George Cables - By George: George Cables Plays the Music of George Gershwin (Contemporary, 1987)

This post is by Dan

George Cables (p); John Heard (b); Ralph Penland (d)

Recorded February 27, 1987

George Cables is a remarkable musician. He's approaching his 78th birthday and has maintained an uninterrupted sequence of excellent albums since his debut in 1975. In a recent Downbeat magazine blindfold test, Spike Wilner, 55, mistook Cables as "obviously a contemporary player - younger than me, in other words" (Downbeat, August 2022, p. 82). The mistake is forgivable because Cables' art is timeless, building on decades of experience yet remaining fresh and vital. 

Cables approaches the Gershwin songbook on By George with a playful zest, best shown on the closing "A Foggy Day." He plays Big Ben's familiar clock chimes in the intro, something usually reserved for versions of "If I Were a Bell." He also quotes Billy Strayhorn's "Raincheck" (get it?) before sounding the chords to "Foggy Day" over the opening vamp. Gershwin would have loved this version. 

Two great examples of Cables' art are his solo features. "Embraceable You" creates the aural image of a duet between Cables' right and left hands, each responding and complementing the other. I never heard solo piano from this perspective before, and it's mesmerizing. "Someone to Watch Over Me" is approached very differently, as Cables plays in and out of tempo for the song's duration. He removes the sentimentality usually associated with the song, breaking it apart and offering a collage of fragments. It's very effective and, to me, completely novel. 

The rest of the tunes are by the trio, but Cables includes one of his trademark solo introductions to "Bess, You Is My Woman Now." John Heard joins this tune with a gorgeously resonant bass line as Ralph Penland sets down a soft rhythm with his brushwork. The rhythm moves into double time later in the song. Penland is also featured (appropriately) on "I Got Rhythm," this time with the force of his full drum kit. 

The recording is excellent for early digital. The CD has an additional track, "Summertime," which completes a trilogy of songs from Porgy and Bess. A bit of trivia: "Summertime" is the most recorded song in the entire history of recorded music. It's been covered over 25,000 times.

As for George Gershwin, did you know that he composed and/or arranged 12,783 songs before he died in 1937 at age 40? That's what Discogs reports.