<HTML>Tom, I was going through my Pat Metheny CD archives, and I noticed that you'v= e been tuning Lyle Mays' piano for quite some time now...at least back to "F= irst Circle," which came out in 1984!  I've always enjoyed the sound of= his piano and his playing, and it's very cool that you've gotten credit in = the liner notes! As far as jazz recordings from the 50s and 60s, I've been listening to a= couple of Bill Evans recordings from that era, and the pianos sound almost = unbearably bad.  It's good to see that today's jazz artists are a bit m= ore discriminating, that they're gracious about what they ask for and how to= ask for it, and that they recognize the technician as an artist--even if th= e audiences generally don't. Thanks for the story about Ahmad Jamal, Richard.  Sounds like a goo= d experience!  He's a great player. Dave Stahl In a message dated 5/24/03 11:46:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time, tsheehan@n= yc.rr.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-= LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">As the tuner who tuned and = voiced this year's Grammy award-winning Best Contemporary Jazz Album by a Group - Pat Metheny Group's "Thinking of Now," - it makes the work go more efficiently when the pianist, in this = case Lyle Mays, is trusting enough to ask me to just get the piano "right" fo= r him. I think that it's a matter of rapport: with and confidence in the technician. As Herbie Hancock once said to me, "Tom, I always play bette= r when you tune the piano for me." I think that the specific and general s= ense of that statement is true. I am continually appalled by the lack of good= , solid tuning in jazz piano recordings from the 50s and 60s. E.g., "Time = Out" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet swings like crazy, but there's one ballad - "Strange Meadowlark" - that's so clearly out of tune that it's enough to almost make your toes curl. Anyway, I'm sure that you're keeping up the world-class standard that th= ese artists deserve! Sincerely, Tom Sheehan, RPT NYC Chapter</BLOCKQUOTE> </HTML>