Bill Gable

Bill Gable - There Were Signs - 1989 - Private Music

A Midwesterner hailing from Illinois, Gable's music has been described as having a "pure, naive, almost rural quality." While I must agree with this description as far as it goes, there's much, much more to Gable's music ... An accomplished and classically-trained pianist and cellist, he also exhibits an extraordinary talent as a songwriter and lyricist. While his vocal range and timbre is reminiscent of James Taylor, the exciting latino rhythms he incorporates on some of the album's nine selections gives him a musical signature all his own. This is an inspired album that is sure to please those who have transcended soft rock and are looking for more meaningful music‹highly recommended. - The Herald, Allaire, N.J.

Bill Gable is a new pop star. "There Were Signs" is terrific. This is adult, interesting and affecting music, sophisticated lyrics set to sweet and daring melodies, sung by a voice that invariably touches the heart. He sounds a bit like Don McLean, but the voice is beefier. Every song here tells a story, each vividly told. There are few happy endings, but a lot of gorgeous music. "Run, go ahead, run / What's the point of loving you? You're the kind of girl who tends to make the world a lonely place" sings Mr. Gable without a hint of bitterness in his voice. "Who Becomes the Slave" recalls Stewart Copeland's solo work, and the Latin American flavor of much of the material is not far from the best Brazilian jazz of the 1960s. If I frankly don't understand "The 3 Levels of Nigeria," I confess that I am drawn to it. "Leaving Venice to the Rain" will bring a melancholy smile to those who have loved. The lyrics are curiously straight-forward, their impact coming as a surprise each time. - Washington Times

One of the most inventive works I've heard in years. A terrific blend of poetry with a unique vocal style and the music is a combination of jazz, folk, classical, latin and so much more. Really refreshing. - Russ Davis, Music Director, WQCD-FM, New York City

Here is an album for everyone. Take away the lyrics and the music stands on its own ... While Bill Gable wrote all the songs on this release, he enlisted the talents of Rob Mounsey, Jimmy Haslip (Yellowjackets), Mark Egan (GRP Records), jazz percussionist Airto Moreira, and Jeff Porcaro (Toto), among others, to perfect and interpret this debut collection of sensitive tunes. Add the lyrics, the soft voice and spontaneous phrasing, and you have an artsy, personal look at a mature musician ... On this album he plays not only keyboards but guitar and percussion. And, of course he writes: "Far away in the north of the country / Is a place where nothing can grow / And the people who all live there are crazy from no home...". These lyrics, with political and philosophical implications about the caste system in Africa, are strengthened by the Afro-Cuban beat, the earthy feel of the music on "The 3 Levels of Nigeria." If we must categorize musicians, Bill Gable could be called a jazz singer / poet. While many of his songs reflect romantic, love-torn realizations about life and its transparent ironies, it is the attention to musical detail and the perfect capture of mood with music that make Gable a remarkable artist. - Jazz Link

Bill Gable is a groundbreaker. It's taken this 37-year old Midwesterner a long time to hit the beach, but "There Were Signs" should establish Gable as a force to be reckoned with in the vocal-pop-jazz wake of Michael Franks. With a beautiful tenor strangely reminiscent of Don McLean, an exotic grasp of world music (equal in scope to Working Week), sophisticated and unpredictable melodic lines, densely layered instrumentation and crystalline CD production values (thanks to producers Gable and Rob Mounsey), this is a blue-ribbon debut. And behind it all is an uncompromising moral consciousness, coupled with a bard's sensitivity. Just listen to this opening verse from "Letting the Jungle In:" "Your love does this thing / To my nervous system / Deep in the twilight of memory / Standing in a cage / When the bar is lifted / Who knows how to behave?" - JAZZIZ

After hearing "There Were Signs," I wondered why it took such an obviously talented songwriter this long to get a deal! After eight years on the New England club circuit, Bill moved to LA, where he set up his own recording studio to work on original material. Along with co-producer Rob Mounsey, whose list of credits includes Steely Dan, Steve Winwood, and Michael Franks, among others, Gable has come up with an accomplished mix of pop, jazz and world music that sounds like nothing else on the radio today. At times, such as in "All The Posters Come Down," I was reminded of Paul Simon's Afro-pop hybrid "Graceland." To start making a lot of comparisons, however, would be a disservice to a highly original new voice. - MAC Report

Gable's voice blends in here with the other instruments, creating a pleasing tone that permeates the whole project without ever sounding dull. Artist is perfect for AC outlets as well as adult alternative stations that play vocal offerings. Superb lyrical imagery throughout. - Billboard

A reviewer on Amazon called this album "a mixture of pop, jazz and world music unlike anything else you've heard. And the musical performances are simply superb. "There Were Signs" is a masterpiece. Big words, but true!". Walter Becker (Steely Dan) said that "Bill Gable is first and foremost a great songwriter but he also has a marvelous ability to incorporate exotic musical elements and seemingly disparate influences into a uniquely seasoned and tasty succotash of third world post-modern sense and style". There is no question that this is a very much overlooked album, by a singer/songwriter in the same league as Michael Franks, and is HR by A.O.O.F.C. Buy Bill's great "This Perfect Day" album and support real music. [Tracks @ 207-320 Kbps: File size = 64.3 Mb]

TRACKS

1. Go Ahead And Run (4:37)
2. Who Becomes The Slave (4:52)
3. All The Posters Come Down (4:34)
4. The 3 Levels of Nigeria (5:25)
5. Cape Horn (4:35)
6. High Trapeze (5:31)
7. There Were Signs (4:56)
8. Letting The Jungle In (4:31)
9. Leaving Venice To The Rain (6:33)

All songs composed by Bill Gable except "Who Becomes The Slave" by Bill Gable & Casey Schelierell

MUSICIANS

Bill Gable: guitar, synths, piano, melodica, sanfona, zamponas, mbira, percussion, vocal
Pino Marrone: electric guitar
Nelson Faria: guitar solo
Jimmy Haslip: electric & fretless bass
Lloyd Moffit: electric upright bass
Octavio Bailly: electric bass
Mark Egan: fretless bass
Rob Mounsey: synths, seiza benches, melodica solo, background vocals
Jim Lang: organ
Jeff Porcaro: drums, percussion, hi-hat, surdo
Jerry Marotta: drums
Airto Moreira: drums, percussion, pandeiro
Casey Scheuerell: drums, congas, table, cymbals
Manolo Badrena: percussion, ganza, effects
Luis Conte: tamborine, ganza, congas, shekere, bata, vocal
Lew Soloff: trumpet, piccolo trumpet
David Nadien: violin solo
Dani Minnick, Gabriela Molinari, Sally Dworski, Eliza Gilkyson, Marilyn Scott: background vocals

BIO

Bill Gable has been called one of America's most gifted living songwriters. Highly reclusive by nature, he reportedly lives in either Los Angeles or Ouro Preto, Brazil. He is known to have been prominent in the Boston music scene during the 1970s, where he was well-known for failing to show up for gigs and for refusing to perform through PA systems due to what he termed the "inherent falseness and inelasticity of electrostatics." Consequently, much of his music was overlooked, even during Gable's now-legendary live performances during that era. In 1990, after an intense bidding war with all the major labels, the BMG subsidiary label Private Music signed Gable to a worldwide, multi-year, multi-million dollar deal which netted the sole release There Were Signs, now sadly long out-of-print. In due course, the label tired of Gable's insistence that all of his masters be delivered in a brown bag at a drop point designated only 15 minutes prior to delivery, and only through an emissary. "We had two full-time employees assigned to dealing with this nutcase," the label once complained in a widely-publicized press release. After this point, Gable refused to acknowledge his affiliation with the label, and he was soon dropped from its roster. Precious little is known of Gable's early years. Claiming to have been raised by Bedouins, Gable early on was a virtuosic classical pianist and cellist. During the 1980s, a period when it is believed he may have worked alternatively as a migrant bean-picker and a t-shirt salesman, Gable surfaced as a regular contributor to Yellowjackets records and as a songwriter in various genres. Operating out of his secluded Roman Foods Studio located somewhere in the Hollywood Hills, Gable became an engineer of choice for various artists during this era as well. He gained European prominence in the late 1990s through his collaboration with Branford Marsalis, which netted a top-10 radio hit in the Benelux countries. Beyond these scant facts, little is known of his whereabouts or current activities, save that he is rumored to be in the finishing stages of a third solo recording based loosely upon the American Midwest. © 1989-2005 Bill Gable. All Rights Reserved http://www.billgable.net/bio.html