Given that he’s on the verge of what he calls “a significant birthday”, George Cables can be forgiven for reminiscing, especially as the pianist, who turns 70 in November, has had such an expansive and storied career.

Although Cables trained as a classical musician he was soon drawn to jazz, and also to the vibrant Calypso music Caribbean immigrants brought to New York City during the 1950s. Amazing players were with him from the beginning: the drummer in his first band was Billy Cobham, later of Miles Davis and Mahavishnu Orchestra fame, and his first real mentor was tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, who saw potential in the young pianist and coached him on the finer points of pacing, phrasing, and tone.

Recording sessions soon followed: at least 30 as a leader, and many more as a sideman.

But all that’s in the past. What matters now is that Cables is writing new tunes, practising daily, and playing on an exceptionally high level.

“Someone—I forget who—said, ‘There might be snow on the roof, but there’s still fire in the belly,’ ” the affable pianist tells the Straight from his home in Brooklyn, New York. “I feel like that. I’m still the same person I was at 18. Back then, we’d look at 50—let alone 70—and think, ‘Man, that’s old.’ But I can still be goofy, and I can still laugh, and the music is still alive inside me. That’s the thing: if you don’t let the music get old, it stays alive and you stay alive.”

Proof of that can be found on the records Cables has made over the past decade. On the conceptual level, they’re pointedly nostalgic; it’s almost like the pianist is making a concerted effort to reassess all the influences, personal and musical, that made him who he is today. Sonically, though, they sparkle: Cables’s playing is elegant, assured, and often laced with surprising rhythmic twists.

This journey of rediscovery began in 2006, with the release of A Letter to Dexter, in which Cables and fellow Gordon alumni Rufus Reid (bass) and Victor Lewis (drums) teamed up to explore 11 tunes written by or associated with their late bandleader. My Muse, from 2012, is another memorial, this time to Cables’s late partner, Helen Wray, and while the record features the expected tender tributes, it never drags; in fact, it often sings with the joy the two found together during their long relationship. Joy is also a major component in the pianist’s new Icons & Influences, which also functions as his musical autobiography, spanning as it does everything from the first tune he ever wrote—tellingly, it’s titled “Happiness”—to recently penned tributes to keyboard colleagues Cedar Walton and Mulgrew Miller.

Both, Cables points out, were friends, and friendship also plays a role in the band he’s bringing to Vancouver as part of the Cellar Jazz Society’s fall concert series. Anchoring the trio will be drummer Lewis, the pianist’s favourite percussionist. “Victor’s often described as an intense drummer, but he can also play with a lot of sensitivity,” Cables says. “He can really shape the music.” On bass will be Seattle’s Chuck Deardorf, whom Cables knows from the Centrum arts centre’s summer jazz workshops in Port Townsend, Washington.

“With these two, the trust factor is huge,” Cables says.

That this trio will deliver a pair of magical performances seems like a very safe bet.

The George Cables Trio plays Pyatt Hall next Thursday and Friday (September 18 and 19).