SLIM GAMBILL
He started rocking out as a kid, found jazz early and wound up playing in a country
band.
Clearly, Jason "Slim" Gambill is not one to be constrained by limitations. Or
expectations.
The Nebraska-born, Colorado-raised guitarist is, of course, best known for his 13 years
of working with country hitmakers Lady A, a key adjunct in the trio's rise to multi-
platinum, award-winning fame thanks to his hot licks and his trademark two-foot-long
braids. But Gambill draws from a deep musical well, and his recent albums — FAKE
JAZZ & THEME SONGS, LCD — as well as his buoyant new single "Up" and music
that's to come are the work of someone with endless ambition and no boundaries on his
ambitions or imagination.
"I love sideman land, but it's cool to put your own music out," says Gambill, who now
resides in Nashville. "Jazz and blues, and classic rock, is what got me into the guitar
bug and practicing and learning, so this is kind of almost circling back around to where I
started. It's an amazing outlet I haven't had for a long time, where I can do whatever I
want."
Gambill's passion for music was born in Colorado Springs, where his family moved
when he was eight years old. He began playing guitar when he was nine, learning on
his grandmother's old acoustic, and became "obsessed" with the Woodstock
documentary he first saw when he was 12 years old, transfixed by iconic performances
from Jimi Hendrix, Richie Havens and Alvin Lee of Ten Years After. He was also
informed by his parent's collection of classic rock albums, subsequently discovering
contemporary guitar heroes such as Stevie Ray Vaughan.
A crucial turning point came when Gambill was exposed to jazz at 15, after joining the
high school stage band. "The band director gave me an opportunity I didn't really
deserve, and I didn't have the foggiest idea what I was doing," he recalls. "But I
practiced and worked hard and listened, and I got to be pretty good at reading big band
charts, and other guys in the band who knew what they were doing exposed me to a lot
of (music)."
That included George Benson, whose BREEZIN' album Gambill discovered in a local
library when he was 14 years old. It became "gateway drug…the first 'jazz guitar' record
I was ever exposed to." That in turn led him to records by Freddie Hubbard, Wes
Montgomery, Miles Davis and Mahavishnu Orchestra, whose PANGEA and BIRDS OF
FIRE albums, respectively, helped the fledgling muso connect the dots between rock
and jazz.
Gambill "changed majors a bunch of times" at the University of Southern California,
learning to be "a theory geek who can analyze stuff with the best of them." He was not a
particularly prolific transcriptionist, however, which led him to focus on recording arts
and the school's Studio Jazz Guitar Program. "First and foremost I've always been a
composer and a writer," he says. "With my guitar playing I tend to come up with my own
thing, informed by a lot of stuff I heard. I didn't sink into formal education, as a player,
that well."
During his time in Los Angeles Gambill was part of the band Firstman, that had a brief
deal with Atlantic Records. That was also where frontman Joe Firstman gave Gambill
his "Slim" nickname; "He started calling me that and it just stuck. I have friends who
forget what my first name is. My mom still calls me Jason, but that's about it." Gambill's
braids, meanwhile, were the suggestion of a modern rock band Gambill played with
during the early 2000s, which initially asked him to cut his long hair but settled for the
alternative arrangement which eventually became his visual calling card.
After Firstman, Gambill went on to play in the house band for NBC's LAST CALL WITH
CARSON DALY and off-camera found himself on stage with John Mayer, Christina
Aguilera, Maroon 5, Peter Frampton, Stevie Nicks and many more. An executive at
Hollywood Records hooked him up with pop singer Josh Kelley, which proved to be a
career-changer, when Kelley introduced Gambill to his younger brother Charles, then in
the process of forming Lady A. On April 1, 2007, Gambill found himself arriving in
Nashville, and three months later, he was in the studio recording Lady A's double-
platinum, self-titled debut album, for which he co-wrote the track "Slow Down Sister."
Throughout his continuing tenure with the band Gambill never lost sight of his own
music, squirreling songs and ideas away as Lady A traveled around the world. After
about a decade he decided to start letting the rest of the world hear it. FAKE JAZZ &
THEME SONGS — which features guest appearances by the Dave Matthews Band
saxophonist Jeff Coffin, Hanson guitarist Isaac Hanson, Legendary Pianist Kenneth
Crouch and vocalist Candace Devine — was the result of a friend inviting him to play on
a jazz festival bill in New Mexico. "I wrote a bunch of songs for the show, and they
turned out really well," Gambill says. "That pushed me to get serious about doing my
own music again." He followed with LCD during the fall of 2020 (featuring guests Coffin,
Mindi Abair, Pierce the Veil's Vic Fuentes, Rival Sons' Michael Miley) put together "24
on 6," a guitar summit to benefit MusiCares Covid-19 relief efforts on which Gambill, 17
other guitarists (ranging from Mike Stern to Eric Johnson to Mark Lettieri and everything
in between) and several vocalists mashed up Wes Montgomery's "Four on Six" with
"Stevie Wonder's "I Wish."
With "Up," meanwhile, Gambill moves into what he calls "Vintage Smooth Jazz,"
revisiting influences he felt from the likes of Benson, Bob James, Dave Grusin, Chuck
Mangione and others. "These are all cats that really inspired me," he notes. "That early
Smooth Jazz was super cool, a lot of jazz players who were basically making R&B
records."
"Up" is, in fact, familiar but also fresh, playful and with a light touch, but not at all
lightweight. There's plenty of muscle in its groove and enough musical interplay to show
how nicely Gambill plays with others — including Charlton Singleton from Ranky Tanky,
who plays flugelhorn.
The good news is there's more where that came from; Like so many artists Gambill
spent much of the pandemic lockdown working on material, building a stockpile that he's
been recording both in-person in the studio and virtually. "I've got a whole bunch of stuff
in the can now," he says, and Gambill promises listeners will hear both is roots as well
as the stems he continues to explore.
"It's honestly a little more jazzy to me, with a little more funk and R&B and maybe
gospel going on," Gambill says. "It's a genre I respect and I appreciate that, and it gives
me a lot of room to play and push myself. It's really exciting, and the music just keeps
coming."
“Up” attracted the attention of the Smooth Jazz Radio community for its throwback
sound, reminiscent of the R&B-tinged jazz records of the 70’s from such luminaries as
Bob James, George Benson, and Chuck Mangione. It has been featured on such
renowned stations as WFSK Nashville and Sirius/XM’s Watercolors, among many
others, and has been praised for it’s departure from typical Smooth Jazz productions.
Slim’s follow-up single, “Boom,” was also added and spun daily on numerous Smooth
Jazz stations, including Sirius/XM’s “Watercolors,” and marked his first foray into the top
40 at Smooth Jazz Radio.
But, as Jimmy Iovine put it (referring to his legendary stint producing Tom Petty), “After
three albums, you should fire your producer!” So, as the story goes, for his next project,
Slim Gambill decided to relinquish the captain’s chair and put his music in the hands of
the hottest producer/writer/artist in Smooth Jazz, Adam Hawley. Upon being connected
by mutual friend, the great jazz saxophonist/vocalist Mindi Abair, the two guitar slingers
immediately hit it off and decided to make music together. The first effort from the
collaboration turned out to be Slim Gambill’s next single, entitled “Heavyweight,” and
took the airwaves by storm, landing in HEAVY (no pun intended) rotation on numerous
Billboard and Mediabase reporting stations, as well as smooth jazz radio around the
world, and found its way firmly into the Smooth Jazz and Smooth A/C TOP 20 on both
Billboard and Mediabase.
Onward and upward, as they say, as Slim Gambill continued his upward trajectory
in the world of Contemporary Jazz with his next effort, appropriately titled
“Light This Candle.” Without a moment’s hesitation the track was added to dozens of
playlists worldwide and quickly made its way to the very top of the coveted Billboard
Smooth Jazz chart, were it stayed at #1 for FOUR CONSECUTIVE WEEKS. Add to that
a 3 week stint at #1 on Mediabase and a 2 week run topping Smooth Jazz Network’s
singles chart, it became clear that “Light This Candle” was a bonafide, undeniable radio
SMASH, and that Slim Gambill was here to stay!