A Jazz Star, Composition & Legos
[ NANCY ZELTSMAN ]
Lyle and I were close friends for a long time, especially in the late 80s/early 90s when he was based in Boston. There was a lively (classical) new music scene in Boston at the time, and performers like myself and composers, including members of creative consortia like Composers in Red Sneakers, pinched ourselves whenever we saw jazz star Lyle Mays in the audience! For Lyle, I came to learn it was pure fascination and delight to absorb the atmosphere amid this community of composers and the performers were eager to bring their notes to life. At one point, Lyle appeared as a guest composer!
At the party after the Sneakers’ concert when Lyle was a guest – which also marked the debut of my violin/marimba duo Marimolin (performing a piece by another composer) – my new duo partner and I asked Lyle to compose a piece for us, and he agreed! He first wrote a short piece for us called Gestures in which he performed with us on one of our concerts; and then the major piece Somewhere in Maine came in time to be released on our debut album, Marimolin.
A couple years into our friendship, Lyle told me one day (I’m paraphrasing), “I just remembered a notion I had as a little kid: that the true mark that I had succeeded in life would be if I could afford to buy all the Legos I could possibly desire!” So he took a drive to the North American headquarters for Legos in Connecticut and made a big purchase! He then set to work on a staggeringly creative Lego castle, complete with stairwells and landings (that were all structurally sound) — thus also scratching his itch to go deeper into architecture.
At certain periods, Lyle was one of my very closest friends. And for a few years, he was also my landlord!: I subletted the loft in which the castle photos were taken. After Lyle moved to L.A., we would occasionally have tremendously long talks by phone: three, four or five hours! – discussing all kinds of experiences, ideas we were churning, the state of the world, etc. Lyle’s genuine fascination with deep dives into things was very “cool!,” as he would often say. Those long talks with Lyle were a treasure among all the great experiences with friends in my life.
It was super cool that Lyle was a guest speaker at Zeltsman Marimba Festival (ZMF) 2008 and 2009, and especially that he composed “Eberhard” for the feature concert of his music, and performed the culminating event at ZMF 2009. (I also premiered his marimba solo “Mindwalk” during that two-week event). Because ZMF 2009 took place at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, WI, several of Lyle’s family members attended his featured concert — including his mother. Lyle noted she’d long had huge respect for events sponsored by a university, and so, this event – separate of all the world traveling he’d done by then, and playing at countless prestigious venues – made her deeply proud. He was very happy for that.
For me, Lyle’s participation at ZMFs were among numerous other inspiring, meaningful exchanges with Lyle. I was very excited for the opportunities to share his brilliance! For both festivals, I’d assembled a group of respected marimba and percussion teachers and eager students, and just wanted them to hear a musician as extraordinarily gifted and accomplished as Lyle share his outlooks about music.
Photo: Liz Linder