Jazz Pianist George Cables at 80

Jazz pianist George Cables on the cover of his new album (from the album’s Amazon.com Web page)

Listening to I Hear Echoes, the latest album released by jazz pianist George Cables in celebration of his 80th birthday, I was reminded of having an opportunity to listen to another jazz pianist in performance, Tommy Flanagan. I had been in New York on a business trip and spent an evening that was probably near to the end of his life, listening to him lead a trio with two young colleagues, the sum of whose two ages would probably have fallen short of his own. On I Hear Echoes Cables also leads a trio with younger colleagues, whose ages are somewhat more advanced. His bassist is Essiet Essiet, who is a little over a decade younger than Cables. The “junior member” of the trio is Jerome Jennings on drums, who is in his mid-forties.

The advance material I received for this album describes Cables as “a musician who has not only shaped jazz history but continues to influence its evolution.” Listing to the eleven tracks on  I Hear Echoes, I can attest to the validity of that claim. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any booklet with notes about the eleven tracks being performed. Thus, one is left in a situation similar to that of listening to the trio performing in a club setting without the pianist taking the trouble to provide a few background remarks to his audience over the course of the evening. Indeed, aside from the tracks that I recognized (“Prelude To a Kiss” and “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To”), I had no idea how many of the selections were Cables originals, let alone why they were composed. Apparently, HighNote Records does not believe that the best listeners are informed listeners!

[added 11/25, 9:45 a.m: I just received the PDF of the booklet that HighNote created for this album. It is definitely an asset for those that take listening to jazz seriously! To be fair, my source for this album was the Play MPE Web site. The good news is that the site provided information about the producers, and HighNote was only to happy to “fill the gap” that Play MPE had opened! Clearly, HighNote does have informed listeners in mind in their productions! Nevertheless, I have to report that I just checked the above Amazon Web site. In addition to the usual link for purchasing the CD, there are links for both download and streaming; and, as of this writing, neither of them provides access to the booklet.]