Bobby Lyle was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 11,1944, to parents Robert and Elise Bobby Lyle.
16 Facts About Bobby Lyle
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Bobby Lyle grew up in a musical household after the family moved from Memphis to Minneapolis when Lyle was age 1.
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Bobby Lyle showed an early aptitude for music with his mother, a church organist, being his first piano teacher when he was aged just six years old.
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Bobby Lyle had already started playing jazz by ear, and by the time he attended Central High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota he came to the attention of drummer Harry Dillon who hired him to play in his trio at a private club in St Paul, Minnesota.
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Bobby Lyle was 16 years old and this was his first professional gig.
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Bobby Lyle then left to become a full time musician.
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Bobby Lyle was hired by ex Ramsey Lewis bandmates Redd Holt and Eldee Young to begin touring the national jazz club circuit as Young-Holt Unlimited.
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In 1970, aged 26, Bobby Lyle met and briefly played with Jimi Hendrix who was planning on starting a jazz-rock group with Bobby Lyle and fellow Minnesotans Willie Weeks and Bill Lordan before Hendrix's death later that year.
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Bobby Lyle's first recording opportunity came about as the result of winning an International organ competition sponsored by the Yamaha Music Corporation in 1973.
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The album, Bobby Lyle Plays the Electone GX707 was released in 1973 and became the first piece in a long career discography.
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In June, 1983 Bobby Lyle played keyboards with Al Jarreau at a concert held in Milan, Italy.
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In 2013 Bobby Lyle started his own label "New Warrior Music" to go with his Genie Productions company.
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On November 8,2020, Bobby Lyle was inducted into the Black Music Awards Hall of Fame in Houston, Texas.
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In 1997, Bobby Lyle was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction as Bette Midler's Music Director, and, in 2021 for his latest single "Living in the Flow".
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Bobby Lyle continues to perform with his own band and currently teaches and mentors jazz piano to students both privately as well as in clinics and seminars.
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Bobby Lyle encourages the pupils to write essays about why they wish to study music.