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CeCe Gable Quintet Friday, August 19th 8pm
Tickets $20 www.cecegable.com
Join us as Bernie Boyle and his family celebrate Kathy Boyle with a concert featuring her dear friend, jazz vocalist CeCe Gable of Reno/Tahoe, Nevada and a special quartet of Detroit musicians.
Cece is one of those sophisticated yet personal performers that leave you feeling you have just shared something very special!
With some special stories of Kathy--and a fascinating story all her own--Cece will share a memorable evening with everyone who loves jazz music with heart, passion and finesse.
A show--and style--that is uniquely CeCe!
For tickets and reserved seating, call 448-2022.
The Beaver Island Community Center...
at the heart of a good community!
The Kathy Boyle Memorial Concert featuring the CeCe Gable Quintet will take place tomorrow evening, August 19th at 8pm.
If you were lucky enough to have known Kathy, you will be intrigued--to say the least--to meet and be entertained by her dear friend CeCe Gable!
Following is CeCe's "story" in her own words:
In the garden of life, I am a late bloomer.
People are always surprised to hear that I haven't been singing all my life. What surprises me is that I'm singing at all and that I've had opportunities to tour faraway places as a
Jazz Vocalist. Sometimes my life seems like a dream, especially when I sit down to reflect on all the experiences that have brought me to where I am today.
I was born in Barberton, Ohio in the middle of the 20th century, the first of three children to my parents, Clarence and Ann Gable. My mother tells me that I never walked only that
I ran from place to place always moving quickly. It seems I have carried that trait into my adult life. As a young person I had difficulty focusing on one area of interest. However, amid
tap dancing and baton twirling, I always played the trumpet and had weekly private music lessons. I thank my insightful parents for finding the money to make that happen since it
laid the groundwork for my later years as a performing artist.
My early life included exposure to multiple ethnicities and the cultures of immigrants from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and my own Yugoslavian roots. I am an American
but I refer to myself as 100% former Yugoslavian - Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian - explaining perhaps why at times I am at odds with myself. The cultural aspects of growing up in
this mid-century environment were very exciting and established my preferences for travel, fine cuisine, music and a joie de vivre.
However, when I went to Kent State University in the late 60's, it was not to pursue a degree in the arts. It concerns me that no one was able to influence me to consider a career as an
artist. My dad tried to persuade me to join the Tamburitzans at Duquesne University but I wasn't quite ready for that path. I majored in Sociology and Special Education and wanted to work as a social worker in a school for children with special needs.
Another dream at this time was to live in New England. A week after college graduation, I moved with one suitcase to Burlington, Vermont.
I spent the next 13 years enjoying the beauty of the Green Mountain state. I met many people who had a major influence on my perception of life and introduced me a way of living that had previously been unavailable to me. It was a very fortunate and enriching time for me. I worked at the Austine School for the Deaf in Brattleboro, enrolled in graduate courses in special education at the University of Vermont in Burlington, received my teaching certification from a program through Dartmouth College and finally taught in the special education program for Chittenden County for 5 years.
At the age of 27, I was introduced to serious dance at Main Street Dance Theatre where I studied modern technique, jazz, ballet, composition and contact improvisation. Dance became my passion. I was invited to join the faculty of MSDT where I was the Artistic Director and Founder of the Streeteen Dancers, a group of talented boys and girls. In 1983, we were featured in the HBO afterschool feature film "Out of Step" in New York. I also performed with Ketch Dance Company, Co-chaired the First Statewide Dance Festival, wrote articles for the Vermont Artery and Contact Quarterly Dance Journal and co-owned a business "Moving Experiences" which designed and implemented movement activity programs for children with special needs in the public schools.
In 1985, when I had just been offered a position in New York City to develop a children's dance program at the Greenwich Community Center, I found myself vacationing in Golconda, Nevada. I volunteered to teach dance classes at the Winnemucca Elementary School and after that week I was strongly encouraged to apply to the Nevada Arts Council (NAC) Artist-in-Residence Program.
I applied and was accepted and, rather than move to the Village, I moved West. For the next 10 years, while living in rural Nevada, I became a Teaching Artist with NAC, Sierra Arts Foundation and Very Special Arts (VSA). My work with VSA was especially rewarding since I was able to combine my training in dance with my background in special education. I was appointed District Co-ordinator for 5 counties in northern Nevada where the spaces are wide and vast and the people few and far between. It was a big deal when VSA brought the traveling artists to town for a county wide arts festival for all the school children. To this day, grown men have come up to me saying, "Weren't you my dance teacher in Winnemucca?"
While working in the residency program at the Huffaker School in Reno, I met John Paris, professional musician and the new music teacher. We were responsible for creating the school productions. It was John who said to me, "You have a really strong voice"( meaning I could shout ' 5-6-7-8' to a gymful of elementary kids) "You should take voice lessons". Terrified and
very inhibited, I went to my first lesson with Jon Fay. After assessing my ability, he told me I could sing anything - popular, jazz or even opera.
"Yes! Opera!" I auditioned for legendary, Ted Puffer and the Nevada Opera Summer Musical Theater and was hired to assist Director/Choreographer, Darwin King, from New York. I jumped in with both feet and, as I recall, they also cast me as a dancer/baton twirler dressed in a leopard cowgirl outfit in "Annie Get Your Gun". The following fall, I had a part in "Don Carlo" as the Countess D'Aremberg starring the luminous mezzo soprano , Dolora Zajick. However, as much as I loved the grandeur of opera, I knew my heart and soul resided with blues and jazz music.
Participating in a jazz workshop at the University of Nevada Reno led me to the Stanford Jazz Vocal Program where I studied with Madeline Eastman and Sheila Jordan. I knew only melodies - alot of them - but no words. Singing in front of people as myself and not as a character in a play was totally intimidating. Many times I have asked myself what made me want to sing. My only answer is that I love the music. I was 44 when I had my first gig in the Mission District of San Francisco at the Casanova Cocktail Lounge immediately after dancing for the art opening of my friend, Toby Lurie. With the help and encouragement of teachers and colleagues and many musicians, I have been able to improve and develop my potential - and learn a few lyrics along the way.
Conquering fear was my biggest obstacle. Conquering that fear has brought me one of the true pleasure of my life - singing. While I enjoy many genres of music, I prefer to perform songs from the American Songbook, standards and obscure cabaret songs and pieces that are written with a sense of humor. Finding new ways to interpret these songs, to workwith jazz musicians and to share this music with a listening audience is a thrill and a dream come true. Recently, I ventured into songwriting and had a song selected by the Tahoe Film Festival for the award-winning film "Under the Collar". There's nothing quite like having your voice singing over an egg being cracked in a greasy frying pan.
Still one of my greatest pleasures is teaching in my private studio where I have a small group of select students 6-18 years old. In order to feel a sense of balance in my life, I must perform, teach and be a student myself, all of which keeps me grounded and involved. My goal is to be encouraging and supportive, to develop potential and guide my students so that they will not miss opportunities should they decide to pursue a future in the performing arts. My experience has taught me that music, as a performer or patron, is a necessary component of an enriched life.
After 17 years of steady work as a jazz vocalist, wonderful experiences traveling and performing with the best musicians available and a lifetime of teaching people of all ages and levels of ability, I am happy to say I have created a life I enjoy living.
Better to have been a late bloomer than not to have bloomed at all...
The Beaver Island Community Center...
at the heart of a good community!
