Born: March 6, 1962 Primary Instrument: Vocal
Raised in Texas blues country, in a house full of music, the son of Houston saxophonist and bandleader, Maynard Gimble, he began to reveal his budding talent at the age of four. But, despite his early connection with jazz – frequently going to gigs with his father — it was the musical theatre that dominated the early part of his long career. His resume as an actor includes performances in stage shows such as Hair, Forbidden Broadway and The Tempest, as well as the cult film, Crimson Force.
“For most of my life jazz was something I really liked, and I listened to it... but it was never something that I really explored until I moved to L.A. a few years ago.”
Spontaneous though the choice may have been, it has opened up creative qualities that have always been present in his roots.
“I didn’t expect to do anything new at this point in my life,” he says. “And certainly not this new. But when the whole idea of doing a jazz album came up, I kept thinking, ‘Oh my God, it makes perfect sense for me to do this.’ This music has been in my blood all this time, but up to this point I’d spent most of my life singing theatre. And when my Dad heard me doing this he said, ‘You are happier doing this than you ever were doing theatre.’ And he was right.”
“I’m not really trying to reinvent the wheel,” Jeffrey concludes. “But I am trying —even in songs you’ve heard many times—to make them sound fresh and new.
Which is exactly what he’s done.
Source: Don Heckman
”an auspicious debut jazz album...a cause for celebration...” —Jack Goodstein, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
”The ebb and flow of variety is at times breathtaking. One of the best for 2013. Remember the name Jeffrey Gimble” —Brent Black, Critical Jazz
