Bill Gable
A great songwriter with west coast roots ....
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.Words and pictures from the official Bill Gable website.
Bill Gable -
There Were Signs
"Debut album from a great songwriter"
The Tracks are: Go Ahead And Run, Who Becomes The Slave, All The Posters Come Down, The 3 Levels Of Nigeria, Cape Horn, High Trapeze, There Were Signs, Letting The Jungle In & Leaving Venice To The Rain.
Musicians on the There Were Signs album: Bill Gable, Rob Mounsey, Jerry Marotta, Jeff Porcaro, Jimmy Haslip, Manolo Badrena, Luis Conte, Airto Moreira, Sally Dworski, Eliza Gilkyson, Marilyn Scott, Jim Lang, Octavio Bailly, Lew Soloff, Gabriela Molinari, Airto Moreira, Lloyd Moffit, Nelson Faria, Dani Minnick, Casey Scheuerell, Mark Egan, Pino Marrone & David Nadien.
Available from Private Music/Original release year: 1989
Bill Gable -
This Perfect Day
"Bill Gable are back again"
The Tracks are: Center Of My Universe, There Isnīt A Thing, Why It Kills Us To Compromise, Never Put Down Your Horn, A Fishermanīs Life, Why The Caged Bird Sings, Eyes Of A Child, My Ballerina & Out This Open Window.
Musicians on the There Were Signs album: Bill Gable, Steve Rodby, Tom Brechtlein, Roscoe Beck, Luis Conte, Mark Hatch, Judd Miller, Casey Scheuerell, Heitor Pereira, Lenny Castro, Joe Meyer, Alex Acuna, Orestes Vilato, Joel Derouin, Suzie Katayama, Jim Self, Jim Lang, Tollak Ollestad, Dino Saluzzi, Sandro Albert, Bob Sheppard, Carol Robbins, Rob Lockhart, Jon Clarke, Bill Ginn & Larry Steelman.
Available from Bill Gable/Original release year: 2003