RUSS SPIEGEL

NITTY GRITTY

Independent Label

Russ Spiegel, electric & acoustic guitars/composer; Jim Gasior, organ/piano; Lucas Apostoleris, drums; Kurt Hengstebeck, electric bass; Tim Armacost, tenor saxophone.

The Russ Spiegel ensemble opens with the blues, a Hank Mobley tune called “Soul Station.”  With Jim Gasior thickening the sound on organ, Spiegel lays down an improvised guitar solo with deep soulfulness.

Spiegel is an L.A. based guitarist, born and raised in Los Angeles to a musical family.  His grandfather was a concert violinist and also one of the founders of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.  His father was an amateur trumpet player. His brother is a pianist and composer.  Additionally, his sister is a bluegrass fiddler.

Spiegel began studying jazz guitar as a teen. However, it was during his high school years in Germany, after the family moved to Europe during his father’s civilian employment by the U.S. army. That’s when the teen fell in love with jazz. Later, he attended the University of Michigan and earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy, but the ‘music bug’ kept buzzing around in his heart and head. After landing a scholarship to study at the famous Berklee College of Music in Boston, Spiegel decided to pursue his natural talent and turn his musical talent into a career. After his studies at Berklee College, Russ Spiegel moved to Europe. There, he spent more than a decade performing with a host of top jazz musicians.

In 2001, the guitarist returned to the United States and settled in New York City.  Quickly, he became one of the busy local musicians and a mainstay of the Big Apple’s jazz scene. But Spiegel’s desire to grow and expand his knowledge as a musician led to earning a master’s degree in jazz performance. Spiegel studied at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music as a Henry Mancini Institute Fellow, receiving a doctorate in jazz composition.  That led him to make Miami his home. Currently, he teaches at Florida International University.

This gifted guitarist has been a Beatles fan since he was young.  His tribute to that group is a cover of “Norwegian Wood.”

“I just love the vibe on acoustic steel string guitar and the overall folky feel, which is a tribute to some of the early Pat Metheny recordings I listened to while I was learning jazz,” Spiegel explained.

The title tune is a completely different groove from the first three songs. It’s built on a two-chord riff of a dominant thirteenth chord. This is a voicing he learned from Canadian jazz guitarist Ed Bickert.

I enjoyed his arrangement of the familiar “A Man and a Woman” tune.  His original music includes “Deep Brooklyn,” and features Gasior stepping away from his organ to play piano. Another original composition by Spiegel is “Lonely Buddha” that he says was greatly influenced by pianist Ahmad Jamal.

This album showcases Spiegel’s awesome talents on guitar, his composing abilities, and spotlights his worldwide reputation as an accomplished guitar master and bandleader.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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