazz pianist Bill Mays demonstrates his affinity for the jazz trio. His playing, rich with spontaneity, passion and humor, is also steeped in familiar references. Interplay between Mays, bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson -- his outstanding trio for six years -- suggests the Bill Evans model. On "Have You Met Miss Jones?," done as a high-spirited waltz, the space in Mays' briskly rolling lines lets Wind's springy tones breathe through; Wilson adroitly catches offbeat accents. "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?," bowed by Wind, is a nostalgic valentine. "Squeeze Me" saunters on fat chords, while Mays plucks the piano strings to open a mysterious "Darn That Dream." "Willow Weep for Me" is a compendium of blues strategies. Mays originals include "Music House," with a sly melody that gives way to a barrelhouse frolic with the drums, and the exquisitely plaintive "Euterpe."

Perhaps because he has accompanied every kind of vocal stylist from Sarah Vaughan and Larry Gatlin to Al Jarreau and Kiri Te Kanawa, pianist Bill Mays has a deep understanding of how to listen empathetically to others. Mays’ sensitivity comes shining through on this live session in a Manhattan jazz club as he interacts brilliantly with his skillful trio mates, bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson. What results from Mays’ openness is a united trio sound, a creative, democratic collaboration. Versatility and vitality also reign supreme on the trio’s flashy, show-stopping number "Willow Weep for Me." A stomping, jubilant celebration, it mixes elements of jazz, blues, country, gospel, martial music and rock. Mays even reaches inside the piano’s guts to pluck its inner strings, coaxing and cajoling a funky country banjo sound that would be right at home at the Grand Ole Opry. Variety abounds. "Squeeze Me" opens as a classically refined salon composition, then suddenly transforms into a mercurial swinger. "Let’s Call This" is a reverential, yet witty Te Deum to jazz demigod Thelonious Monk. And "Have You Met Miss Jones?" swings with the tight yet breezy togetherness that was the hallmark of the classic Ahmad Jamal Trio. Wilson is a terrific drummer with endlessly fresh flowing ideas. And Wind is a talented bassist who can actually play arco (bowed) bass cleanly, without the more usual scratchy sounds and wobbly intonation.

California-born, New York City resident pianist Bill Mays is a former music director for jazz diva Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990) who has fashioned a fine solo career. Over the past six years he has also led a superb trio with the highly gifted drummer Matt Wilson and the bassist Martin Wind. Mays has a deceptively limpid, subtle style, unforced and uncluttered, yet steely resilient, and his work with Wilson and Wind has produced some stellar jazz. On "Live at Jazz Standard," coming out from Palmetto Records on Aug. 16, the trio perform the melody of "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" from the 1946 Harburg-Lane musical "Finian's Rainbow." Mays's touch is light, not Lite, on piano rhythm as Wind bows the melody on bass, then the two reverse, with Mays playing melody and Wind plucking rhythmic bass as Wilson joins on brushes. In the right alchemic hands, sappy can turn into something special, as it does here.

LIVE AT JAZZ STANDARD

Those in the know get their tickets early every time Bill Mays comes to town. He's the all-around, incredible, creative piano maven and in this magical live performance, he appears with bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson. Together they bring freshness and spirit to "Have You Met Miss Jones," "Squeeze Me," "Darn That Dream," "Smile," "Glocca Morra," "Let's Call This" and more. An outstanding performance! (Palmetto, 2005; playing time: 72:15; 4 1/2 stars out of 5)
“Bick’s Bag” (CD)

September 2005 "Jersey Jazz”

Joe Lang - “Bick’s Bag”
There are a plethora of jazz piano trio recordings available, and a lot of them are really good, so it takes something special to grab your ears and not let them go until the disc ends. Well, "Bick's Bag" (Triplet 1013) by pianist Bill Mays, bassist Neil Swainson and drummer Terry Clarke does just that. Recorded at the Montreal Bistro & Jazz Club in Toronto in 2002, this album demonstrates what sheer joy can emanate from three players who just plain fit together, and have an enthusiastic audience on hand to propel them. The disc opens with the title track, a Mays original that says you are in for some fun. The tempo of the music changes from track to track, but the interest level for the listener remains high. Give your attention to their fascinating approach to “On the Trail,” where Swainson states the theme while Mays plays around with variations of “My Baby Just Cares for Me.” For the first four plus minutes of this ten-minute excursion, Swainson is front and center, making you wonder when his fingers are going to give out. Things go out on a high note with their version of Bud Powell’s “Hallucinations.” This is an album full of energy that should pick up anyone plagued with lethargy, and keep you flying if you are already up. (www.tripletrecords.com)
French News, no. 152, May 2005 (www.french-news.com)

Lady D’s Jazz Corner, by Domi Truffandier

It’s just one of those funny coincidences: most of this column will be devoted to a man whose name echoes the name of the month – an old acquaintance of ours, pianist Bill Mays, who definitely should be made an honorary member of the Jazz Corner!

(Too) few people are familiar with the name of Bill Mays. And yet, we’ve all heard him at least once. Who’s never caught a glimpse of ‘Dallas’ or ‘Kojak’ on TV? Who hasn’t seen at least one of those blockbusters: ‘Shaft 2’, ‘Lethal Weapon’, ‘Interview With The Vampire’, ‘Rocky’, ‘Mission To Mars’, ‘Being John Malkovich’ or ‘Fargo’? Bill is the pianist on the soundtracks of all these movies – worlds apart from his work as an all-round jazz musician, which led him over the years to work with such artists as Aretha Franklin, Al Jarreau, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Stitt, Phil Woods, Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra and…Frank Zappa.

Once again when I asked Brother Bill to send whatever material he could think of for a review in your favourite monthly, I didn’t expect to get a gig fat envelope containing two CDs, recent photos and plenty of information. A nice surprise, since the press book is crammed with interesting documents, including a fine article by Doug Ramsey for the American ‘JazzTimes’. As for the music, it is once again excellent.
Old bottles, new wine

‘On The Road Again’ (SBE Records SBECD024) is credited to Road Work Ahead, a quartet founded in the early 1980s by Bill, guitarist Peter Sprague, bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Jim Plank, which recorded two albums for Discovery and did quite a bit of touring before its members “eventually made some life changes”, as explained by Peter Sprague in the liner notes. That was the end of Road Work Ahead…until 2003.

What is so special about this quartet? As Sprague puts it, it is “a co-op band. Each member brings their own world of influences into the group through their compositions and arrangements (…) and what eventually comes out is music with a wide palette of colour”. Need I say more? Probably. Let me add, then, that here’s a CD that is excellent throughout, from the very first notes of Magnusson’s ‘Thea’s Laughter’, a straight-forward bebop tune with a Latin tinge propelled by Jim’s tasteful drumming, and on which Peter and Bill get plenty of space to stretch out, to the last chord of Jim Plank’s bouncy ‘Bar, Bark’; Bills tongue-in-cheek humour on this one is a treat, just like his arrangement of three Charlie Parker tunes, brought together under the title ‘Bird’s Blues’, a hard swinging track on which the rhythm pair is truly impressive, and where everybody gets a chance to solo. Peter Sprague (who’s blessed with one of the purest, most beautiful guitar sounds I’ve heard in a while) contributes a nice ‘As It Is, As You Are’ and a fine arrangement of Jobim and De Moraes’ ‘Modinha’ – beautifully stated by Bob on arco bass. I’m telling you: this one is a treat!

Strivin’ To Break Even Records, P.O. Box 762, Del Mar, CA 92014-0762, USA
Bills bag

And so is ‘Bick’s Bag’ (Triplet Records TR1013-2), recorded live at the Montreal Bistro and Jazz Club in 2002 by Bill, bassist Neil Swainson and drummer Terry Clarke. There’s so much to enjoy here: Terry’s shuffle on Bill’s own ‘Bick’s Bag’ (a hard-swinging gospel-funk tune), virtuoso renditions of Coleman Hawkins’ ‘Bean and the Boys’ and Bud Powell’s ‘Hallucinations’ – 100% bebop ‘a la Nays’, our favourite brand! Not to mention heartfelt versions of Paul Simon’s ‘I Do It For Your Love’ and Neil’s own ‘Paradigm’ (check his rock-solid lines and long, breathtaking solo on Ferde Grofe’s ‘On the Trail’, by the way). As for ‘Laura’, she’s given a swinging treatment, a welcome change from years and years of slow, nostalgic renditions…thank you, gentlemen!

CODA Magazine, May/June 2005, Nate Dorward,