The George Cables Project @ Blue Note March 3 & 4, 2009
The George Cables Project @ Blue Note March 3 & 4, Produced by Jill Newman
THE GEORGE CABLES PROJECT
featuring Gary Bartz, Jeff “Tain” Watts & James Genus
PRODUCED BY JILL NEWMAN PRODUCTIONS
RETURNS TO THE BLUE NOTE
MARCH 3 & 4
8:00 pm and 10:30 pm
New
York, NY — After successful double organ transplant surgery, pianist
George Cables is back! On March 3 & 4, Cables makes his triumphant
return to the Blue Note, 131 West Third Street in New York, and finally
gets the chance to debut The George Cables Project, featuring Gary
Bartz (Saxophone), Jeff “Tain” Watts (Drums) and James Genus (Bass).
The George Cables Project, conceived by Jill Newman and George Cables
in 2003, has performed in venues worldwide. When the group was
scheduled to debut at the Blue Note on October 1, 2007, Cables, who had
been waiting for an organ transplant for months, was called into
surgery and the Project performed without him.
Set times are
at 8:00 pm and 10:30 pm. Tickets are $25 at tables and $15 at the bar,
with a $5.00 food and/or beverage minimum. For reservations and
information, call (212) 475-8592 or visit , trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw (“Blackstone
Legacy”), and vibist Bobby Hutcherson made Cables’ wide-ranging
keyboard skills, often on electric piano, amply evident. Demand for his
sensitive accompaniment increased and by the end of the 1970s, Cables
was garnering a reputation as everyone’s favorite sideman.
Perhaps
the most pivotal turn came when hard-bop legend Dexter Gordon invited
Cables into his quartet in 1977. The two years he spent with the
re-appreciated tenor giant ignited Cables’ passion for the acoustic
piano and re-immersed him in the bebop vocabulary. “I don’t feel that
one should be stuck in the mud playing the same old stuff all the time,
trying to prove that this music is valid, ” Cables says. “We don’t need
to prove anything. But I think you really have to be responsive to your
heritage and then go on and find your own voice.”
The longest
standing relationship Cables developed in the late seventies was with
alto saxophonist Art Pepper. Cables, who Pepper called “Mr. Beautiful,
” became Art’s favorite pianist, appearing on many quartet dates for
Contemporary and Galaxy, and joining Art for the extraordinary duet
album, Goin’ Home, that would be Pepper’s final recording session.
“I’ve been able to play with some of the greatest musicians in the
world, ” Cables says, but it’s funny, if you’re not seen as a
bandleader, doing the same thing a lot of times, it’s easy to wonder,
`Well, who are you really? What do you really feel?’ And sometimes I
have to ask myself that, because every time I play with somebody
different I have to put on a different hat.”
He has performed
and recorded with some of the greatest jazz musicians of our time,
including: Joe Henderson, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Sonny
Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Williams,
Bobby Hutcherson and Dizzy Gillespie.
George Cables has emerged
as a major voice in modern jazz. He is performing and recording as a
soloist, with trio and larger ensembles, and as a clinician in college
jazz programs. In addition to composing and arranging for his own
albums, George Cables has contributed to recordings by Dexter Gordon,
Art Pepper, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Bobby Hutcherson and many
others. He is noted for his fresh interpretations of classic
compositions and for his innovative style of writing.