General Info

I live in Boston, right in town, and have found my niches making music for a living. I do some teaching too, but the focus of my life is still the music.

I basically knew I wanted to play music for a living since I was 13. I was fascinated by jazz going back to the age of 4, when I learned to work my parents’ record player. My favorite albums were Ahmad Jamal Live At the Pershing Lounge, Bill Evans’ Moonbeams, a Wes Montgomery album, and Martin Denny’s Quiet Village.

The most formative experience I had in 1980, when I attended Florida State University’s Summer Music Camp. It was a fantastic program, 2 weeks of jazz, and a week of classical. The level of musicianship was amazing to me. All the best high school musicians from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and some from as far away as Arkansas. In that part of the country, football was the sport, and in some areas, it was just the filler between the sets by the marching bands, which were phenomenal. The arrangements, the steps; many of those schools fed into such highly regarded bands such as FAMU (Florida A&M University). Among the attendees that year, a pianist whose abilities left me bewildered and inspired: a 16 year old named Marcus Roberts. He was in two of my classes; the big band, and improv lab. In the big band, the director would call out the chord changes to him while the rest of the band read the chart down. He only had to do that once, and not even that, if there was a braille chart for him to read. He was one of the highlights of the closing concert, which included Nat Adderly and Rich Matteson

By the time I got to high school in San Luis Obispo, CA, I had just enough knowledge and ability to participate in the Cuesta College Big Band, as the lead tenor, in conjunction with the SLO High School big band. I learned the basics of section playing, and developed an appreciation for the likes of Basie, Maynard, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Louis Bellson, all of whom I saw on several occasions, as well as Ellington and Kenton. All of this has served me well in my endeavors today, needless to say.

After high school, I went to college at Occidental, in Los Angeles. While I ended up majoring in Russian Language and Soviet Political Studies, a program of my own devising, I grew more and more active on the music scene of Los Angeles, and made many lasting friendships through music.

A friend told me about a place near USC that had jam sessions on the weekends, and the house had an organ, a Hammond B-3, instead of a piano. The place was Vina’s Jazz Corner, and the music was the real deal. I had many formative experiences there, and met many people who shaped my future, including Riney Bryson, who became one of my teachers. What I learned from Riney came to him from Harold Land, and from his own experience and research. Riney was quite a unique character, the only black man living in Chinatown in LA. He managed an apartment building, and lived there with the dog that adopted him, whom he called “Bebop.” He drove a ’68 Cadillac El Dorado, red, with working AC and power windows. We met at Vina’s. He said that I had a lot of potential, and that he could show me a lot of useful things about the horn and the music. I was a little suspicious at first, but after a couple of lessons, I began to see that he was on to something. In a nutshell, Riney was all about the spiritual and esoteric facets of the horn and the music, and himself attempted to follow the same path that Coltrane and Parker found, which led them to the sounds that made them unique. I stayed in touch with Riney, even after moving back to Portland, OR, and the last time I saw him was on may way out here, Boston, to study at Berklee. At that time, he had cancer of the esophagus, and was rather gaunt, no longer able to play the tenor, and only on some occasions, the soprano. I never recieved any further contact from him once the Summer of ’94 came, finding me in Spain. I had to assume he passed then, and the link that is attached to his name above is the first confirmation I found of his death. I still use many of the concepts I learned from him.

My other teacher in LA was Marty Krystall.

I met Marty through another friend from Oxy, Hugh Schick, a trumpet/piano player who played in a group called “Thelonious,” led by bassist Buell Neidlinger. This group played all Monk tunes, and really captured the spirit of them, rather than playing them like fake book tunes. Yet it didn’t sound like anyone else’s versions of these tunes either. Marty had such command of the instrument, and such spirit, and come to find out, doubled on everything but bassoon. He worked as a session musician for the film and TV studios, appearing on countless soundtrack recordings every year, and instilled in me the values of doubling at a very high level, reading anything put in front of me, knowing styles completely, and above all, sound. He always said, “don’t worry about playing a lot of notes. Everything comes from the sound you make.” In other words, if you have no sound, your imagination won’t give you ideas. These are words to live by, if you ask me. I try to teach them, as well.

Name: Tim Mayer

Birthday: April 11

Hometown: Boston, MA

Occupation: Musician/Teacher

Instruments: Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet, Bamboo Flutes

Styles: Jazz, Afro-Cuban, Exotica ,Cape Verdean

Schools: Berklee College of Music, Boston Arts Academy

Quote: “If crime fighters fight crime, and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?”-George Carlin

Upcoming Performances:

Every Thursday Night, starting at 9 pm, join me and my 5-piece Afro-Cuban Jazz Extravaganza, Los Cinco Elementos at Wally’s Cafe,

427 Mass. Ave (Columbus)

March 28: 7 PM Eguie Castrillo & His Orchestra at the Jorge Hernandez Cultural Center, 85 West Newton Street, Boston, Massachusetts

April 18: 9pm Ryles Jazz Orchestra Reunion, Ryles Jazz Club. “After a long hiatus, the Ryles Jazz Orchestra returns celebrating their 12th anniversary as a band. Trumpeter/Music Director, Frank Vardaros, started the Ryles Jazz Orchestra in 1997 keeping in mind the great tradition of a house big band in a major jazz venue (i.e. The Village Vanguard Band, Thad Jones Mel Lewis, Birdland Dream Band, to name a few).

May 5, 7pm Regattabar (Charles Hotel, Cambridge), The Three Tenors. A meeting of the minds and souls featuring Bill Pierce and Gordon Beadle. Rusty Scott, Keala Kaumeheiwa, and Luther Gray will back us up.

Upcoming Tours:

Nothing Confirmed at this time.

Recent Tours:

Oct. 31-Nov 2: Lawrence, Kansas. The Retro Cocktail Hour celebrates its 500th broadcast, featuring Waitiki.

July 22-27: Berlin Wassermusik Festival w/Waitiki

August 7-10: Colombus, OH Hot Rod Hula Hop w/Waitiki

August 14-17: San Diego, CA Tiki Oasis w/Waitiki

August 22-24: Univ. Of Virginia w/Hey Rim Jeon & Friends

Frequently Appears with:

Los Cinco Elementos (my group)

Rusty Scott (Quartet, Organ Quartet, Tough Tenor Tribute w/Bill Pierce, The Three Tenors w/Bill Pierce & Bill Easley)

Eguie Castrillo (Big Band, & 9 Piece Group)