Kevin Matthew Gilbert (also known as Matthew Delgado and Kai Gilbert; November 20, 1966 – May 18, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer and producer. He was best known for his solo progressive rock projects, Toy Matinee and his contributions to Tuesday Night Music Club (1993), the debut studio album by Sheryl Crow.
Kevin Gilbert was an accomplished composer, singer, producer and instrumentalist who played keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, cello, and drums. In 1982, he and Jason Hubbard formed N.R.G. and in 1984 released the eponymous No Reasons Given album. Between 1984 and 1987, he self-released four albums as Kai Gilbert.[2]
He toured with Eddie Money on his Can't Hold Back tour in 1986-87 before entering the 1988 Yamaha International Rock Music Competition with his progressive rock group Giraffe. Although Giraffe placed second[3] (the winner was the Australian rock band Janz[4][5]), Kevin was considered the popular winner of the night.[6] Producer Pat Leonard was impressed with Gilbert's performance at the competition and invited him to join him and Guy Pratt in forming a new band which became Toy Matinee. During this time, Gilbert worked on the projects of several established pop musicians, including acting as producer on I'm Breathless by Madonna and Changing States by Keith Emerson, and assisting in the studio on Dangerous by Michael Jackson.
The lone Toy Matinee album was recorded throughout 1989 and released in 1990, which allowed Gilbert to find his voice as a lyricist. The band received no initial promotion or support from the record label, and did not tour due to prior commitments of most band members. Pratt joined Pink Floyd as bassist on the A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour, while Leonard produced and recorded Roger Waters' Amused to Death album in London. With the other band members, guitarist Tim Pierce and drummer Brian MacLeod, already being in demand for session work, this left Gilbert as the only original Toy Matinee member who was able or willing to tour to boost album sales and make up for the debt.
Consequently, four months after the album's release with virtually no sales, Gilbert convinced the label's promotion department to allow him to take the album on the road. Initially he and guitarist Marc Bonilla (whom Gilbert would work extensively with in the early 1990s) toured local Los Angeles area radio stations in November of 1990, where they also established a great relationship with radio legends Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps of The Mark & Brian Show. The growing resonance sparked the demand for a band to play live shows, for which they attracted bassist Spencer Campbell, drummer Toss Panos, and his soon-to-be-girlfriend keyboardist Sheryl Crow. Leonard expressed no interest in being part of an ensemble that involved replacing so many of the original members.[7]
The first live performance of this touring incarnation was the annual Mark and Brian Christmas Show on December 17, 1990. They then did a western U.S. concert tour in the spring of 1991. In later years, three albums featuring this band have been released: Kevin Gilbert Performs Toy Matinee Live (2010) recorded at The Roxy on May 1, 1991, and Toy Matinee Acoustic (2010) consisting of a compilation of rehearsals in 1990 and three songs recorded at the Ventura Theatre on April 21, 1991. In 2024, the latter concert was released in its entirety as Troy Manitee: Men Without Pat. The promotional tour ended because of a legal action taken by band co-founder Pat Leonard. Gilbert's efforts resulted in the release of two successful singles, "The Ballad of Jenny Ledge" and "Last Plane Out."
Gilbert was invited to join the songwriting collective "The Tuesday Music Club" that met at producer Bill Bottrell's studio in Pasadena, California, and which also included Toy Matinee bandmate Brian MacLeod.[8] Gilbert had previously worked alongside Bottrell in the studio for among others Madonna and Michael Jackson. Gilbert introduced his then-girlfriend Sheryl Crow to Bottrell and his fellow Club musicians, and the sessions allowed Crow to workshop new material, leading to the recording of her breakthrough debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club. Gilbert co-wrote many of the songs on that album, including 1995 Grammy Record of the Year "All I Wanna Do". Crow later acrimoniously split with most of the musicians in the collective and only producer Bottrell and drummer MacLeod were involved in her follow-up album. Meanwhile, the remainder of the collective worked with singer-songwriters Susanna Hoffs and Linda Perry on two more albums.
Gilbert continued to work in television and movie soundtracks (under the name Matthew Delgado[9]), studio sessions, and production, and eventually released his first solo album, Thud (1995), as well as partially reforming Giraffe to perform the Genesis double album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway at Progfest '94. Gilbert's manager sent a copy of the recording to Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, who were searching for a new frontman to replace Phil Collins. According to Dave Kerzner in a 2020 interview (who now has a relationship with Banks and was also a member of Gilbert's band Thud and his The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway performance), the band said they were "amused" by the performance, but it did not progress anywhere beyond that.[10]
1996: Final years
Throughout 1996, Gilbert continued recording his The Shaming of the True album (which would be completed and released in 2000 by friend and bandmate Nick D'Virgilio and producer/engineer John Cuniberti). He also began a new project with former Toy Matinee bandmate, drummer Brian MacLeod. This project was known as Kaviar. It consisted of numerous collaborators, and was notably a sonic departure from Gilbert's previous work, consisting of darker lyrical topics and heavier musicianship. This band's recordings were released posthumously in the form of the album entitled The Kaviar Sessions in 2002, then released again on vinyl and CD in 2022 with the new title Kaviar (which also included some bonus tracks and remastering).
On May 18, 1996, Gilbert was found dead at his home just outside of Los Angeles. The coroner listed the cause of death as "asphyxia due to partial suspension hanging" and concluded the death was accidental and not a suicide. This manner of death is known as autoerotic asphyxiation, and the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office reports four or five such deaths a year.[1]
1999–2014: Posthumous releases
Several albums of Gilbert's music have been released posthumously, beginning in 1999 with the live album Welcome to Joytown – Thud: Live at The Troubadour (consisting primarily of songs from Thud) and a compilation of Giraffe material that he had been working on.
Gilbert's second solo album, The Shaming of the True (2000), was also released posthumously. The album was largely incomplete, but Gilbert's estate asked Nick D'Virgilio (a former member of Thud, the Giraffe Progfest '94 gig, Spock's Beard drummer and close friend of Gilbert's) and producer/engineer John Cuniberti to complete it, based upon the extant tapes and the album planning notes left by Gilbert.[11] Following this, an "industrial" album of music performed by Gilbert's group Kaviar was released in 2002. Nick D'Virgilio performed the entire The Shaming of the True album in concert twice, first at the ProgWest festival in 2002 and again at Whittier College in 2012.[12]
In October 2009, three new works were released: Nuts and Bolts (collectively a body of mostly unreleased songs and mixes, released as two individual CD albums) and Welcome to Joytown – Thud: Live at The Troubadour, a DVD/CD which expanded on the original 1999 release. A live performance from Gilbert's promotional group for Toy Matinee was made available in March 2010, and late 2011 saw a deluxe expanded release of The Shaming of the True with additional orchestration and engineering by Mark Hornsby. In 2012, the two Giraffe albums and 1984's No Reasons Given were re-issued with complete re-mastering from the original analog tapes. Late 2014 saw a similar expanded release of Thud and a one-time vinyl pressing.
Since 2021: Call Me Kai, vinyl releases, and the KMG Archive Series
A box set of the Giraffe albums and a DVD with video footage of the band and their performances was released in early 2021, and also a vinyl release of The Shaming of the True. A 4-CD box set of Gilbert's earlier work, Call Me Kai, was released later in the same year, along with a CD collection of cover songs Gilbert had recorded over the years.
In early 2022, The Shaming of the True received a final remastering by John Cuniberti for release on vinyl for the first time, and as CD digipak. In addition, "The Best of Everything" was released as a CD single, featuring the song in three versions. The album The Kaviar Sessions by Kaviar was first released on vinyl in early 2023, simply titled Kaviar and featuring new cover art consisting of only the logo, along with a similarly styled reissue as CD digipak. Original vinyl pressings of No Reasons Given by N.R.G. were also made available in 2023.
In 2022, the estate announced the KMG Archive Series, a series of twelve CD digipaks released in pairs, with a run of 300 units per title. These are aimed at fans interested in additional materials sourced from the archives that are deemed unfit to serve as official releases, such as demos, unreleased tracks, alternate mixes, live soundboard recordings, and studio rehearsal sessions. The audio recordings span all eras and most formations of Gilbert's career.
October 25, 2022: Vol. 1: N.R.G. – Live at Keystone Palo Alto, California 1982 & Vol. 2: Kevin Gilbert – Beer Jam 2
February 21, 2023: Vol. 3: Kaviar – Demos, Outtakes & Alternative Mixes & Vol. 4: Kevin Gilbert – Thud Acoustic
December 12, 2023: Vol. 5: Giraffe – Live At Cactus Club San Jose, California 1989 & Vol. 6: Kevin Gilbert – Thud Alternate
September 17, 2024: Vol. 7: Toy Matinee – Troy Manitee: Men Without Pat – Live At Ventura Theater 1991 & Vol 8: Kevin Gilbert – Beer Jam 1
^Jay Graboski (December 2003). "OHO MACH III". Archived from the original on April 21, 2007. Retrieved July 25, 2007. The big winner was Kevin Gilbert, fronting his band, Giraffe.
