Bill Mays: cd, dvd, live performance reviews
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Toronto Globe & Mail, November 28, 2002, Print edition, Page R7Bill Mays, Neil Swainson, Terry Clarke at the Montreal Bistro in Toronto by Mark Miller There is still, it seems, a little mileage left on the piano trio in jazz. Bill Mays, Neil Swainson and Terry Clarke had it out for a spin on Tuesday at the Montreal Bistro. The ride was terrific. In fact, the ride belied the casual circumstances of this engagement, circumstances familiar to Bistro patrons who’ve seen many a visiting star at work with a local rhythm section. Pianist Mays, the visiting star, is up from New York for the week: bassist Swainson and drummer Clarke, the local rhythm section, are regulars among the club’s rotation of accompanists. The three musicians have played here before, though, a fact that goes some way toward explaining their remarkable rapport. But there’s something more involved, something particular to Mays alone. It can surely be no coincidence that he established the same sort of sympathetic relationship at the Bistro with another Toronto musician, guitarist Ed Bickert, during the 1990’s. The point is this: Mays plays on pure inspiration, that exalted level where mere technical concerns have been long forgotten. Swainson and Clarke have the skill and sensitivity to respond comfortably in kind. The result is jazz of a sophistication and sheer spontaneity that’s rarely heard in any Toronto nightspot – unless, apparently, Mays is on the bandstand. Then, anything is possible. He is an impetuous improviser, digressive and sometimes even distracted. He’s also secure in the knowledge – or should be – that he will not lose Swainson and Clarke on the way. They’ll figure out where he’s going and arrive at the same place in good time. Of course, a typical set – Tuesday’s first, for example – isn’t entirely without it’s routines. More than once, Mays and Swainson zipped in unison through a tricky bebop theme; that’s not the sort of operation normally undertaken without some prior consultation. Mostly, though, the trio simply sailed along, blue-skying its way from the opening medley of Charlie Parker’s Sippin’ At Bells and Bud Powell’s Dance Of The Infidels to the closing Cole Porter standard You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To. The result left much to inference, flirted frequently with abstraction and still made perfect sense. That’s as close to the state of the jazz art as any three musician’s could hope to get. Los Angeles Times, September 20, 2002 JAZZ REVIEW A Lighthearted Vibe: ‘Bach Meets Bird’ By Don Heckman, Special to The TimesBill Mays dropped into town Monday night, displaying the musical skills that have been the wellspring for a long, diverse artistic career. The New York-based pianist, once a Southland regular, has a résumé filled with far-ranging achievements, from his time as music director for Sarah Vaughan in the early ‘70s to his participation in hundreds of television and film soundtracks during a 12-year stint in Los Angeles recording studios, as well as writing arrangements for a list of artists that includes Woody Herman, Shelly Manne, Bud Shank and Phil Woods. Mays’ performance at the Jazz Bakery with bassist Tom Warrington and drummer Joe LaBarbera was, however, the work of a player who—despite his many other activities—has remained firmly in contact with the sheer pleasures of jazz improvisation,. And the nods of approval and smiles of appreciation he frequently tossed in the direction of his two companions underscored how much fun he was having during an evening in which the emphasis seemed to be upon upbeat, briskly swinging music. In his interpretations of standards, Mays’ experience as a vocal accompanist and a composer-arranger were ever-present in his solos. Well-crafted, filled with intriguing melodic counter phrases, his choruses unfolded with the logic and the connectiveness of preconceived compositions. He enhanced his improvisational choices with an impressive degree of tonal coloration and variation. The most entertaining number in Mays’ set was a humorous but musically engaging combination of Bach and Charlie Parker, “Bach Meets Bird,” in which he blended elements of the Bach Two Part Invention in F and Parker’s “Ah-Leu-Cha,” with bits and pieces from other bop tunes tossed in for good measure. It was a good example of the sort of lightheartedness that serves jazz well opening up the music to listeners leery of improvisational journeys through more discordant musical landscapes. The Toronto Star, November 27, 2002 Exhilarating Pianist Deserves His Day In The Sun By Geoff Chapman“Oh, it’s a long, long time from May to November…” Well, the first line of “September Song” doesn’t quite say that, but it’s a strong reminder that there’s only four more days of November left to catch Bill Mays at the Montreal Bistro, where the brilliant American pianist began a short stay last night. Mays is certainly one of those “been there, done that” jazzmen. He’s accompanied great singers like Sarah Vaughan, done commercials, worked in a hotel band, played on the soundtracks of films like Fargo and Lethal Weapon and spent so much time in studios that he didn’t really get around to immersing himself in jazz until the 1980s. He’s still not known enough, which is absurd. His opening set was a marvel, as after limbering up on the piano stool he started with the bebop lines of “Sippin’ At Bells” and “Dance Of The Infidels”, immediately establishing darting dialogues with his excellent T.O. companions, bassist Neil Swainson and drummer Terry Clarke. These getting-to-know-you exchanges were so slick and so sophisticated you’d swear the trio had been rehearsing hard all afternoon. They hadn’t, yet they performed so intuitively throughout the set that a listener could believe he or she was hearing behind the notes. It all seemed so relaxed and at the same time so spontaneous, so exhilarating and so exuberant that the very process of invention at the heart of jazz seemed to be illuminated. Mays, with his unerring ear for the ebb and flow of the music, nonetheless remains faithful to the off-centre. There’s a real wit throbbing away under a mostly calm exterior, and he spent copious time switching keys and tempo, dropping in quotes from other songs as well as simulating other styles. All this was evident when he tackled “Willow Weep For Me”. There were moments of Monk (Thelonious), helpings of Hines (Earl) and stride piano games as he matched percussive chording with weighty ornamentations over Swainson’s surging pulse and Clarke’s superbly adept counterpoint. Even the chorus swaps with his sidemen were amazing feats of imagination, and all this turn-on-a-dime expertise makes one wonder why he’s not had a stellar career. “Comin’ Home Baby” was a minor key jaunt over hardshuffling beat, Mays teasing phrases unmercifully, offering up spicy single-note runs and daring his comrades to develop rapid-fire, three-way conversations. He allowed a brief respite with his ballad “Ballad For Barbara”, which was dainty but deep felt, before closing with an abandoned romp through “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To.”
Jack van Poll meets Bill Mays in ManhattanOur Capetonian (not for long anymore) correspondent and pianist Jack van Poll went to New York and visited his old friend and bass player Martin Wind, but he also arranged a meeting with pianist Bill Mays, who once made his recording debut in Europe on Jack’s September label and who will be, with his present trio, one of the revelations of this years Jazz Middelheim (LDB). While in Minton’s Playhouse, at the end of 1944, a new sound relegated the era of swing to the past, a piano player was born in Sacramento CA, who today is making a name of himself as one of the piano greats. Bill Mays was confronted with Jazz for the first time, listening to a recording of Earl “Fatha” Hines. He started his career when he was sixteen and has since then appeared on more than 150 recordings, including 15 records as a leader. Although I don’t want to trivialize this miraculous harvest, I have to admit that I am most impressed by his recent three recordings. When I asked which piano players had a great influence on him, he pulled out names that I did not expect from him. Without missing a beat he mentioned McCoy Tyner and Sonny Rollins. After pushing him a bit further he added Horace Silver, Jimmy Rowles, Hank Jones and Don Shirley to the list. So then I tried to find out which younger players he admired and also there he came up with a pleasant surprise, mentioning names like Mike LeDonne and Larry Goldings. Bill is a great fan of his own rhythm section. Bassist Martin Wind is performing this summer with Pat Metheny and often sits in on the Monday nights with the Village Vanguard Orchestra. Matt Wilson has next to the trio his own successful quartet and recently brought out a new C.D. (Humidity on Palmetto; see ‘New on C.D.) We have all felt, that since the launch of the Euro, compact discs have become even more expensive, but prior to that various mergers and joint ventures, notably in the States, have occurred. In the process many smaller labels have been lost inside the big multinationals like AOL Warner, BMG, Sony and others. The end result was, that many ‘recording artists’ were sidelined as deadwood. And so many Jazz artists are since then in the process of producing their own recordings, including Bill Mays. In Bill’s case I have to exemplify this with a preceding story. What I never realized is that Bill listened to the young German bass player Martin Wind for the first time, during the North Sea Jazz Festival ’93, when Martin and Hans van Oosterhout performed there with my trio. Not long after that, Bill recorded two C.D.’s for September Records and for Challenge with Martin and Keith Copeland on drums. Martin and Bill have been working together now for over seven years. Somewhere along the line the much-praised young talent on drums, Matt Wilson joined the trio. It was with this trio that Bill Mays launched his own production, “Out in P.A.” A gem of a recording; too bad it is hard to find in the record stores. It looks like it that the mergers in the record business are not over yet, but the good news is that recently some clever independent small labels have emerged, like Dreyfus, MaxJazz, Nagel Heuer, Arkadia, SharpNine, and Palmetto.” Summer Sketches” and the brand new “Going Home” have been issued on Palmetto and show a personal branded approach by this Bill Mays trio. Here are three talented musicians who perform their own writings and in addition present original renditions of some well-chosen Standards. Above all, it is Bill Mays, who on their latest C.D. presents four of his original compositions that are more than a match to the Standard repertory. Bill admits that the combination of this balanced and experienced trio, plus the commitment and motivation of the Palmetto label, are the key of their recent success. JazzTimes recently published a laudatory article on Bill Mays and after the commercial success of “Summer Sketches” the brand new “Going Home”, promises to score high in the charts. Does this open all doors for the trio? Bill doesn’t complain, but it is obvious that to keep yourself on your feet in New York, is not that easy. The Jazz club scene has changed and Jazz ain’t what it used to be! Opening the Newspapers you’ll see that Barbara Carroll performs in “Birdland” and James Cotton in the “Blue Note”, but also the Don Byron Sextet in the “Village Vanguard”. Apart from club- and studio gigs, the trio performs at private jazz parties. This new development gives you a better listening audience, which is a great advantage for the musicians, plus it pays better in most cases. There is also a tangible change of attitude from the so-called ’classical’ world, in so far that there is a more prominent interest in those circles for Jazz musicians and their music. The Jazz cruises that have been advertised over the last years in the summer issues of the U.S. Jazz magazines are a great success, also in this case resulting in a closer relationship between the musicians and their audience. Our interview took place during lunch. Bill just arrived from a studio recording and had to rush to a ‘live’ recording for a website concert. This illustrates that the live of a Jazz musician is a many sided adventure. During this coming Jazz Middelheim the Bill Mays trio is going to be one of the highlights of the Festival. Mark Miller, Toronto Globe And Mail, Friday, Nov. 26, 2004 The empathetic Can-Am trio of pianist Bill Mays, bassist Neil Swainson and drummer Terry Clarke has its origins at the Montreal Bistro in Toronto, where Bick’s Bag was recorded in 2002 (and where the trio is back for the CD’s launch, through tomorrow). This is very much a “live” band—loose and spontaneous, though perhaps less unrestrained here than it has been on some nights at the club. The program has a familiar, mainstream look, one Paul Simon song aside, and while the playing doesn’t breach the mainstream’s stylistic banks, the level of skill and imagination involved is consistently and impressively high. –Mark Miller Toronto Chamber Jazz Septet The Toronto Star, 2001 By Geoff Chapman, Music Critic Septet’s Debut A Taste Of Jazz Light Last night’s debut concert by the newly minted Toronto Chamber Jazz Septet was a taste of jazz light, but mercifully never became jazz smooth, that musical opiate for the inattentive masses. The ensemble assembled in a full Glenn Gould Studio was led by versatile pianist-composer-arranger Bill Mays, a New York-based artist who recently recorded the same heady brew of anthems from jazz, Broadway and classics with the Manhattan Chamber Jazz Septet. It wasn’t a silly season stir-fry, though it was a grand excuse to use a cartel of composers beyond category. How else can you have Claude Debussy, Thelonious Monk, Mel Torme, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Rodgers and Hammerstein and Maurice Ravel on the same program? Mays recruited four leading Canadian reedmen: P. J. Perry, Phil Dwyer, Vern Dorge and John Johnson‹to go along with pulse kings Neil Swainson on bass and Terry Clarke on drums. The leader himself augments his arranging skills with the finesse of Jimmy Rowles, the spirit of Art Tatum and the drive of Horace Silver on the keyboard. An elegant My Bells was followed by the show tune made famous a second time by jazz guru John Coltrane, My Favourite Things, whose cadences were clearly among yesterday’s sax players’ favourite things. This was followed by an unlikely Brazilian slant on Debussy’s Clair De Lune before Perry’s forceful bellows on baritone sax upped the thrill index again, as it led to equally quirky skirmishes among the players tackling Monk’s Stuffy Turkey.Mays’ own Christmas Thanksgiving Prayer was soulful and rich, while Ravels’ Pavane was enlivened by Dorge flute. Just as this appealing show concept was showing signs of bogging down in neo-schlock, a spirited trio take on Snow Job provided the kiss of jazz life. The closing Mays versions of six movements from Tchaikovskys Nutcracker Suite were absolutely splendid with bravura sax soloing--the epitome of chamber jazz. Aargauer Zeitung Baden (CH), Switzerland 11/25/99Highest Art of Trio Playing: " Jazz in der Aula" with Mays/Wilson/WindAnnounced for his first concert in Baden five years ago, pianist Bill Mays' style was described as highly influenced by legendary Bill Evans. At times, that concert still supported this characterization. In the meantime, Bill Mays has stepped out of any body’s shadow and developed his very own style. His second concert at "Jazz in der Aula" with Martin Wind on bass again, and Matt Wilson on drums was strong evidence for this improvement. The concert is characterized easily: wonderful music from three musicians with a congenial partnership. The ingredients were perfect, deep interplay on one hand, and individual brilliance and virtuosity on the other. The fun the musicians obviously had made evident that there was always room for humor and spontaneity besides the more creative/intellectual moments. A few standards and compositions by all players formed the repertoire. They also included dedications to the centennials of Hoagy Carmichael and Duke Ellington with a romantic arco-bass version of "Skylark", a darkly harmonized piano-solo rendition of "Stardust", as well as a relaxed swinging "Dancers in Love" featuring Matt Wilson's melodic brush work. Martin Wind presented four of his more complex works, Bill Mays one of his earlier lyrical songs, and Matt Wilson his funny "Free Range Chicken". Matt Wilson is a discovery: the term "drummer" almost doesn't do him justice. He accompanied the compositions goblin-like with percussive and colorful effects, whirled along their rhythmic framework, dove into the improvisations by piano and bass picking up motives and moods. Piano and bass were never dominant that way, since there was a constant flow of ideas between the three. Martin Wind's bass solos were going from horn-like lines to symphonic bowing technique and were always clear and meaningful. Bill Mays, on the other hand, went further into the compositions with his well-considered way, without touching their emotional context, re-composing and varying melodies, while always staying in tune with the thematic outline. |