Central Pennsylvania Friends of Jazz

The Central PA Friends of Jazz will return to Mt. Gretna's Playhouse again 1n 2019 for the main Festival Concert - this year's special guest performer is master jazz pianist GEORGE CABLES!  His trio features heralded drummer Victor Lewis and bassist Ed Howard.             

Born in New York City in 1944, Cables was classically trained as a youth and when he started at the “Fame” Worthy High School of Performing Arts, he admittedly “didn’t know anything about jazz.” But he was soon smitten with the potential for freedom of expression he heard in jazz.  Cables attended Mannes College of Music for two years. Gigs around New York attracted attention to Cables’ versatility and before long he had played on Max Roach’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and earned a brief 1969 tenure at the piano bench with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. A 1969 tour with tenor titan Sonny Rollins took Cables to the West Coast. By 1971 he became a significant figure in the jazz scenes of Los Angeles and San Francisco. 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 tenor giant ignited Cables’s passion for the acoustic piano and immersed him in the bebop vocabulary.  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.  He has performed and recorded with some of the greatest jazz musicians of our time, including: Joe Henderson, Roy Haynes, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Sarah Vaughn, Tony Williams, Bobby Hutcherson and Dizzy Gillespie. He is noted for his fresh Interpretations of classic compositions and for his innovative style of writing.

Ed Howard - bass                 Victor Lewis - drums   PRODUCED BY THE CENTRAL PA FRIENDS OF JAZZ AND GRETNA MUSIC