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Nitty Gritty

Russ Spiegel

Label: RuzzTone Music
Released: 2025
Duration: 01:08:53
Views: 357

Tracks

Soul Station; Prelude to a Kiss; Norwegian Wood; Nitty Gritty; A Man and a Woman; Deep Brooklyn; Besame Mucho; Lonely Buddha; Epic; Four Brothers.

Personnel

Album Description

When RUSS SPIEGEL isn’t jetting off to Europe or elsewhere in the world to perform concerts and conduct master classes, the highly respected guitarist, composer, and arranger keeps busy with a packed performance schedule and university teaching duties. Now, Spiegel is embarking on the release of his 7th album, NITTY GRITTY, a variety of classic and modern jazz tunes, hip original compositions, and a couple of numbers off the beaten path.

NITTY GRITTY follows Caribbean Blue (2024), Wait a Minute (2019), Transplants (2009), Chimera (2007), Twilight (2002), and Monky (1998). Spiegel has also been either featured or a sideman on several other recordings and has garnered praise for his work: All About Jazz: “Channeling the spirited energy of hard bop with the progressive aesthetics of rock music, Spiegel carves out his own niche in the contemporary jazz scene.” Ejazz News: “Intellectual to the core, melodic and elegant, Spiegel’s music will engage and challenge you at the same time.”

Music is practically in Spiegel’s DNA. He was born in Los Angeles to a musical family: his grandfather was a concert violinist and one of the founders of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; his father was an amateur trumpet player; his brother is a pianist and composer; and his sister is a bluegrass fiddler. Influenced by rock groups as a teenager, Spiegel got the bug to play guitar and began studying with a local jazz guitarist near his home in Southern California. He didn’t fall in love with jazz until his high school years in Germany, where his father – a civilian employee of the U.S. army – brought the family. In between, he attended the University of Michigan, where he earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy before making a life change to study music on a scholarship to study at the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston. After his studies, Spiegel went back to Europe, spending more than a decade performing with some of the top musicians there.

Returning to the U.S. in 2001, Spiegel decided to settle in New York City, where he became one of the mainstays on the city’s jazz scene. There, he led his own big band, working in smaller ensembles as well. Wanting to teach at the college level, he attended the City College of New York, earning a master’s degree in jazz performance before going on to receive a doctorate in jazz composition at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music as a Henry Mancini Institute Fellow. He currently makes Miami his home and teaches at Florida International University and Miami Dade College. He retains strong connections with Europe and returns there every year to play in festivals and clubs around the continent.

Joining Spiegel on NITTY GRITTY are the members of his organ trio -- JIM GASIOR (piano and organ), LUCAS APOSTOLERIS (drums), along with guests TIM ARMACOST (tenor sax), and KURT HENGSTEBECK (electric bass).

Though Spiegel usually writes all or most of the music on his albums, NITTY GRITTY includes just four originals out of the 11 songs on the album. Spiegel says, “I chose tunes that feature my guitar playing in different genres and styles of jazz – from swinging, earthy blues to folk and Latin rhythms to groovy and outright rocky tunes, along with a tip of the hat to some of my favorite players and composers.”

He opens the album with “Soul Station.” Spiegel says, “This Hank Mobley tune is just so earthy and soulful, I thought it was a great vehicle for the trio and helps set the tone for the album.” Spiegel gives Duke Ellington’s “Prelude to a Kiss” a samba feel with a dedication to the great Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete, who toured with Dizzy Gillespie and later was part of the Vince Guaraldi trio.

A Beatles fan ever since he was young, Spiegel gives “Norwegian Wood” a folksy-jazz feel. “One day I was working on some concepts of voicing melodies on the guitar and found that the tune was the perfect vehicle for this. 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 is a big fan of both soul music and the great Canadian jazz guitarist Ed Bickert. The title track “Nitty Gritty,” is built on a funky two-chord riff dominant 13 chord voicing that he learned while listening to Bickert, with the composition being inspired by John Scofield’s work with Medeski, Martin & Wood.

Spiegel relates, “When I perform ‘A Man and a Woman’ at my shows, I like to ask the audience if they recognize the tune. It’s such a classic composition, and everybody thinks they know it, but most listeners are unable to place it. I love the play of the melody with its languorous (dare I say sexy?) 6/4 bars and its wonderful harmonic motion.” Spiegel wrote “Deep Brooklyn” years ago when he was going through a rough patch in his life. The song gives each soloist plenty of room to stretch out. It’s also the only song on the album featuring organist Jim Gasior on piano. Spiegel says he feels fortunate to have ended up in Miami, one of the main centers of Latin American culture in North America and pays homage to this culture with the iconic “Besame Mucho,” featuring the organ trio.

Spiegel’s composition “Lonely Buddha” was influenced by pianist Ahmad Jamal. Spiegel says, “The inspiration for this arrangement came from my working on an idea of tonal harmonic movement. It’s the only true blues on the album, but it is also different in that its I and IV chords are major 7ths, and it’s in 3/4 time.” Spiegel then cranks up the distortion on “Epic,” a composition named on account of its spacious, rocky 5/4 groove. A fan of Coltrane’s multi-tonic concept, Spiegel plays “26-2” with a funky jazz-rock feel that features some serious blowing by Armacost. The album concludes with Jimmy Giuffre’s classic “Four Brothers.” Spiegel states, “I was struck how much this tune’s melodic and harmonic organization reminded me of a mambo. I wanted to stay true to the overall arrangement of the composition and adapted the Woody Herman big band version to the mambo rhythm.”

The tasty solos, appealing arrangements, and eclectic selection of standards and originals on NITTY GRITTY highlight Spiegel’s wide-ranging talents. This new release will surely enhance his stellar reputation for his many fans around the world.