Pianist Knows How to Handle the Spotlight : Music: Despite his reputation as a sideman, George Cables has 15 or so solo releases. He plays the Jazz Note this weekend.

Pianist George Cables is a first-call sideman for many a jazz recording session. Over the years, he has recorded with Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard, to name but a few, and is also on the new Frank Morgan-Bud Shank album, “Quiet Fire,” released earlier this year.

Yes, the 47-year-old Cables keeps plenty busy as a sideman, and it pays the bills, but there’s a drawback: His “sideman” legacy has overshadowed his prodigious efforts as a leader.

“For so many years, I’ve worked with different people, been a sideman, worked in concert with them--once you do that, an audience’s perception is difficult to change,” said Cables, who headlines at the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. “I think slowly but surely it’s changing.”

Cables also attributes his low profile to the fact that some of his 15 or so solo releases are impossible to find in music stores, and that his current label, Steeplechase, doesn’t have thorough distribution in the United States. Still, his career marches steadily on. Besides being a solid, versatile pianist, Cables has written dozens of original tunes, including three for his 1991 release, “Cables Fables,” and four more for a new album due out later this year.

Cables, who lives in New York City, names Art Tatum, Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly as early influences. After years of playing piano in all manner of live and studio settings, he has gone back to the basics: He has revived his love affair with unadorned piano. Lately, Cables has been spending hours playing the instrument by himself and says his live shows include an increasing number of solo pieces.

At the Jazz Note, Cables will be joined by bassist Marshall Hawkins and a yet-to-be-named drummer. Shows are 8 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 7 and 9 p.m. Sunday.

Scalped tickets for rock shows are a tradition as old as the medium, but San Diego scalpers also market tickets for a few jazz acts popular enough to sell out local venues. The $35 tickets for puff jazz superstar Kenny G’s Aug. 2, 4 and 5 shows at Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay went on sale in early May and sold out in a month. But you can still buy seats for the shows through ticket resellers such as Buck’s in Pacific Beach and Premier in Mission Valley. As of Friday, Buck’s was asking $75 to $85 for prime seats, while Premier’s topped out at $75.

The rock music industry is known for corrupt band managers and booking agents who reserve huge blocks of seats, with the cooperation of promoters, then sell them off to ticket agencies that resell them at marked-up prices. But Humphrey’s doesn’t cooperate with the agencies and doesn’t let big blocks of tickets loose, according to Humphrey’s promoter Kenny Weissberg.

“They all tried to be nice to me in 1984 when I started doing the Humphrey’s season, but I didn’t return any phone calls or talk to any of them,” Weissberg said of such agencies. “They tried for a couple years to wine and dine me, and I just was rude, and they’ve never called again. Thus the reputation around town that Kenny Weissberg is unapproachable by ticket scalpers, which is absolutely true. I think they’re slime buckets.”

Weissberg limits tickets for Humphrey’s to six per person. Band managers get 15 seats per show--a pittance by rock standards--which they pick up the day of the show. Still, scalpers manage to get the tickets they need.

“I have people I’ve been buying tickets from for a long time. They bring me good seats,” said John Robinson, owner of Buck’s, which bought a total of about 40 tickets for G’s shows. Few acts have G’s pulling power, though. Buck’s isn’t bothering with tickets for any other Humphrey’s concerts.

RIFFS: Jazz by the Way, the Rancho Bernardo club, has closed. Owner Bob Embesi couldn’t agree on new lease terms and is shopping for a new location, probably not in Rancho Bernardo. Embesi opened Jazz by the Way last July, in a space previously occupied by All That Jazz, which had been managed by his ex-wife, Lee Hendrickson. . . .

Murray Davison and his North County All Stars enjoyed a brief run as the band for several Ross Perot rallies in San Diego County. As many as 800 people turned up for the rallies earlier this summer. Davison says a lot of folks seemed more interested in the music than in speeches about the virtues of the ephemeral presidential candidate. For the All Stars, the dates were strictly business and did not represent an endorsement. So far, however, no new political work has come along. “Believe it or not, the Democrats haven’t called us, and neither have the Republicans,” Davison said. “They’re probably both mad at us.” . . .

The All Stars embark on a trial run at Tutta Pasta, a new restaurant in Carlsbad, at 8:30 p.m. Friday. The restaurant, which opened in early June, plans to experiment with weekend jazz to see whether it can build a following. . . .

Chula Vista City Manager John Goss moonlights as a jazz sax man. South Bay Jazz, a group that includes Goss and another municipal employee, drummer Geoff Bogart, who coordinates Mexican relations for San Diego, will play the Chula Vista Nature Interpretive Center this Sunday from 2:30 to 4 p.m. The concert is the third in a five-part summer outdoor series intended to bring new visitors to the center, which is housed in an award-winning building and is a great place to view the saltwater marsh habitat up close. The series concludes with reggae band Skajah on Aug. 30 and The Banana Slugs String Band from Santa Cruz on Sept. 12. To get there, take Interstate 5 south, exit at E Street, go right, park in the dirt lot and take the shuttle across the marsh to the building.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: DAVID BENOIT MIXES IT UP

Pianist David Benoit enjoys a chameleon’s existence as an extremely popular pop jazz musician who can run neck-and-neck with some of the best straight-ahead players. Some commercially successful jazz musicians with straight-ahead muscles eventually let them atrophy. But Benoit always plays strong solos, even on his pop material, and he is falling into a pattern of alternating light jazz releases with more intense straight-ahead recordings, such as the 1989 “Waiting for Spring.”

With last year’s “Shadows,” Benoit returned to a richly produced, funky, highly listenable pop approach, but his next album, due in the fall, will mark another straight-ahead streak. Benoit plans to show both his pop and straight-ahead colors in shows at 7 and 9 p.m. Friday at Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay.

Two local footnotes: Some of the best cuts on “Shadows” were co-written by Benoit and former San Diegan Marcel East, who produced the album. Also, San Diego sax man Hollis Gentry will be part of a horn section backing Benoit at Humphrey’s. The section will also include Benoit’s fellow GRP Records stablemate, saxophonist Eric Marienthal.