“People want to be a part of what you’re doing.” says jazz pianist Bobby Lyle, who plays in clubs and concert halls all over the world. “They don’t understand everything you’re doing, but you’ve got to make them feel something, and feel like they can relate to it on some kind of level, you know? You can play as complex as you want but at some point in your presentation, you better play with some heart, too.”

This being Houston, where there is a avid audience for jazz, but not a whole lot of places to go and hear it played, it’s quite possible you have yet to hear pianist and Hammond B-3 master Bobby Lyle. Although based in Houston since 2000, Lyle’s gigs usually take him to L.A. or New York City, so local performances are few and far between.

The buzz among those lucky enough to have witnessed his scorching set on B-3 last April at Discovery Green with saxophonist Everette Harp, or his 2010 “unplugged” duet with Harp at Zilka Hall to benefit Musiqa’s educational programming, or recent appearances with trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis as part of the Divas World Jazz Series, is if you see the name Bobby Lyle on an upcoming program, do not miss that show. Otherwise, shame on your music loving self.

I was blown away by Lyle’s ability to play an incredible variety of piano styles, often within the context of a single tune, when I first heard him last November at the Musiqa benefit concert. Shifting gears after first playing a couple of originals by Harp, the duo headed into standards territory taking well-loved tunes into the stratosphere. Their freewheeling set included John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps,” a Lyle-only rendition of “Body and Soul,” and a startling yet perfectly timed drop of the Marvin Gaye classic “What’s Goin’ On?”

Lyle also played one percussive piece of new jack swing entirely inside the piano. The whole time, you felt Lyle was as attuned to the audience as he was to his onstage “co-conspirator” Harp.

Lyle’s recorded output includes plenty of albums for the “smooth jazz” market, including the beautifully recorded and arranged Ivory Dreams and The Journey. 1991’s Piano Magic is a rare solo piano recording from Lyle that includes sophisticated and funky interpretations of jazz standards, such as Bill Evans’ “Waltz For Debbie” and Miles Davis’ “So What.”

Lyle has also recorded wild, genre busting fusion albums like 1977’s The Genie, which stands alongside similarly expansive and experimental records from that time period by artists such as Ramsey Lewis, George Duke, or Quincy Jones. The artists Lyle has performed, recorded and/or toured with come from just about every genre of music imaginable, including Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Pharoah Sanders, Al Jarreau, Bette Midler, Anita Baker and George Benson.

There are an incredible range of possibilities for artistic ventures in the course of a career in music. To quote my friend saxophonist Michael Veal: "Break those codes, in the name of beauty." Let's get started...

Early Years

Shortly after he was born, Lyle’s family relocated from Memphis to Minneapolis, joining the post-war migration of many African Americans from the south to northern urban centers. So how did a teenage Bobby Lyle, growing up in the 1950’s, learn to play jazz, not to mention R&B, funk, and rock and roll?

“The jazz thing sort of came by me listening to records and hearing things by ear and trying to pick them out on the piano.” Lyle recalls. He credits his mother as his first teacher at the piano. “My mom’s brother was a high school band teacher down in Memphis and also a big jazz afficionado. So he ‘d come in the summertime and bring all the latest Miles and Trane and Errol Garner. So I got to hear everybody.”

Back then there were no “jazz studies” programs for young people. The way you learned to play this music was to play it out in front of an audience, usually in clubs that catered to a clientele Lyle describes as “night people.” Lyle played his first professional gig in a private club at the tender age of 16. As his name got around and more gigs came his way, older musicians, including drummer and singer Harry Dillon, looked out for Lyle making sure he stayed on “the straight and narrow.”

From the very beginning, Lyle was learning how to entertain people as an instrumentalist. And it was a lot of work. Lyle says: “I had to be listening to a LOT of music in order to be able to bring something to the table. I had to learn (these songs) and woodshed, you know? It’s something for a kid who’s also going to high school and having to deal with that curriculum.”

At a club called Big Al’s, Lyle had a fortuitous encounter with the great Hammond B-3 player Jimmy Smith who was playing upstairs while Lyle finished up his set with the house band downstairs. Inspired by Smith’s ability to “manipulate the organ,” Lyle introduced himself. “At the time (Smith) was like a black belt in karate. So when he shook my hand he almost broke my little fingers!”

Going forward, Lyle practiced on organ whenever and wherever one was available, including gigs playing for strippers at a club on Hennepin Avenue. “Those were really wild and crazy days,” says Lyle. “Because in addition to learning to play music, I was learning about life and seeing a whole other level of night people, prostitutes, gambling, and after-hours joints. Being able to observe all of that without being sucked into it was probably my biggest blessing.”

Lyle was also blessed with what he describes as “the burning desire” to become as good a player as he could be. “The one thing you cannot teach (a young musician) is the desire to really want to do this. A parent can bring their kid over and pay me for the lessons, but that (desire) has to be there in order for the kid to move from one level to the next.”

Jazz Purism

Lyle admits that as a young man, in spite of the crazy, alcohol-fueled atmosphere of many of the venues he played, he was a “jazz purist.” But by the time Lyle decided to relocate his family from Minneapolis to L.A., he had listened to and absorbed R&B, rock and roll and reggae to such a degree that his first West Coast job – touring with “the funkmeister” Sly Stone – felt perfectly natural.

“When Ramsey Lewis came out with ‘The In-Crowd’ and Les McCann and those guys came out with the funky, church-y jazz that they did….a lot of people tuned in (to jazz) that weren’t tuned in before. Even though they were excoriated by the critics for daring to stray from this "traditional" path. What’s traditional?”

Lyle would go from touring with Sly Stone to a gig with avant-garde saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, who was making moves in a “more commercial” realm but whose exploratory live sets were as extreme as anything being played at that time in free jazz. “I know from playing this music all my life that the beauty of it is that it’s not a museum piece,” says Lyle. “It’s always open to reinterpretation and reinvention. I think it insures the longevity of the music when each generation can put their stamp on it or their own twist on it. It’s not a museum piece. Otherwise we’d all still be playing like King Oliver.”

Stewardship and a Sixth Sense

Lyle describes performing his composition “Viva Mandela” from his 1990 album The Journey at a concert for the South African activist and soon to be President Nelson Mandela as one of the highlights of his musical life. Lyle composed and recorded The Journey shortly after the passing of his first wife. The intense emotions he was experiencing were channeled into the creation of The Journey, which reached No. 1 on Billboard’s jazz chart.

Artists often find themselves creating work without the foresight of its profundity. Many jazz musicians, when describing composing or improvising, speak of being a channel for something larger than them. “I feel that a lot,” says Lyle when asked about this. “I feel that we operate with this sixth sense that, you know, normal people don’t really have.”

Along with that sense, blessing, gift, or whatever one wants to call it, comes a responsibility. “Whatever (musical) gifts we are given, along with that goes a stewardship. Which means that you’re obligated to nurture it, to share it, to teach it to others, to give back. Otherwise I would just sit here in my living room and groove myself!”

Lyle’s current band includes Houston-based musicians guitarist and bassist Brennen Nase, drummers Mark Simmons and Patrick Williams, and D.C. based drummer Mark Prince. In addition to recording and performing, as well as conducting jazz seminars across the country and continuing to teach privately, Lyle is at work on a book about piano technique and the history of jazz. His music, including the first track from 1977’s The Genie, his solo piano recording Piano Magic which includes his inside the piano opus “Finger Rap,” and recent smooth jazz hits like Hands On and The Power of Touch, is available on amazon.com and iTunes.

Very special thanks to Bobby Lyle for taking time to speak with me and to Marlon Scott for the introduction.