Jeffrey Gimble - Brand New Key
(Café Pacific Records, 2025)
West Coast cum Houston, TX vocalist Jeffrey Gimble, last released a recording in 2013, Beyond Up High (Café Pacific Records). Creatively, that is a lifetime ago, which Gimble acknowledges, “I think the real reason I decided on this album title is that ‘brand new key’ for me says that I'm a different singer at this point. I’m bringing something to the plate that I didn’t have before. I’m full of new ideas and excited about where I can take a song.” This excitement manifests in both song choice and arrangements as Gimble is intent on setting the Great American Songbook on its ear, or, better yet, expanding it to include music after the 1950s and ‘60s.
To wit, Gimble begins his recital with Ray Henderson and Mort Dixon 1926 Tin Pan Alley standard “Bye Bye Blackbird.” Pianist Josh Nelson’s thoroughly contemporary arrangement molds this chestnut into a brisk, multi-tempi romp that serves as much as a springboard for guitarist Larry Koonse as it does for the leader. Nelson’s tasty Hammond B3 funks the song up nicely. Gimble similarly updates “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” and “The Nearness Of You” the latter of which the singer surprisingly sings true to the intentions of the composers. A beautifully dispatched performance of an ageless melody. Well done!
Curtis Mayfield’s “Tryin’ Times” (a vehicle for the late Roberta Flack) is an example of Gimble’s expansion of the jazz canon. Light and airy, propelled by rim-shot and featuring outdoor urban sounds, add a hip legitimacy to the song. Gimble’s delivery is tuneful and well suited to the expansiveness of his low register. Gimble injects a sensual seriousness to the title piece, Melanie Safka’s 1971 single, making it a fun little sexy romp that is a light-year distant from the original. Funky and dense, the song demands its proper gravity while losing none of its metaphorical thrust.
Gimble’s voice has developed gracefully into a comfortable baritone sounding as at home on the Mamas and the Papas’ “Somebody Groovy” as it does on “Quietly There” from the book of Shirley Horn. Let’s hope Mr. Gimbles does not make us wait a decade for his next offering.