Piano legend George Cables has performed and recorded with some of the greatest jazz musicians of our time, including Joe Henderson, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Sarah Vaughn, Tony Williams, Bobby Hutcherson, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Join Cables, CJC Dean of Instruction Jeff Denson, and Drum Department Chair Gerald Cleaver for an evening of original, hand-picked music to showcase the collaborative nature of their individual playing styles.
Band Members:
George Cables – Piano
Jeff Denson – Upright bass
Gerald Cleaver – Drums...
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Piano legend George Cables has performed and recorded with some of the greatest jazz musicians of our time, including Joe Henderson, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Sarah Vaughn, Tony Williams, Bobby Hutcherson, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Join Cables, CJC Dean of Instruction Jeff Denson, and Drum Department Chair Gerald Cleaver for an evening of original, hand-picked music to showcase the collaborative nature of their individual playing styles.
Band Members:
George Cables – Piano
Jeff Denson – Upright bass
Gerald Cleaver – Drums
Artist Bios:
George Cables born in New York City on November 14, 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 and by 1964 he was playing in a band called The Jazz Samaritans which included such rising stars as Billy Cobham, Lenny White. and Clint Houston. Gigs around New York at the Top of the Gate, Slugs, and other clubs attracted attention to Cables’ versatility and before long he had recorded with tenor saxophonist Paul Jeffrey, 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. George Cables has emerged as a major voice in modern jazz. He is currently performing and recording as a soloist, with trio and larger ensembles, and as a clinician in college jazz programs. In addition to composing and arranging for his own albums, George Cables has contributed to recordings by Dexter Gordon, Art Pepper, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Bobby Hutcherson and many others. He is noted for his fresh Interpretations of classic compositions and for his innovative style of writing. georgecables.com
Jeff Denson is an award-winning bassist, vocalist, and composer who has released 16 albums as a leader or co-leader and toured extensively throughout the US, Canada, and Europe with both his own groups and others at some of the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals such as the Village Vanguard, Birdland, The Kennedy Center, JVC Jazz Festival Paris, Montreal Jazz Festival, Berlin Jazz Festival, and SFJazz, among many others. Jeff has worked with some of jazz’s finest artists such as Brian Blade, Joe Lovano, Chris Potter, Mike Stern, Charles McPherson, Billy Childs, Jane Ira Bloom, Craig Handy, Ingird Jensen, Dave Douglas, Walter Smith III, Kendrick Scott, Rachel Z, Omar Hakim, Gerald Cleaver, Anat Cohen, Warren Wolf, Leo Genovese, Etienne Charles, Edward Simon, Paul McCandless, Cuong Vu, Ralph Alessi, Dan Weiss, Lionel Loueke, Paul Hanson, Romain Pilon, Mimi Fox, and many others, and had an ongoing relationship with the legendary Lee Konitz for over a decade until his passing in 2020. Jeff’s work has been reviewed in many of the world’s leading periodicals including The New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, along with many more international periodicals, and has been ranked in the DownBeat Rising Star Critic’s Poll 13 times in the Bass, Electric Bass and Male Vocalist categories, and was the First Place Winner of the 69th Annual DownBeat Magazine Rising Star Critic’s Poll for “Electric Bass” in 2021. Jeff is the Founder and President of Ridgeway Arts, Inc., a 501c3 arts nonprofit organization and the Dean of Instruction at the CJC. Learn more at jeffdenson.com
Gerald Cleaver born May 4, 1963 and raised in Detroit, Gerald Cleaver is a product of the city’s rich music tradition. Inspired by his father, drummer John Cleaver, he began playing the drums at an early age. He also played violin in elementary school, and trumpet in junior high school and high school. As a teenager he gained invaluable experience playing with Detroit jazz masters Ali Muhammad Jackson, Lamont Hamilton, Earl Van Riper, and Pancho Hagood. While attending the University of Michigan as a music education major, he was awarded a Jazz Study Grant, from the National Endowment for the Arts, to study with drummer Victor Lewis. He graduated in 1992 and began teaching in Detroit where he worked with Rodney Whitaker, A. Spencer Barefield, Marcus Belgrave, Donald Walden, Wendell Harrison, and with visiting musicians Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Kenny Burrell, Frank Foster, Cecil Bridgewater, Ray Bryant, Eddie Harris, Dennis Rowland, Howard Johnson, Diana Krall and Don Byron. In 1995 he accepted an appointment as assistant professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Michigan, and in 1998 also joined the jazz faculty at Michigan State University. Cleaver leads the bands Violet Hour, NiMbNl and Uncle June.
Proof of vaccination is no longer required for Covid-19. Masking is optional and masks are available upon request. The California Jazz Conservatory kindly requests that anyone feeling unwell refrain from attending in-person events of any kind.
This concert is sponsored by JAMBAR
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