George Cables - Icons & Influences (2014)

Jazz pianists are often judged by the company they keep. Some eventually become soloists and front their own groups, but most have to make their living as accompanists and collaborators, venturing out sporadically for solo or duo performances. Judged on such criteria, George Cables has certainly achieved the highest marks, as he has worked with some of the best front men in jazz. He grew up in New York and by his middle twenties was making his first recordings. He toured as part of the famed Art Blakey Jazz Messengers, together with trumpet player Woody Shaw. Soon after, both Cables and Shaw were on the West Coast and were playing and recording with saxophonist Joe Henderson and then with Shaw's own group. In the studio again for HighNote, Cables takes a lifetime of experience and distills it into an unhackneyed program of originals, standards and not-so-standards that pays tribute to those artists whose talent, personality and in some cases genius have left their indelible marks on George Cables the man and the musician.