We recently connected with Taber Gable and have shared our conversation below.
Taber , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
My resilience comes from my childhood. As a child I unfortunately went through the experience of my parents divorcing at a fairly young age. But the beauty of it all is this was right around the time I found music. Music became my therapy and escape, It was a place I could go where I felt understood and could feel without being judged simultaneously, it allowed me to escape through hours of listening and practicing. My relationship with music since then has been more of a balming experience and less of a competitive nature. Speaking a bit more toward the resilience factor I fell in love with the elasticity of Jazz most especially. I loved many styles of music and still do, (as is apparent in my releases) but it was the form of jazz music that impressed me the most. The stretched phrasing of the forms from artists like John Coltrane How he could take a simple 12 bar blues form and take you on the biggest journey sonically it was like Rock and Jazz and Blues all mixed into one The way Elvin Jones Bashed on the cymbals behind him in the most musical and creative way. The Great Wayne Shorter how each of his songs were tiny short stories that could take you to places you’ve never been in your mind yet each of them felt so familiar. The Impressionistic way someone like Bill Evans or Herbie Hancock or George Duke would play in their approach to the piano was like they were painting while simultaneously making music. All these gave me characteristics and habits to embrace in real life. The ability to Stretch my own boundaries as an artist and composer, the ability to paint my own picture and come up with my own experience separate from what was in front of me, teaching me the ability to create my own story as a human being.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Haha guess this is the part where I brag a little. Well My name is Taber Gable. I’m an Artist. A Musician, A Composer, An Arranger. And to be perfectly honest since the pandemic I’ve been discovering other sides and talents of myself. Recently I’ve become a Radio Host for a Local Jazz Radio Station in Tennessee Called Improvisations every Thursday evening 6:30-8 On WUOT 91.9 fm it also streams online at WUOT.org. I’ve delved more into teaching Private lessons and Jazz Workshops across the country. I’ve Picked up a bit of music production and Singing as you can hear on my Latest Album “Hidden Driveways’ streaming on all platforms. I’ve lately been helping curate Music Festival and Concert Series across the Southeast in conjuction with The Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. I still tour the world as a Pianist, Keyboardist for Artists Such as Braxton Cook, Terrace Martin, Lakecia Benjamin and take my project on tour as well!. I Just finished recording my 2nd album Title Pending. And looking forward to doing more of each and every bit of that and finding out more about myself. I feel like as an artist that’s something we get paid to do is find out more about ourselves and our skills and master that and continue to grow and share that with the world. I think that’s part of why artists who as they age just age physically and not mentally. I’ve met so many greats who even at ripe ages embrace their inner Child and search for knowledge and inspiration. I love that. You can find me at a lot of the national Jazz Festivals throughout the rest of this Year. Playing the Detroit Jazz Festival, The Pittsburgh Jazz Festival and many more. Hope to see some New and Familiar faces!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three areas /skills that helped me in my journey and continue to are my perseverance. Being an artist its imperative to keep going despite everything to reach the breakthrough point. It’s especially hard in todays society because so much of the viewed success of art is based off of analytics, streams, followers likes etc. but I believe ones integrity and quality of art is of a higher merit than popularity. Which leads to the next quality which is just being a good person I believe that has really helped me along my path especially longevity sake. If you have a good spirit and vibe to be around people typically want to keep you around no matter the level of your talent. Yes, obviously try to achieve the highest level of proficiency you can in your field. But also understand people see you before they hear you. How you are as a person matters more than what you do for a few hours on stage. Another quality that has helped my journey is being open minded. I feel like i gave up the title fairly quickly of being limited to just a “jazz” musician and allowed myself to be open and inspired by many styles of music. One of the things I tend to standby is “I make Music not Genres” people are inspired by so many styles these days and there’s so much music outside of what we tend to study as disciplines that may even be able to further our understanding of what we do well. I’m a firm believer that as time passes things are becoming more and more genre-less and I think its a beautiful thing. Keeping an open mind as an artist or person can only help you grow.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I’m always looking for collaborations and I would absolutely love to collaborate with some of the studio Legends of the 80’s! People like Richard Page, Steve Lukather, Greg Phillinganes, Bill Champlin, Devin Morrison, Jay Graydon David Foster etc. I love the aesthetic of that sound and still feel like there’s room for that sound in this age and to be quite frank a ton of unexplored territory Harmonically, Melodically and Even Instrumentally. A lot of technology was developed in that era with what would be considered as still groundbreaking features that wasn’t fully explored or discovered I want to continue to discover that and utilize those opportunities.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tabergable.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tabesthegabes/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tabergablejazz
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-42671537
Image Credits
Cedric Pillard Photography. Dusty Bayer Photography
