Prayers for George Cables, Please

[ghost of miles]

Listening to George at the moment (Village Vanguard Sessions)

With Art Pepper?

Yep--also really dig their duo recordings. Do you have the Dexter Keystone sides--either as singles or the Mosaic Select?

No, but I'll bet if you do a Night Lights about it, I will!

Used one cut from that set in this show about late-70s Dex--same cut is up on the Mosaic website, along with "It's You or No One."

[danasgoodstuff]

My best wishes for Mr. Cables. (period)

[danasgoodstuff]

My best wishes for Mr. Cables. (period)

[gslade]

Listening to George at the moment (Village Vanguard Sessions)

With Art Pepper?

Thanks Ghost, I should have listed Pepper

I have the K2 of that box in very good sound

[Chuck Nessa]

All wishes for a painless ordeal. From my limited exchanges he seemed to be a sweet guy.

[Patrick]

hopefully he still is.

[king ubu]

All the best to George Cables - time to play the Pepper Vanguard box again... and their duos and stuff on Galaxy.

(Gee, what drama!)

[ValerieB]

latest news is that George is doing better and is out of ICU!! hurrah!!

[B. Goren.]

latest news is that George is doing better and is out of ICU!! hurrah!!

Good news.

[Guest Bill Barton]

latest news is that George is doing better and is out of ICU!! hurrah!!

Excellent news! Thanks for updating us, Valerie.

[EKE BBB]

George Cables Healing Fund

Just received this email from the official Dexter Gordon website:

George Cables Healing Fund

George Cables, extraordinary pianist and composer, is currently recovering from double transplant surgery. If you love Dexter Gordon, you must love George Cables too.

Please join us in supporting George by sending him a get well message and a donation to his Healing Fund.

Mailing Address:

George Cables

218-23 30th Ave

Laurelton, NY 11413

This is from George Cables' website [News section]:

George received a kidney and liver transplant after being on a waiting list for a long time. We are so thankful to inform you that George is now at home. We know he would appreciate hearing from you. Please just click on his contact page and you can send your message.

And on the upper right side of his website, there's a "Healing Fund" link that leads you to this message:

George Cables' Healing Fund

As many of you know, George Cables received a liver and kidney transplant in early October 2007. His recovery is going very well, but of course, bills are mounting. We have set up the "George Cables Healing Fund" to help offset some of George's expenses. The money will go directly to George with no operational costs (except what PayPal takes out) or administrative costs. George will also get a copy of every donation made.

Peace and light

Lois Gilbert

jazzcorner.com

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

If you love Dexter Gordon, you must love George Cables too.

if i was writing that letter i would never of said something like this in it, pssft. this is disrepectful to g.c

[king ubu]

Cables is what... Dexter's appendix?

Best wishes to him, Dexter or not!

[Elissa]

I remember talking to him once when he had just returned from a trip to Africa; I think it was at the Jazz Standard one night? Hilarious and adamant, in that spiced-sugar GC mode: what they don't do there, he said, was improvise.

Much love to George.

[troyk]

George Cables is a transcendent jazz pianist and a beautiful and giving spirit and I will think about him now and often.

I won’t claim him as a friend, but have had an opportunity for the last several years to spend a little time around him at a jazz festival every July and he is just absolutely marvelous in every way. I’ll admit that I’ve been a little concerned about him the last few times and I knew something was wrong when he wasn’t there this year.

I have two really defining experiences with him that I’ll share. The first musical, he was playing with John Clayton and Victor Lewis in this small venue that was packed at about 1.5x it’s fire code capacity and you could have heard a pin drop. People were standing in doorways and sitting on the stairs, just listening to piano trio. It was just one of those places and times where perfect music was happening. He was completely at ease musically and otherwise and the group was right there with him.

The other was a different year, I think and we were standing on the grass outside of a venue and I had a chance to chat with him. (by the way, I’m nobody of any importance) I had talked to him before about how much I liked his playing and we had talked about Dexter. On this day I said that I always wondered about some of Dexter’s arrangements, how they came to be, did he score them and bring people into the studio or did they work them out there or what? Very casual comment, just to have something to talk to George Cables about for a few seconds, but he started talking about Manhattan Symphony and went over to a piano that was pushed up against the building, pulled it out and started talking to me about the intro they used on Body and Soul and how it was like ‘Trane, but not and how long Dex and been using it and what they talked about and how the session went. To me, those little glimpses into the music and the history are priceless. Maybe he knew that or maybe he just likes talking to people, but either way it was a great gift for me.

Rest and get better Mr. Baggy Pants! You’re loved and respected.

[Bluerein]

Great stories Troy!!! Thanks for sharing them with us. Let us all donate something for him through the fund (I did so some weeks ago).

[troyk]

Great stories Troy!!! Thanks for sharing them with us. Let us all donate something for him through the fund (I did so some weeks ago).

I was telling my wife about this at lunch and she reminded me that she took this picture of the conversation that I was writing about this morning. It's a bit self indulgent, but it makes me happy to remember that day. I think it made him happy to be talking about it. He was pounding those chords out, talking about the session. Beautiful guy. Maybe it will make some of you smile too.

I'm the one who doesn't look like George Cables.

Edited November 30, 2007 by troyk

[Bluerein]

With the cap or with the long hair?

[Bluerein]

Just received a "thank you" card from George. Very nice gesture and it shows he's getting better. Let's hope we can see/hear him in concert again soon!!!!

[sidewinder]

Just received a "thank you" card from George. Very nice gesture and it shows he's getting better. Let's hope we can see/hear him in concert again soon!!!!

Nice to hear !

[Clunky]

How's George ?

[Mark Stryker]

George is scheduled to play this weekend in Detroit with Steve Turre's Quintet (Billy Harper, Buster Williams, Deon Parsons). Don't know the specifics of George's health, but obviously a wonderful sign that he's on the gig and traveling.

[Christiern]

That is, indeed, good news.

[ValerieB]

i heard George play a couple of weeks ago in l.a. with freddie hubbard, james spaulding, slide hampton, roy mccurdy, david weiss and dwayne burno. he sounded fabulous. i even went back two nights later. he also played a trio gig while he was here. he seems to have lots of gigs lined up. he is obviously much better but still has quite a road ahead of him as he apparently will need to receive another kidney transplant within the next year or so.

[WorldB3]

i heard George play a couple of weeks ago in l.a. with freddie hubbard, james spaulding, slide hampton, roy mccurdy, david weiss and dwayne burno. he sounded fabulous. i even went back two nights later. he also played a trio gig while he was here. he seems to have lots of gigs lined up. he is obviously much better but still has quite a road ahead of him as he apparently will need to receive another kidney transplant within the next year or so.

I saw him a few weeks ago with Hubbard, Spaulding and Hutcherson. I thought he sounded great and I felt privledge to have finally gotten the chance to see him.