LAB 75

F.M.
Overture To The Royal Mongolian Suma Foosball Festival
What Was
The Continuing Adventures Of Supertonic
- Movement I
- Movement II
- Movement III

REFLECTIONS

LYLE: This is art school, high-concept shit which usually sucks, In this case, it got the first ever Grammy nod for a college ensemble. We were kids, but besides James Brown and Tower of Power, I don't know if anyone was playing tighter ensembles at the time. Marc Johnson playing electric funk bass! North Texas is a fun story. That was a GREAT rhythm section we had back then. We were undergrads, playing like the pros we would become. Steve Houghton followed me into Woody Herman's Thundering Herd, then went on to play with the late Freddie Hubbard. Marc would later also  get hired by Woody and went from there to the FUCKING BILL EVANS TRIO. Marc was such an inspiration to all of us as he was the first to hit the big time.

“This was my attempt to link the tradition of Duke Ellington to James Brown.”
- LYLE

STEVE HOUGHTON (drums)
In the spring of 74, Lyle and I came down from WI to attend NTSU.   Lyle jumped right in and wrote several compositions for LAB 74, but he wasn’t yet playing in the band.  However, it was clear that his music and piano playing were going to change things at school. He was writing very unconventional big band music with very different rhythm section feels. The next fall, Lyle was now in the 1:00 Lab Band and made clear that he wanted to compose an entire album of music for LAB 75 – which no one had ever done at NTSU or any other school for that matter. Lyle would show us the music as he wrote and we would try bits and pieces in sessions and rehearsals. In the spring semester, director Leon Breeden actually turned the band entirely over to Lyle and away we/he went.

Lyle was extremely detail oriented and loved to rehearse. He heard everything and was a perfectionist. We would search long and hard until the grooves were just right. Observing Lyle work was kind of like a “mad scientist” as he would mix this with that, knowing exactly what he was eventually aiming for, while many in the band didn’t.  He loved the process of creating, managing and executing a large music project and loved utilizing the studio element, bringing the project to a grand conclusion.  

Recording LAB 75 was a challenge in that we were trying to make it very different than your normal college big band recording, both musically and sonically. NTSU did a fine job with the more traditional big band sound like Thad and Mel’s band, however, we were trying to modernize the rhythm section sounds and concepts. The drum sound was very “studio-like” and we were using electric piano, clavinet, electric bass, hand percussion, funk guitar, etc. Herbie’s music at that time was a key influence.

The concept of the music flowed from big band ensemble to small group and that took a while to make it seamless. We had countless rhythm sectionals to get the proper sound and feel. We rehearsed soloists and rhythm to make the solo sections comfortable and effortless. Even at that point, Lyle didn’t really enjoy leaving it to “what happens in the moment.” He was looking for a guaranteed home run with great feels, killer solos, and tight ensemble. He would utilize background figures and counter lines to force a solo to go in a certain direction. He didn’t leave things open ended, hoping for the best.

We rehearsed A LOT. Each section of the band would hold numerous sectionals to get this huge body of new and challenging works together. Lyle rallied the band much like a football team and they delivered in the end for their coach. He could be tough, but it was well worth it.

This was early on in Lyle’s career, but he certainly felt at home in the studio as if it was his personal laboratory. I know that he had done a fair amount of recording in WI however now, he was using more of the technology, unearthing a new level of creativity. Since then, his complete mastery of technology has served as a vital part of his music making – to the very end.

(Steve, was “F.M.” originally called “Funk Me”?  Yes☺ our director Mr. Breeden felt the original title was a little edgy.)

MARC JOHNSON (bass)
Lyle’s music was always a challenge for me, from the earliest days at the university through the last project we did together.  He always found a way to push the envelope of what I thought was possible technically for me to do. There’s a lot of electric bass for me to play on that album and I remember listening a lot to Rocco Prestia from Tower of Power in preparation for that.  That college band led by Leon Breeden had a tradition of voting as a band what music they wanted to record for their class album. The Class of 1975 One O’Clock Lab Band voted unanimously to record a whole album of Lyle Mays compositions and arrangements.  In a jazz department that at that time was one of the premier university programs in the world, where dozens of young arrangers went every year to study to become the future arrangers and orchestrators for the studios in Hollywood, Nashville, Chicago and New York, to have one student stand out and be voted by the top band to be the ONLY arranger for that year’s project, says volumes for the respect we had for Lyle and his music.  And, it’s worth mentioning, it received a Grammy Nomination in the large ensemble category.

ROGER DISMORE (alto & soprano sax, clarinet, flute)
I met Lyle when we were selected by Dr. Leon Breeden to perform in the Fall ‘74 - Spring ‘75 NTSU 1:00 Lab Band. Lyle’s performing ability was amazing and his original charts were cutting edge. He would bring in a few pages at a time of a new chart sometimes and we would sight-read it in front of maybe 200 people in attendance at the rehearsal. He would write specifically to the strengths of the members of the band, including preferred woodwind doubles. His charts were always perfectly notated and were some of the most complex compositions I had ever played. We had many late night sax sectionals perfecting his music before we went into the studio in spring ‘75. This album was historic for NTSU because it was the first time that all the charts on the album were written by one composer/arranger. We voted on what we wanted to record and Lyle’s music won! The album was selected for one of the five Grammy nomination spots in the Big Band category, and marked the first time that a University Big Band had been selected for that honor! The winner that year was Phil Woods with Michel Legrand and his Orchestra, so we were in good company! The music that Lyle wrote for this album was heavily influenced by funk music of the time. It was an awesome experience bringing his music to life and I am honored to have been a part of his creative efforts. I don’t know when Lyle slept; he was always composing, arranging, copying and practicing!

PAT COIL (fender rhodes)
I met Lyle at NTSU (now UNT) in the cafeteria of Bruce Hall, which was and still is the music dorm on campus. I had heard him play, and recognized that he was gifted and way beyond any of us at the school. Lyle was such a nice guy, and had a way of making me feel like I had talent worthy of his respect, so I never felt intimidated by him, only inspired. We became good friends, and shared a house on campus, which is still there. We had a grand piano in the living room, and we both had our suitcase Rhodes’ in our bedrooms, and a clavinet in the bathroom! I was able to hear and witness Lyle writing what would become Lab ’75, and remember him playing sections of the compositions for me to get my feedback.

When Lyle arrived on campus, we both competed for the (still) coveted top spot in the One 0’Clock Lab Band. I beat him out the first time because my reading was better. He quickly honed that skill, and beat me out the next semester, and when he left for the Woody Herman Band, I was back in the One O’Clock again, and when he left Woody’s band, I became the pianist in that band. Again, we were good friends through all of this, and remained so. I had a choice to either view him as a rival, or to learn and absorb as much as I could from him. I wisely chose the latter, and his music is still the most important influence on my musical life.

Leon Breeden, the director of the One O’Clock at the time, recognized the ‘one of a kind’ talent and genius that Lyle had, and to his credit turned the recording, production and composition of Lab ’75 over to Lyle. The result was one of the best albums to ever come out of that program. Lyle also had compositions in the previous year’s album, Lab ’74.

GENE GLOVER (percussion)
I met Lyle on his first or second day in Denton. January 1974. Rich Matteson, the jazz improvisation teacher at NTSU, had told Joe Anderies, Barry Coates and I that our group needed a new piano player and this guy Lyle Mays was coming after Christmas and we should grab him for our small group. We searched the practice rooms for a tall skinny guy with long hair practicing piano. We found him. We all went to get something to eat and to talk music. For the next 2 or 3 weeks we played a lot in the basement of Bruce Hall (musicians dorm).  We also did a lot of hanging out and playing Monopoly. Lyle enjoyed that stuff and was SUPER competitive. He did not like losing in anything. He would call me to do funky jam sessions or if Steve Houghton was busy I would sub for him. 

They had put Lyle in the 3:00 O'Clock band with Rich Matteson that Spring of 1974. He was definitely the talk of the jazz department. The lab band hall was an old cafeteria for a dorm or grade school and was open to the public during rehearsals. A lot of people dropped by to hear Lyle. 

During the spring of 1975 the One O'Clock played a large jazz festival in South Texas at Brownwood or Brownville, TX. Mr Breeden was already there and adjudicating. Leon had an assistant go down with the band and the bus. About an hour out of Denton, Lyle started chanting "we want beer." It got kind of loud and the assistant agreed to make a beer stop. Lyle got a bottle of Brandy and a lot of beer was purchased. Everybody got a buzz going and a jam session broke out on the bus. A few guys were smoking weed in the back of the bus and in the bathroom. After the buzz wore off, everybody started napping. We got into town around dinner time and we ate. Back on the bus Lyle started handing out my percussion instruments and got another thing going on. We pulled up at the high school and Mr. Breeden and about 500 kids were out front to greet us. Lyle led us off the bus singing and playing percussion stuff. I think Mr. Breeden almost had a stroke. It was pretty dang funny.