happy birthday lyle

i've written about him already. my one musical hero, someone who speaks musically. and who i really feel i understand, i empathize with. let's have a quick look at his life, from my point of view:

• at age 20, lyle mays met pat metheny. living in new york and co-founding the pat metheny group, the idealist was living for music - and almost starving, literally.
• at age 23, lyle and pat joined up with eberhard weber and nana vasconcelos (by request of the great manfred eichner) to record "watercolors" in ludwigsburg, my father's home town. trully great music, beyond jazz for sure.
• at age 24, lyle and pat recorded the first pat metheny group album, self-intitled and known today as "the white album". another landmark. with lyle mays having the first solo in the groups history, a 5-minute solo even, in the tune "san lorenzo".
• at age 26, he records his (for me historic) solo in "the search", from the american garage album.
• at age 27, he puts out a duo album with pat, supported by nana: as falls wichita, so falls wichita falls is one of the best albums ever, and lyle's work on "ozark" and "september fifteenth" is legendary.
• at age 28, he collaborates with the german bassist eberhard weber and plays the piano on "maurizius".
• at age 29, he wins his first of eleven grammy awards for the group's live album "travels".
• at age 30, he presents us with his participation in the classic "first circle".
• at age 32, he records my all-time favorite album, and his first solo effort "lyle mays", with eight simple incredible tracks. that's music. no categories, just music.
• at age 33, my current age, he was recording such tunes as "last train home" and "minuano" for the album still life: talking, pmg.
• at age 34, his second album comes out, with some really great moments in street dreams.
• at age 35, he records "letter from home". 
• at age 36, he collaborates with bobby mcferrin on the album "medicine music", with the song "common threads".
• at age 41, he playes his solo on "to the end of the world" and his incredible composition "episode d'azur", both on the pmg album "we live here".
• at age 42, his musical sensitivity plays a great role in pmg's improvisational album "quartet", a great conceptual success.
• at age 43, what a fantastic job with "imaginar day" and some legendary piano work on "the heat of the day" and, most of all, "the awakening".
• at age 46, his fourth solo effort "solo" comes out - and it is precious!
• at age 48, some really great work and improvising on "speaking of now", pmg's 2002 output.
• at age 51, lyle was the mastermind behind the 68 minute long track "the way up", pmg's masterpiece.

yesterday was lyle may's 57th birthday. we miss your music, man!