Jimmie Herrod is a unique vocalist and talented arranger. The Tacoma native, now based in Portland, Oregon, brings his show of music by the influential composer Stephen Sondheim to Seattle on Thursday, Nov. 14.
In a conversation with KNKX, Herrod described his youthful journey in the arts, from the visual medium to music. He studied jazz at Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts, before switching to pursue a degree in composition.
“I just felt like I’m only going to get so much out of [a jazz vocals] degree, but I always was still doing jazz performance stuff," Herrod explained.
Adding to his vocal and arrangement skills, Herrod’s seemingly natural stage presence is a third pillar of his talents.
“I’m not really a dancer and I’ve never felt like the biggest actor, but I know how to utilize my strengths.”
Herrod often found work as a special guest in the Seattle area with Tim Kennedy’s pop group Richie Aldente and the retro-swinging Birch Pereira & the Gin Joints. In Portland, where he earned a master's degree in composition from Portland State, he’s been busy working as a vocalist with the popular and versatile little orchestra, Pink Martini.
The national stage also got a taste of Herrod in 2021 as the singer made it to the final round in the competition television show America’s Got Talent.
Those projects, though, didn’t let Herrod focus on the music he loves. Now that oversight is being addressed with a new album of his jazz-influenced arrangements of Sondheim’s music, which he's been singing and arranging for more than a decade.
“These are shows I’ve obsessed over and some I’ve actually done, music that’s very much in my body,” shared Herrod, who’s performed in Sondheim musicals Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Into the Woods.
Herrod looked to the history of jazz musicians playing songs from musicals as a guide.
“I picked the songs that idiomatically make sense to do with what jazz musicians did. I already have an instinctual relationship to this music within me, so it’s just trying to look at it from a different angle.
"I like to feel like an improviser, someone who’s responding to what everyone else is doing,” Herrod added. “I like to rephrase these melodies left and right. I want this music to feel like I just called a standard, and just like a horn player, I’m going to have ‘my time’ with these melodies.”
The album will feature mostly Herrod with a piano trio. Former Seattle-resident and Cornish professor Dawn Clement plays piano on an early duet recording of “Any Moment” from Into the Woods.
As for the album, still untitled, Herrod said the recording process is nearly complete. He hopes to release his Sondheim tribute early in 2025.
In the meantime, Herrod presents his live Sondheim program for his longtime Northwest friends and new fans alike at The Royal Room Thursday, Nov. 14 – singing, arranging, and presenting this music from his heart.
