Mere weeks before Lyle Mays’ unexpected passing in February of 2020, the gifted pianist and composer made one last artistic statement. “Eberhard” was a song he originally composed in 2009 for the Zeltsman Marimba Festival but over time he ended up with a thirteen minute, through-composed semi-symphonic piece finally recorded in the months before his death.
On several levels, “Eberhard” touches on virtually the entire span of Mays’ musical career. The namesake of this track is Eberhard Weber, the great German bassist who played alongside Mays on the latter’s first-ever recording credit, Pat Metheny’s 1977 album Watercolors, and for whom Mays did a rare sideman turn on Weber’s 1982 disc Later That Evening.
For the “Eberhard” recording, Mays brought in fifteen musicians. Two of them – guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Alex Acuna – appeared on Mays’ 1986 self-titled debut. Woodwinds notable Bob Sheppard played in Mays’ 90s touring band. Mays’ close friend and Pat Metheny Group compatriot Steve Rodby contributed acoustic bass as well as co-produced the track.
But the strongest indicator that this song is vintage Lyle Mays is the song itself. Although this is another homage to Weber by a major member of the Pat Metheny Group, the song is unmistakably ripe with Lyle Mays hallmarks that became integrated into the signature PMG sound.
There’s the intricate but light atmospherics that was common in Pat Metheny Group songs as well as the elaborate, chamber music-like sonic architecture. Much of the first half is a windup, much the same way “Au Lait” from PMG’s Offramp progresses. Wade Culbreath’s marimba supplies most of the pulse as Mays’ affective piano rides over soaring wordless vocals and the barely-noticeable backdrop of synthesizer sheen. As Acuna’s dynamic drums comes into view, the song steers through a series of short, interesting figures.
At the full flowering of this performance, a pretty melody presents itself in deep splendor, a mellifluous pattern that seems straight out of Still Life (Talking). Like PMG records of that era, the vocals are deployed deadly effectively in enriching already-rich melodic ideas.
Though there are a lot of familiar traits heard, there also exists a few surprises, like the vocal scatting by Aubrey Johnson done in concert with marimbas. A cello quartet finds a comfortable spot here alongside Mitchel Forman’s B3 and electric piano and Frisell’s electric guitar. That quartet is heard most clearly at the hushed ending that strongly resembles the hushed beginning. The full circle made by the song serves perhaps unintentionally as a metaphor for Mays’ musical journey as a whole.
Rodby states that had Lyle Mays survived his illness, he was ready to come fully out of hiatus and make more music. Certainly, his muse had returned and he could have made another superb full album to add to his too-spare solo catalog. Instead, “Eberhard” will have to serve as a bittersweet coda, a precious keepsake from a largely unsung brilliant musician who left us – as we learn here – still at the height of his powers.
Eberhard will be made available as a single-track album on August 27, 2021.
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