Personnel
George Cables – piano
Essiet Essiet – bass
Jerome Jennings – drums
Tracklist
1. Echoes of a Scream
2. Echoes
3. So Near So Far
4. Morning Song
5. Prelude to a Kiss
6. Clockwise
7. Like a Lover
8. You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To
9. Blue Nights
10. Journey to Agartha
11. Peace
Additional Credits
Produced by George Cables
Associate producer: Joanne Klein
Executive Producer: Barney Fields
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Katherine Miller
Recorded at Sear Sound, New York, NY on January 30 and May 2, 2024
Additional recording at Big Orange Sheep Studio, Brooklyn, NY
Photography by Roberto Cifarelli – (www.robertocifarelli.com)
When one has played, heard and seen all that pianist/composer George Cables has during his eighty years on the planet, more than sixty of them spent leading his own bands and working with many of the greatest names in jazz, (including Art Blakey, Roy Haynes and Sonny Rollins, to name just a few) they are sure to have plenty of sounds and scenes “echoing” through their mind. On this, his seventh effort for HighNote, Cables delivers a masterful program of songs, new and old, prompted by several of his many memories. He says, “The title of the album, I Hear Echoes, has many different kinds of meanings for me. The echoes are maybe the echoes of my life, or of music that I heard, played and composed. Or they may be of other songs that have stayed with me and that I’ve always wanted to perform.”
The album gets off to a rousing start with George’s “Echoes of a Scream.” He notes, “The title was inspired by a painting I saw many, many years ago by (the Mexican painter) David Alfaro Siqueiros called “Echo of a Scream.” I think it’s still hanging in the Museum Of Modern Art. It made a great impression on me and I think it’s probably about the ravages of war – you have to see the painting to really feel its impact and get the idea. There are spaces and silences in there, and I sometimes think that its echo and those silences are louder than the sound itself that you hear. So that’s one of the echoes. The introduction, which was written later, is a sort of echo in advance of the piece.” It’s a multi-climactic, episodic excursion played over an Afro-Cuban guaguancó rhythm with Jennings playing a timbale-like drum solo and repeated weighty pauses for great dramatic effect.
George says the title of the record’s second song, “Echoes,” reflects the repetitive nature of the work’s construction, with its recurrent melodic motif, accented by the Chinese gong-like sound of Jerome’s splash cymbals. The relaxed tempo recalls the mood of the late Ahmad Jamal’s classic rendition of “Poinciana.”
Of “So Near, So Far” George says, “I’ve always loved that song, from the first time I heard it on the Miles Davis Seven Steps To Heaven record. Not that many people play it. The second part that’s played in my left hand was actually, I think, thought up in the moment at a session by one of my heroes, George Coleman.” Essiet steps into the spotlight on this one, with a lyrical bass solo.
“‘Morning Song’ is an echo from my past,” George recalls. “I actually first recorded it on an Eddie Henderson record and then on my own very early Cables Vision. I sort of revised it and, with the trio and quartet that I have these days, I am playing it just a little bit differently now.” The beautiful song was a consistent part of his repertoire during his many engagements at the now long gone and much lamented Bradley’s.
George reminisces, “The echoes of Duke Ellington are, of course, all over my life. Many, many, many, many, years ago, when I was just starting out on the scene — before I was even on the scene — I had the good fortune to rehearse a vocalist for Duke Ellington. (Sir) Roland Hanna got me this gig, recommending me for the rehearsal. ‘Prelude to a Kiss’ is such a beautiful piece that I’ve always wanted to record.” The band really takes its time here, summoning the mood just before two lovers’ lips meet for the very first time.
“The next tune, ‘Clockwise,’ is one written by Cedar Walton, one of my very favorite pianists. This is probably my favorite among Cedar’s many tunes. I heard Bobby Hutcherson play it with him. That was the first time I heard it and I’ve loved it ever since.” George plays a pretty prelude to it, before the band goes into the lithely waltzing melody. The leader’s original arrangement adds a Latin tinge that leads into Essiet’s plucked bass solo.
Iconic Brazilian singer/songwriter/guitarist Dori Caymmi’s “Like a Lover” is up next. George affirms, “It’s another piece that I always liked and I always wanted to play, but I had to figure out how to do it. I love the lyrics. I think it’s a really great love song.”
Cole Porter’s classic “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” is another song George says he’s always wanted to play. “This time I found a different way to do it,” he says with the pride of one of jazz’s truly creative artists. “I had to find a way to make the piece my own; to play it with my own voice,” he asserts. He’s succeeded impressively with this Afro-Cuban influenced arrangement, on which Jerome puts down his sticks to play a conga-augmented drum kit with his capable hands. “I’m really happy with how both Jerome and Essiet played on this,” he declares.
“Blue Nights” is another original composition by Cables, an older one that he previously recorded on his 1995 Person To Person album. “It’s an echo of my past, so I wanted to do it again.” It’s a stirring piece of music, dramatically conjuring up an atmosphere of nocturnal mystery that would be suitable for a 1950’s film noir movie.
The penultimate “Journey to Agartha” is a piece by the fine young female pianist/composer, Arcoiris Sandoval, of whom George is a great fan. He says, “This song has been running around in my brain ever since I first heard it, so I wanted to record it here. It’s so much fun to play.” The band charges straight ahead on this one, hitting hard enough (as Art Blakey would say) “to swing you into bad health.”
Of “Peace,” George declares, “I feel it is a perfect ending. It rounds out the recording from the opening ‘Echoes of a Scream,’ the painting which was inspired by the ravages of war.” Alone at the piano, George delivers the Horace Silver classic with introspective care, as if he might have been playing it after hours at Bradley’s, in front of the likes of Hank Jones, Cedar Walton, John Hicks and Kenny Barron.
— Russ Musto
Special thanks to Essiet Essiet and Jerome Jennings for their musical input and creative spirit.
And to Katherine Miller for her impeccable engineering skills.
I would also like to thank Barney Fields for giving us the time and space to make this CD.
And last but not least, to Joanne Klein for all her efforts behind the scenes.
— George Cables
