Bassist Lyles West- 5.25.21

“Improvisation’s a mysterious thing, man.”In this episode I connect with an old friend- the incredible bassist/composer Lyles West, a luminary of the Dallas jazz scene for 3 decades. Lyles discusses his roots in the backwoods of Lenoir, North Carolina- at 7, performing with his father in an Old Time Mountain band- and his post-college move to Chapel Hill as a member of the local-legend jazz trio “Hands” with the late great Frank Kimbrough. I was lucky to join that band, as we made our journey from NC to Washington, DC, and finally to NYC in 1981. But Lyles’ twisty saga continues on to Miami and to Plano, Texas, with stops in Marseilles, and Monaco, and included creating musical bonds with Shirley Horn to Junior Cook to Charles Brown to Ira Sullivan. He also once had his own aviary with close to 100 birds, is a French cuisine/wine connoisseur, and happens to be one of the most musical bassists I’ll ever know. His inventive and beautiful playing on our duets is the proof in the bouillabaisse.