Entertainment

Kimberly Gordon bringing her sound of sapphires to Bradley

PEORIA – Guitarist Andy Brown just got back from a gig in New York.

Chris Foreman is still in the Czech Republic, traveling with his Deep Blue Organ Trio.

So it’s Kimberly Gordon on the telephone from Chicago, talking up the Kimberly Gordon Trio’s performance at Dingeldine Music Center on Wednesday.

Gordon’s contralto-ish voice has been described as the sound of sapphires.

She’s got a CD on her list of credits. She wrote the words to the title song "Melancholy Serenade," which will sound familiar to Jackie Gleason fans because it’s the theme song to the old Jackie Gleason Show.

She wrote and sang a song for a movie, "Chicago Overcoat," scheduled for release in early 2009.

And she’s a regular at Chicago’s Green Mill club on Thursday and Sunday nights. She and Foreman perform together on Sunday nights and, for a vocalist, singing with a Hammond B-3 organ is no serenade.

"If you can’t sing along with that powerhouse of an instrument, you’re in trouble," she says. "You have to command, you have to be strong, vibrant, or you’re going to get drowned out."

Gordon and Foreman have worked together almost 20 years. Fans say their camaraderie shows in their shows.

"They have a lot of fun together," says Steve Dolins, the Bradley University professor who recorded Gordon’s CD on his label, The Sirens Records.

(Note: Foreman may be familiar to local audiences. The Deep Blue Organ Trio has performed at Jim’s Steakhouse in the past, and Foreman has played with Ward Chapel AME Church choir on a few special occasions.)

Gordon likes songs from the Great American Songbook and beyond. In other words, she sings the works of composers from Harold Arlen and Duke Ellington to Thelonious Monk, Burt Bacharach, Barry Manilow and her own compositions.

She’s one of those singers who didn’t realize she would become a professional singer because singing was so much a part of her everyday life.

Gordon, 40, credits the "great music programs of public schools" for her training. She will borrow from that classical training when she teaches a masters class for Bradley vocal students.

"I love coaching vocalists."

Pam Adams can be reached at 686-3245 or moc.ratsjpnull@smadap.