Artist's albums
Summer Sketches
2001 · album
Charles Cochran Meets Bill Mays
2000 · album
Gone With The Wind
1993 · album
The Maybeck Recital Series, Vol. 26
1993 · album
One To One 2
1991 · album
One To One
1990 · album
Ivory Jazz
2021 · album
Telepathy
2019 · album
Mays Plays Mays
2019 · album
Our Time: Sondheim Duos, Vol. 2
2013 · album
Mays at the Movies
2010 · album
Out in Pa
2009 · album
Beyond The Red Door
2007 · album
Fantasy
2007 · album
Bick's Bag
2004 · album
Going Home
2003 · album
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Biography
A fine pianist, Bill Mays has often worked behind the scenes, leading to him being a somewhat overlooked jazz improviser. Mays worked in Los Angeles as a studio musician from the late '60s on, accompanying Sarah Vaughan (1972-1973) and Al Jarreau (1975), but mostly doing session work. In the early '80s, he began to record jazz as a sideman with Howard Roberts, Bud Shank, Bobby Shew, Road Work Ahead, and Mark Murphy. He recorded a duet date with Red Mitchell for ITI (1982) and led a quintet album for Trend (1983). In 1984, Mays moved to New York and since then he has worked with Murphy, Gerry Mulligan, Ron Carter, James Moody, Sonny Stitt, Art Pepper, and the Mel Lewis Orchestra, among others. In the late 80's Mays recorded for DMP (duet records with Ray Drummond) and in 1992 released several discs on Concord. These dates found Mays in a variety of settings, beginning with the unaccompanied Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Vol. 26 (Bill Mays at Maybeck), followed by a trio date An Ellington Affair, a duet with guitarist Ed Bickett Concord Duo, Vol. 7: Bill Mays and Ed Bickert and finallly backed by a full band on Mays in Manhattan. In 2001 the pianist recorded his 11th album as a leader and his first for the Palmetto label, Summer Sketches, followed two years later by Going Home. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi