BIOGRAPHY
LES SABLER
Montreal is a culturally rich and
diverse Canadian city that has always had a fervent ardor for jazz. In the 1970s, legions of the musical art
form’s legends – Charles Mingus, Art Blakely, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turentine, Cannonball Adderly, Keith Jarrett, George Benson, Grover Washington Jr. and a 16-year-old
Pat Metheny – played club dates
there. A Concordia University music
student named Les Sabler attended
many of those gigs. “Seeing those
shows was my real (music) education.
Montreal had a big jazz scene, including some terrific local players, who
also influenced me,” said the guitarist.
“Initially I studied piano, but I felt I could really express myself when
I picked up the guitar. I could
literally feel the notes. I taught
myself to play and didn’t have any formal music training until I got to
college.”
For Sabler and his fellow
students, the thriving local jazz scene and record bins were their
instructors. They carefully studied
recordings by the jazz greats, with Sabler paying close attention to the work of
the guitarists. “We felt we had to
know everyone out there. I was
particularly fond of the artists on the CTI Records label. Artists like George Benson, Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour and Wes Montgomery put out well-crafted
recordings that resonated with me.
I was also inspired by blues artists like John Lee Hooker,” Sabler recalled. During those formative years, Sabler
would get together with his mates to jam.
“Much like the New York City jazz scene, the musicians in Montreal would
get together to play, build chops, and establish credibility. Mostly it was just for the sheer love of
playing. One thing that I learned
then that I still strive for today is maintaining the highest standards.”
In the autumn of 2007, Sabler
released his fourth album, Sweet Drive, which just might become
a primer for young contemporary jazz musicians to study. Sweet Drive confirms that Sabler has
remained true to his commitment to maintain lofty standards. It’s a varied, soulful body of
contemporary jazz, R&B and adult pop music that delivers a master’s class
level of musicianship, performance and production on a dozen thoughtfully
composed and carefully selected songs, including a few timeless classics. Produced by Brian Bromberg, Sweet Drive is comprised of eight
original compositions and four covers.
Accomplished musicians Jeff
Lorber, Eric Marienthal, Ricky Peterson, Vinnie Colaiuta, Alex Acuna and Gary Meek played on the record while
the Jerry Hey orchestrated horn
section added warmth, fullness and explosive energy to the tracks.
“I wrote most of the songs on my
first three albums, but for this one, I went through my record collection
looking for great songs that hadn’t been recorded before with smooth jazz
arrangements,” explained Sabler.
One of the songs that he found on an old Quincy Jones album was the Stevie Wonder penned “You’ve Got It Bad
Girl,” which opens Sweet Drive. On the track, Sabler plays electric
guitar accompanied by Meek’s feisty flute.
The title cut, written by Sabler’s frequent collaborator Allon Sams, is a buoyant pop escapade
on which Marienthal’s sax shares the wheel with Sabler’s guitar. “Daydreaming,” one of Sabler’s favorite
Aretha Franklin songs, receives a
classy vocal duet rendering by Toni
Scruggs and Richard
Jackson. “I’ve always been a
daydreamer myself so it’s appropriate,” laughed Sabler.
The first single serviced to
radio stations was “Club Street,” a driving, dual-speed electric guitar and sax
trek with airy, spacious verses that simmer before accelerating to spirited,
pedal-to-the-metal choruses.
Sabler’s nylon-string guitar delivers an impassioned plea on “Can You
Stop The Rain,” a song he had occasionally performed with his band. A cool-toned guitar shares the spotlight
on the ballad “I’m Not The Same” with a sax and an angelic vocal chorus. With Lorber aboard and Hey’s acrobatic
horn section getting their groove on, “Struttin’” borders on fusion. “It’s my favorite guitar song on the
album and it gives me the opportunity to stretch out and really play,” described
Sabler.
LES SABLER/PAGE
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Sabler’s nylon-string guitar
takes on lyrical qualities on the gorgeous “Who Am I?,” a dreamy track graced by
celestial vocals on a sensitive lyric that seems to connect with listeners,
according to the guitarist.
“Twenty-Two” is an aggressive fusion jam featuring Sabler equitably
trading in-your-face solos with the other musicians. “I wanted to record it as soon as I
heard the demo. It’s a high-energy,
overdrive guitar song and I love playing that way,” said an enthused
Sabler.
Ambrosia’s pop hit never sounded as
soulful as when Sabler & Company tackle “Biggest Part Of Me.” “This one tapped me on the shoulder one
day while I was driving in the car.
It was a spontaneous idea to have interplay between guitar and sax. Rahsaan Patterson and Toni Scruggs
delivered some pretty complex vocal arrangements that really added a lot,”
explained Sabler. His own
composition, “Food Chain” is a fun, rousing contemporary jazz throwback powered
by the high-octane horn section.
“You can clearly hear the strong Larry Carlton influences on this
one. Actually it’s more like Larry
Carlton meets Sanford & Son,” Sabler said with a chuckle. “Brian (Bromberg) played upright bass on
the track, which changed the whole texture of the song, making it very unique
sounding.”
Bringing the album to a close,
Sabler wields an acoustic guitar on “Could You Be,” an otherworldly song that
casts an air of mystery followed by an instrumental reprise of
“Daydreaming.”
Critics have praised Sweet Drive and honors have begun to
roll in. The collection is
nominated as Album of the Year at
the 2008 Canadian Smooth Jazz
Awards. Sabler, who will
perform at the awards show in March, earned a second nomination as Guitarist of the Year. Smooth jazz radio program Café
Jazz named Sabler the #1 most played Canadian artist in 2007, Sweet Drive was the #1 most played album
by a Canadian artist, and “Club Street” was the #2 most played single by a
Canadian artist. “In many ways, Sweet Drive is a dream come true. I always wanted to have the opportunity
to record in Los Angeles with the best musicians. It was inspiring and I was touched to
have players like Brian, Alex Acuna and Jerry Hey bring my music to life,”
revealed Sabler.
Thirty years ago, Sabler moved to
Florida to undertake graduate studies at the highly-regarded University of Miami
jazz department. While there, he
performed and toured with a variety of jazz, Latin and R&B bands, which
enabled him to hone his guitar style and songwriting technique. His first recording project came in 1989
when a friend asked him to score a Canadian Television Network documentary
called Lost Treasures of the Titanic. During the scoring sessions, Sabler
played demos he recorded for the people in the studio, who encouraged him to
record his own album. The following
year, he released Hidden Treasure on his own record
label. Tracks from the CD earned
some airplay, which led Sabler to land local gigs that helped him cultivate a
following. “For the first time, I
started to believe that I mattered as an artist,” recalled
Sabler.
Miami-based Vision Records released Sabler’s second
album, Time For Love, in 1995. Sabler was again successful in garnering
radio spins and managed to hit the charts.
He was then able to land concert dates headlining or opening for artists
such as Lorber, Spyro Gyra, Richard Elliot, Michael Lington, Diane Schurr and Fattburger.
In 2003, Sabler completed a
recording with keyboardist Sams entitled Bridge the Gap, his first on the The Music Force label. Sabler’s instrumental version of the Earth, Wind & Fire classic,
“Reasons,” received significant airplay and went top 20 in some markets. The title cut went #1 at Canadian smooth
jazz radio and ended up #8 on the yearend chart. The album had a long shelf-life as two
years later, Sabler was nominated for Album of the Year and Guitarist of the
Year at the inaugural Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards.
LES SABLER/PAGE
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Like many Canadians, Sabler grew
up an avid hockey fan and player.
He spent two years working on arrangements for guitar of the U.S. and
Canadian National Anthems and teamed with vocalist Marshall Gillon to perform them before
numerous National Hockey League
games for his adopted hometown team, the Tampa Bay Lightning. “I’m equally passionate about music and
hockey and it’s such a thrill to perform in an arena for 20,000 people. We get an amazing fan reaction every
time. A highlight was performing
before a playoff game that was nationally televised on Hockey Night in Canada. Everyone watches it and I heard from so
many people after they saw us,” said Sabler with childlike pride. The duo was also invited to perform the
National Anthem before Tampa Bay
Rays baseball games.
About Sweet Drive, Sabler concluded, “It is an
important record for me and I put everything into it. There were no compromises. Sweet Drive isn’t just a guitar
record. Like the artists that
influenced me most, I set out to blend a variety of styles while balancing art
and technique with commercial accessibility. The truth is that I’ve accomplished a
lot more in my career than I ever hoped or could have imagined.”
On Sweet Drive, Sabler displays that he’s
only begun to reach his creative stride on a musical journey that promises to
lead to sweeter successes.
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