The Lawrentian

Issue date: 5/10/02 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Julien Poncet Tabla player Ray Spiegel joined vibraphonist Robert Chappell and LU faculty John Gibson, Dane Richeson, and Matt Turner for Saturday’s Earthworks “concert.”

Those concertgoers who headed over to the Underground Coffeehouse last Saturday, May 4th, after the LSO concert found a different kind of music there. The “Earthworks” concert featured an eclectic jazz group consisting of musicians from across the country as well as some of Lawrence’s very own.

The star of the show was Ray Spiegel, a tabla player out of the New York City area. Spiegel has been a student of Raga, or Indian Classical music, since he was a teenager and has been to India several times to study with such great musicians as Ustad Alla Rakha and Ustad Zakir Hussain.

The tabla is a set of two drums from India which one plays sitting cross-legged so as not to disrespect the drums with one’s feet. The tabla has literally countless note and phrase combinations created by subtle differences in the way the performer strikes the drum. Combining this sound with his jazz training on vibraphone, Ray fit into a jazz setting like any great instrumentalist.

Joining Spiegel were Lawrence’s own Matt Turner on cello, John Gibson on bass, and Dane Richeson on drums. It was apparent from the start that these musicians were not merely the local blokes taking up arms with the big names. On the contrary, Turner, Gibson, and Richeson caused some of the most creative and exciting parts of the concert.

Completing the group was Robert Chappell of Northern Illinois University on the vibraphone and keyboards. Coincidentally, Chappell studied with some of the same people as Spiegel during his visit to India a number of years ago. The two mentioned during the concert that they had originally met in India, where they were both studying the tabla.

With this unique combination of instruments, the ensemble took a direction in music that was unique to the occasion and yielded great results.

They opened the show with a Cuban-sounding piece that seemed to have some bluesy undertones. With this piece, the audience was introduced to the musicians’ unique style. Chappell and Turner improvised well-constructed solos that fit the bluesy and Cuban influences of the piece. When it was Spiegel’s turn to solo, he showed the audience just what unique instruments the tabla is with his use of pitch and color variation.

Continued...

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