The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 8, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 13, 1977 Page: 3 of 6
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T Tifjesday, September 13, 1977
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Photo by JON WHIT8ELL
Lyle Mays
plays softly at Pat Metheny's Sept. 6 show
The first steps in the elimination
process for the Miss Black NT Pageant
have been completed, and the field of
contestants has been narrowed to 12
finalists
The finalists in the Oct. 8 affair are
Theta Collins, Rhonda Crawford
Deborah Davis, Jacqueline Franklin,
Sheric Goodspeed, Dianne Harris,
Bridgettc McHenry, Marsha Pratt,
Agnes Sanford, Adrian Temple, Valerie
Tennyson and Sarita Williams.
Donald Cox, programming intern at
the Intercultural Services Office, said the
♦
SiiM IpMMI Mtt ■
THE NORTH TEXAS DAILY-PAGE 3
Pianist Mays Comes vHome' Again
By JOHN MARCHESE
Staff Writer
For convenience's sake, when writing
the history of the NT lab band program,
we might do well to designate times as
B.L. or A.L.—before or after the coming
of Lyle Mays.
Before making him out as any sort of
savior, it is necessary to mention that
even Leon Breeden, the director of the
One O'Clock Lab Band, will not give the
thin, frizzy-haired boy-wonder pianist
the appellation musical savior. No, he
simply won't go that far.
"He is a genius," Breeden said. "It
embarrasses him when I call him that,
but we used to introduce him jokingly as
our genius in residence."
THAT RESIDENCE seems to have
begun with the fall semester I973;
"seems" because there are conflicting
reports: Mays remembers it as 1975,
Breeden as 1973. But one thing is cer-
tain: after he first stepped behind a
piano in Lab Band Hall, Lyle Mays, and
probably the entire jazz education
program here, received a basic education
and hurtled to nationwide recognition.
The university is riding the crest.
Hundreds of anxious jazz musicians are
flocking here to become members of the
jazz ensemble that, playing Mays' com-
positions and arrangements, almost had
a Grammy.
In the meantime. Mays has gone on to
better things—if that is possible. In his
absence, the two years he spent here
have taken on an almost mythical
quality with people who never knew
him, and stories of his musician's ec-
centricities are passed on to each suc-
ceeding generation.
Here is one. When Mays was living
here he often got around campus on an
old bicycle, complete with balloon tires.
One night he took the bike for an ob-
stacle run.
Sounds harmless, except the course
was between chairs in Lab Band Hall;
the time of the run coincided with the
beginning of a 7 O'Clock Lab Band
rehearsal.
Here is another: While traveling with
the Woody Herman band the summer
after he left North Texas, Lyle was ap-
proached by a young musician, prepar-
ing to attend the school in the fall.
"Tell me," he asked Mays. "Tell me all
about North Texas State."
"WELL, IT'S A DRAG, man, but the
girls are pretty," replied Mays.
When confronted with these stories at
his return engagement here September 6
with Pat Metheny, whom Mays plays
and records with, the pianist-composer
was slightly taken aback.
"Yeah, I had a bicycle. Yeah, that
happened. I just decided to ride my bike
through Lab Band Hall for the fun of it.
"That was crazy. It totally disrupted
the rehearsal. It was kinda funny at the
time."
AND THE ADVICE for a prospec-
tive student? Do you remember that one,
Lyle?
"Well, it could have happened. I
wasn't thinking too much then, you
know," he said. "I was just getting on
and off the bus."
His bus riding days lasted about 10
months. Mays left Woody Herman in
March 1976 to make a living in New
York City. A move, that, in musician
lore anyway, has led as often to starva-
tion as to success.
But this was Lyle Mays and he was
successful, playing various freelance gigs
around the city, and getting into the
"funk and R&B thing around New
York."
MAYS HAS MOVED on again; this
time to Boston.
"I just got a house in Cambridge. The
real suburban middle-class thing.
"I moved because I started playing
with Pat (Metheny). Since I'm traveling
Outakes
Miss Black NT Pageant Selects Finalists
12 girls were selected after interviews
and a talent competition and stressed
that the contest is not a "beauty"
pageant.
ART EXHIBIT
An exhibit featuring prints from the
collection of the Wichita Falls Art
Museum begins its first full day today in
the University Art Gallery.
Included in the exhibition are limited
edition books and broadsides by Sandi
Fellman, John Risseeuw, Cathie Ruggie,
Buy 1 dozen alazed
denuts fcr S1.49
Cs^,
0
Susan Wineberg and Judy Youngblood
Prints by Andy Warhol, Robert
Motherwell and Jasper Johns are in the
exhibit, which is open noon to 5 p.m.
Monday through Friday and ends Sept.
23.
BLUE KEY
Members of the Blue Key Honor
Fraternity will meet tonight at 7 in the
Student Association area on the fourth
floor of the University Union.
Those eligible to join must have at
least junior classification, a 3.0 grade
point average, belong to two campus
organizations and hold at least one ma-
jor office on campus.
COMMUNICATION
The NT chapter of Women in Com-
munications, Inc. (WICI) will hold an
Campus Calendar
Get a dozen
Free Holes
■ B
■ Good thru September 17 with this 3
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I Davis Purity Bakery S
• 700 W. Hickory 387-6712 J
Today
10 30a m
Rush Hashanh, High Holy Day
services. United Ministries Center
2:30 p.m
Psi Chi meeting, University Union
411
4:30 p.m.
Women in Communications, Inc
meeting, University Union 417
6 p.m.
Rock Bottom Lounge auditions
6:30 p.m.
Chess Club meeting, University
Union 4I8.
6.30 p.m.
Sigma Tau Delta meeting, 231$
Willowood.
7 p.m
Blue Key Honor Fraternity meeting.
Student Association area, University
Union.
7pm
Intervarsity Christian Fellowship
meeting, 1600 W Hickory
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so much I thought it would be cheaper
and safer not being in Boston than not
being in New York," he said.
Mays has changed his style in the two
years since he left the lab bands. In fact,
he has come to the realization that big
bands are not for him, as a composer.
"I'M INTERESTED in composition
and in trying to get an ensemble that
really is adaptable to the composition
I'm hearing," he said. "The big band
just doesn't seem to fit that; and the
orchestra doesn't seem to be it. There's
something in between that has to have
the looseness and the jazz flavor and
players that are creative and in-
novative."
For now, Mays said, the Pat Metheny
Group supplies this. He and Metheny
have been collaborating on composi-
tions which work around a guitar-piano
"section."
"I tried dividing up the standard sec-
tions (of a big band) as much as pos-
sible," Mays said. "And I got many
more sound possibilities. But that's still
not enough."
THE METHENY GROUP is
diametrically opposed to the lab bands
which performed such Mays composi-
tions as, "Overture to the Royal
Mongolian Summa Foosball Festival,"
and "F.M." (The lab band legend states
that the title means "Funk Me," but
Breeden would not allow that title to go
on the cover of the Grammy-nominated
Lab '75 album, which Mays produced.)
"The success of that album is really
amazing," Mays said.
"I don't know how to explain it."
Breeden does.
"HE'S AN ARTIST. His artistry,
combined with the great playing, made
that album what it is," Breeden said
"The level of writing he developed al-
lowed him to use the band in a beautiful
way. And just as he made an impact on
the educational world, now he's making
an impact on the professional world."
Mays' view of the educational world is
focused on people, he said, rather than
programs.
"I think the reputation the school has
is more for the players who go through
here than for its programs," he said.
One of the things players have to do,
everywhere in the music school, but
Photo by VINCE ^€PrlQ
Hard Hat
Lyle Mays gets a tour of
the new Music Building's
construction site from
Charlie Oatman, inspector.
perhaps most intensely in the lab band
department, is audition.
"I only made the 2 O'Clock," he said.
Except when school started, he was no
longer in the 2 O'Clock Lab Band. "I
spent the first semester in the 3 O'Clock;
I had an English class at two," he said.
Oh, so Lyle Mays, the consummate
musician, was also a good student? Not
really, he said, "I was a sixth semester
sophomore when I split."
Despite his classification, Breeden
said, "he was extremely mature. I
couldn't believe it was the same person.
"HE'S DESTINED—if he gets some
breaks—and stays straight, to be
another Chick Corea or Herbie Han-
cock."
Again, Lyle is a bit surprised. "It's
amazing the success we've had," he said.
"I expected it to be much rougher.
"It's not easy, but we've been meeting
with good success. The Pat Metheny
Group is really hot at the moment.
We're going to Oslo in November to do
another album with ECM.
"And I'm still young, I got time,"
organizational meeting today at 4;30
p.m. in the University Union 417 for old
and new members.
WICI is a professional organization
established to unite and promote women
in all fields of communications.
Membership is open to majors in jour-
nalism, radio, television and film and
speech communication with a 2.5 overall
grade average and a 3.0 average on
communications courses.
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Winingham, Ralph. The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 8, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 13, 1977, newspaper, September 13, 1977; Denton, TX. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth332450/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.