"Fake Jazz & Theme Songs" is the "Official" debut album from Lady Antebellum guitarist Slim Gambill and it is representative of a career, no, make that a journey which seems to have come full circle.
Recording and performing with "Lady A" since 2007 has kept Gambill busy but he has also worked with industry heavyweights such as John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Maroon 5, Steve Nicks, Darius Rucker, Vanessa Carlton, Peter Frampton and is also the lead guitarist of the “Last Call with Carson Daly" house band and he has a scheduled December 8 show at South Jazz Kitchen Restaurant in Philadelphia, PA.
So how does a fella' like Slim with this diverse performing history come to make a jazz album? According to him; it's kind of where it all started.
"I kind of came from that world," he began to explain. "The first music that I ever wrote and recorded was kind of in this vein, kind of a funky jazz infused rock with a horn section. That's what I was doing when I was in high school and college; so yeah that was a big part of my life and I did a lot of it when I lived in L.A. I haven't done it really since I moved to Nashville but it's kind of where I came from in the first place believe it or not. I kind of circled back around to it because I had a friend reach out who had this jazz festival in New Mexico and he asked me to be kind of a mentor to some high school and college big bands. He asked me to come down and do that and to play and it kind of gave me the kick in the ass that I needed to get this project going because I had been thinking about it for a while but that took it over the top and yeah it was like a coming home party. It was weird trying to get back into it after playing pop country for twelve years straight but it was a fun journey re-discovering things; I don't want to say I'd forgotten but that I had forgotten (laughs)."
"This is officially my first jazz album under my name; we put out one with a band when I was 19 years old but that doesn't quite qualify. It was kind of along these lines, maybe not quite as advanced but yeah I guess you can officially call it my debut album as Slim Gambill. That jazz festival in New Mexico is what started the process. When my buddy called me up; we had gone to high school together and we had a band together and we were in big band and all that stuff and he's a band director in New Mexico who is heavily involved in "New Mexico All-State Jazz." So he has this non-competitive middle school, high school and college festival of big bands and they have a set of sort of mentors who listen to the bands play and give them some guidance during their time slot and there is a performance every night. So he asked me if I wanted to do it and I said, man I haven't even thought about big bands in 20 years but it sounds fun and he said I could be part of the house band at night so I said; what should I play? He said, "Do some standards; do you have any of your own stuff?" I said, no but I've got some ideas; I basically went into the studio with some buddies in Nashville just so I could get these ideas down so I could send them to the house band but it's not really my style to do things halfway. So one thing led to another, I wrote more and more tunes, I recorded more and more, I added horn sections and before I knew it I was like, I might as well press this and have an actual product. I did the jazz festival, some other shows started popping up and it ended up going over really well; people have responded really well to the record. So it started as demos for a house band, a one- time deal and just progressed to where it is now. I went into Sound Imports Studio in Nashville and the process of recording is not cheap so I was like well, if I'm spending the money to cut these demos I might as well finish them off. I've got a home studio set-up and to be honest, I cut most of the guitar parts at home because in the studio my head is in producer mode and I'm kind of listening to what everyone else is doing and making sure that I get their tracks solid. I ended up obsessing over the guitar parts at my home studio but I'm not set-up to like cut things off; I basically have a place to cut guitar parts and edit (laughs)."
With the admission of not doing things, "Halfway" out in the open, the next step was to find musicians that could handle performing the arrangements as well as be available when the time was right as Gambill's hectic schedule can make this potentially difficult.
"One thing that Nashville has a lot of is good musicians and because the music is not easy finding guys with the facility to do it was interesting," he said sounding somewhat intrigued by the process. "I'm starting to get a good crew of people where I can go a few people deep on any given instrument that can learn the book and be available because the shows aren't that consistent where I can use the same guys but I've got a few on any given instrument and it's working pretty well so far."
"You kind of have to do it that way unless you have enough shows on the books where you can tell somebody, OK I'm going to book you out for the next six months. Everybody has to eat so everybody has to work; this entire summer I did exactly nothing because I was out on the road with Lady A and I can't expect all the guys to be available at the drop of a dime because they're busy doing other things. I managed to have the same three guys play with me at pretty much every show at the beginning of the year and then I dropped off the map for four months. I found myself in the position where it was, oh man, the drummer can't do this show, the bass player can't do that show so I thought, well, I need to find some more bass players who can learn the book and it has forced me into that position and I don't mean it in a bad way but it's good to have back-up plans and it's necessary to have back-up plans because I can't keep all of these guys pinned down; maybe someday but right now it's cool. Right now I have four bass players that I can call who know my music and that's fantastic."
Words such as "Jam, Jazz, Swing" and "Yacht Rock-esque" have been used to describe "Fake Jazz & Theme Songs" but with its powerful and at times in your face style one can hear the varied influences of Gambill's musical upbringing; so how has the response been to this brand of jazz now that he's been out on the road a bit and how long will this tour last?
"Hit and miss, pretty well; like we did a country club gig recently, kind of strange with a whole bunch of people eating dinner and we kept being told during soundcheck that it needs to be quieter. There were people having full on conversations and our show tends to go off the rails and into jam patch territory so it's not like passive, quiet sit in the corner type jazz (laughs). So doing it quietly was really weird but it was fun and everyone played great. The shows that I'm booking, we never know quite know what we're getting into. The best ones; we've done a fair amount of supper club type venues with upscale affluent suburbanites kind of thing where people come out for dinner and to see a show and they end up being really great listening crowds and are really into what we are doing. By and large it has all gone over really well because people don't quite expect what they experience, there's a lot of twists and turns; it's kind of like the smooth jazz crowd but then we kind of rip their heads off and they're way into it. I feel like the audiences are people that grew up listening to George Benson and Chuck Mangione but they also dig Led Zeppelin and Hendrix. Most of the time they'll go to a jazz show and it's in that realm and they dig it but they're not used to it going full bore classic rock but they like it and they just didn't quite realize it. There are no actual classic rock tunes but my guitar playing just kind of goes there. I grew up listening to classic rock, Motown, southern rock, 60's and 70's early funk, jazz and blues in high school and that all swirled together into what I am now; so it all kind of works its way into my guitar playing."
"It's hard to call it a tour, it's more like little weekenders here and there. That's how we do it here in Nashville, we go out for a few days and come home, go out for a few days and come home; once everything is said and done over the next six months I'll probably end up with about 25 shows of my own including the ones that I've done so far. So it's not super heavy duty, I'm not looking to jump in a van and disappear for six months so I just try to just kind of regionally hit by having two or three shows in the same area and then come home and go out in a couple weeks and do the same thing over again. I try to gradually spread the word and be smart about it; I've got a wife and two little kids at home and I don't necessarily want to be away from them anymore than I have to. I'm trying to develop this project and get it out there and maybe start to get a solid reputation without full blown road dogging; I'm kind of past that point in my life but I think in this genre that I don't necessarily have to go out and road dog it's not necessarily what's done with the jazz scene."
Over more than a decade Slim has entertained throngs numbering in the tens of thousands while touring with Lady Antebellum; he couldn't help but chuckle a bit when asked what it's like to go from stadiums and large arenas to small venues like the aforementioned country club gigs.
"That particular aspect of it; most of the shows aren't that way, most of the shows we get to do our thing, that's what we get brought in to do. People actually want to see our shows, I really dig the supper club vibe because it's generally a listening audience, people are really paying attention and digging it and I think it's the most natural expression as a musician and a guitar player; I really get to do my thing. So yeah, doing it for 20 people or however many show up is like a really good time to get to do this; I get to spread out and do whatever the hell I want. It's great because you get to see everybody's faces; the huge crowds are obviously awesome but it becomes sort of like this faceless mass and it's hard to pick out individuals. So you're playing in front of a wall of people which is amazing but as far as connecting with people on an individual level the smaller rooms and I think most artists that tour in front of gigantic crowds would agree that when they get into a more intimate setting that they're able to connect with people a bit more than in the giant arenas. They both have their virtues though, the big rooms are fantastic don't get me wrong; it can be nerve wracking but like I said it's a faceless mass. I probably get more nervous in front of way smaller audiences walking out in front of 20 people than I do at huge arenas; in some cases they can be three feet in front of you eating their dinner (laughs). The supper club vibe seems to be the new tool and paradigm, the new thing to do on a Friday night; they seem to be springing up all over the place."
One would think given his laundry list of achievements that putting out his own material would be a breeze, however that's not the case because as with all original artists the struggle is real; even for Slim Gambill.
"It's tough to get original music out there everywhere. The tribute scene in Nashville and it seems everywhere is just like; everything is a tribute to something that has already happened and that's what gets people off their couches and going to a club. It's like, oh wow I wanna go see that tribute to Paul Simon or Fleetwood Mac or whoever but you put out some original music and it's like crickets. It's a tough scene, it has always been hard to get original music out there but now it's just a different model and honestly the stuff that gets the most attention is if you use a looper pedal and have some good YouTube content; that's what everyone notices."
After this scheduled Philly show; where does he go from here?
"I've already started recording for the next one; a lot of the tunes that we've been playing for a while aren't on this record. I have a couple of tunes that are tracked and that I've completely mixed and a couple more that I have some touching up to do. There's also a Lady A promo because they have a new record out and my own jazz gig so I haven't done any recording on this stuff lately. So once the dust settles, like this winter, I'll probably settle in and finish up some tracks. I've got a handful of my own shows in the winter and spring and in between I'll work on that stuff and see where it all goes."
Gambill also has a small soft spot for the Jersey Shore area and even he noticed some improvements to one of the thriving music cities in the Garden State.
"I'm a big, gigantic Springsteen freak, I've done the drive; I chased him down to Asbury Park where they were rehearsing and I did a gig with a buddy of mine at The Stone Pony," he admitted with a laugh. "I was there in 1999 and then again in 2018; man a lot can change in 19 years, there's a lot going on; I love how they revived it because it has such a great history."
South is located at 600 North Broad Street at the corner of Mt. Vernon in Philadelphia and the doors open at 5:30 p.m. To purchase tickets or discover more about Slim Gambill, please visit www.slimgambill.com.
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
