George Cables Trio with Essiet Essiet and Victor Lewis / The Festival All-Stars

Piano genius George Cables has been a stalwart at past Festivals, leading bands and powering those of others with his impeccably agile and immensely wise playing. That is why he was a natural choice to headline the Healdsburg’s 20th. His rhythm section of Victor Lewis and Essiet Essiet - a solid fleet-fingered post-bopper who has graced the bands of Art Blakey, Kenny Barron, George Adams, and many more - is eager to accompany George! The band closing out the final Saturday of the 20th Anniversary Healdsburg Jazz Festival could have been called Billy Hart Babatunde Lea Percussion Extravaganza, or The Return of Chico Freeman, or The Bobby Watson Soul-Bop Review, or any number of other possibilities. But Festival All-Stars will do fine. Each of the players is a Healdsburg veteran who has delivered some of the most scintillating performances in the festivals history. Now they are all together in the type of special collaboration on which the Festival thrives.