Even Tommasini, who had advocated Gilbert's appointment in the Times, calls him “an unpretentious musician with no air of the formidable conductor about him.”
Tall, bald, and bespectacled, with an awkward but unpretentious manner, he'd spent most of our time talking about his passion for environmental protection.
While Washington was a gentleman-hero, venerated for his devotion to the common cause, Jackson was one of them, a self-made, unpretentious, and confident American citizen.