Greg Lyons

Since around 1982 in London, Greg has been pursuing a band sound of his own. One of his first groups at this time was Cowan Street (named after the road Greg lived on which was demolished and became a park for residents of the nearby tower block to let off steam in). The band featured pianist Steve Melling, bassist Phil Steriopulos and drummer Clark Tracey.

His first recording was in 1986 of a 5-piece band called Playtime with pianist Ugo Delmirani, drummer Steve Creese, guitarist Paul Dunn and bassist Dudley Phillips. The band was a finalist in the London area of the Virgin Schlitz competition which launched the careers of Andy Sheppard and Itchy Fingers. This band also recorded a program for the BBC during that year with a slightly expanded version with guitarist John Parricelli but which also included pianist Huw Warren and percussionist Bosco De Oliveira who along with bassist Dudley Phillips became part of a quartet which started to define the group sound they were all after.

Largely due to the economic recession of the early '90s, Greg shifted base to Asia and worked with the group Face First for the next 5 years recording the album Face First for Universal in 1996. He then formed a quintet with drummer Lewis Pragasam and percussionist Steve Thornton which recorded a live album Up To You in 1998 and the studio album Island To Island in 2001 which also featured Christy Smith on bass and Mei Sheum on piano.

During this time Greg started the Emergency Break Ensemble, a 19-piece big band which evolved out of his arranging classes at the International College Of Music in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This band reawakened his large-ensemble arranging ear and though it was ultimately too large to find work for, it had triggered Greg's arrangers ear and spawned the funk outfit Biophonics and the Nonet.

In 2005 he formed and toured Asia with Global Spirit, which along with his regular sidemen Lewis Pragasam and Christy Smith also featured Finnish pianist Jarmo Savolainen and British trumpeter Damon Brown.

Since 2006 he has led 2 main ensembles: A small group: currently The Greg Lyons Quartet  (featuring various sidemen including organists Chok Kerong and Mei Sheum, bassists William Gathright, Marcus Dengate and Casey Subramaniam, and drummer Darren Moore); and Omniform, a 10-piece focused on Greg's original compositions and arrangements. Both groups continue to perform regularly at Singapore's renaissance live music venue: Blu Jaz Cafe.