Tingstad
and Rumbel
The trust, the beauty
and the passion
Interview by Carol Wright
Narada recording artists Nancy Rumbel, oboe, and Eric Tingstad, guitar, played recently (the fall of 1998) at the Orcas Center in Eastsound, WA, a frequent venue and vacation spot for the duo. I paid close attention to their performance. Beautiful and stately, yet full of life and playful bantering. Their classics seemed newly penned, and the newer pieces pushed exciting boundaries. Just how did they keep their freshness?… especially "after all these years."I interviewed Eric and Nancy separately. I arrived at Eric's Orcas Island vacation condo one warm Sunday morning, holding a large cup of to-go coffee. He squinted at it asking, "Is that coffee? My wife wanted me to get her some, so I found a cup at the market." Yuck! I told him where to get the best-brewed cup, and we proceeded to the sunny deck for the interview.
I met Nancy a few weeks later at a busy mainland shopping center. "Let's meet at Starbucks!" she suggested. We talked at an outside table, nursing our double Americanos, and yelling over the sounds of cars and laughing children. Viva las difference?
NANCY
RUMBEL
/ Oboe, English horn, and ocarina
Nancy:
I
grew up in South Texas, which offered a variety of cultural experiences.
My mother was a pianist, and we used to listen to her play Chopin and the
classics, yet I was exposed to everything from Tex-Mex, country western,
and the marching band, where I played glockenspiel. All us kids took piano,
and I began studying oboe in junior high. Of course, I tried clarinet,
but its single reed squeaked too much! I really wanted the sound to be
perfect.
In high school, I studied with symphony musicians,
then I went off to music school. I left when I was a junior, and I branched
off and did other things.
Carol:
Wait, you do years of work with the oboe, then leave music school in your
junior year? Were you trying for a first chair somewhere?
Nancy:
No, no! (she laughs) It was a love interest!
Carol: Ah…
Nancy:
But I definitely took a different direction from the classical music route.
In music school, some of us would improvise. Also, I studied ethnomusicology.
Once away from music school, I played dance accompaniment-solo. I was at
the "mercy" of the dance instructor who asked for a 36-count combination
on the spot-leaps, adagio -- whatever was needed to fit the flow of the
dancers. This was great experience.
In the mid-1970s, I moved to Pamona, New York, to
play for Jean Houston's workshops and her guided imagery sessions. Again,
a great experience which encouraged creativity, intuition, and the imagination.
Carol:
Your music does tend to bring up images, very impressionistic.
Nancy:
I was very lucky to have exposure to great art when I was growing up. I
remember going 
to
the New York Museum of Contemporary Art when I was young. Can you imagine
a ten-year-old from South Texas standing in front of Picasso's
Guernica? In high school, I traveled to Europe for three weeks. We
went to the Paris museums. And in Spain, I visited the Prado.
I'll never forget Goya's
paintings about the war and Bosch's
"Garden of Earthly Delights." Wow! What an eye-opener. I still love
art and am often inspired by paintings or photography. And of course, landscapes.
Carol:
Do you see images in your mind while you compose?
Nancy:
Sometimes. At my house in Issaquah, I look out to connect with the trees,
and that can put me in a mood. When we recorded Pastorale, the melody
for the title track was written on Waldron 
Island.
The trees, the birds, the gorgeous waters of the sound. Melodies just came.
Of course, Eric and I have performed all over the United States, from the
arid Southwest deserts to brisk mountains of Alaska. We even have a tune
about driving through Alligator
Alley in Florida! Our new album, American Acoustic, is a tribute
to many of the places we've visited and the friends we've made along the
way.
Carol:
You played with the Paul Winter Consort for three years. How did that come
about?
Nancy:
While I was in New York State, I hooked up with a guitarist, and we played
jazz in some
local clubs. I then applied for a national endowment grant to study with
jazz oboist Paul McCandless, a former member of the Consort. This brought
me to New York City. McCandless asked me where I wanted to go with my oboe,
and I said, "It would be great to play with Paul Winter." Paul got me connected
with Paul, I auditioned, and became
part of the Consort.
Carol:
Did you tour a lot?
Nancy:
A lot! I laugh to remember some of our adventures. Wonderful trips down
the Grand Canyon, and in Baja, playing with the gray whales. Those beautiful
beaches littered with bleached whale bones.
Paul is such a great visionary and conceptual artist
in terms of bringing his ideas and philosophy to his music. I had once
volunteered for an environmental group, and Paul taught me that I could
use music to support these causes. One memorable concert we did was on
the steps of the capitol for an anti-nuke rally. To play for that sea of
people was quite a thrill.
Carol:
How did you end up in the Northwest?
Nancy:
I met my husband in Oregon and got married right when Paul was taking a
sabbatical. Then came babies and a whole new lifestyle. Paul Winter's guitarist
Jim Scott and I recorded a few 
albums
and played some live concerts, where I connected with Eric in 1984. Finally,
pianist Spencer Brewer got us to play together, and then Eric asked me
to play on his Christmas album, The Gift. The studio sound really
worked, and we'd both had extensive performing experience by that time.
We'd both matured a lot.
I was really blessed in my career with Eric in that
my children were healthy, not colicky. So I could bring them on tour. The
Gift sold very well -- and still does -- then we started our relationship
with Narada. It's been exciting to see how our music sells in foreign countries.
They've been very viligent…vigilant?
Carol:
Hmmm . . . digilent?
Nancy:
DILIGENT!!
Geez! Anyway, they've worked very hard to establish relationships
in Japan, Spain, South America, Europe.
Carol:
You and Eric have played together fourteen years. How have you maintained
this relationship?
Nancy:
We
are very sympatico, and I consider him my best friend. Once I had to take
the ferry for a rehearsal. My car was giving me fits, so I called him saying
my car wouldn't make it. He said, "I'll come help." He soon arrived, opened
the hood, rolled up his sleeves, and stuck his fingers right in there.
My God, he could have broken a fingernail! He's a good PERSON to work with,
and will never leave you high and dry.
And our playing: There's something too about the
quality of sound of his guitar that pairs so nicely with the oboe and the
ocarina. As musicians, we look at nuance, and on details of the flow of
images. I see that we are like a pair of ice dancers, very synchronized.
We've each done our solo albums, but what we have together is so unique.
We have a lot of music ahead of us as a duo.
Carol:
Have you been satisfied with your career in music?
Nancy:
Absolutely. So many musicians would love to be in my position: to be able
to play and compose and to have a career that works with family. We play
in interesting venues like arts centers and National Parks, and we often
travel by taking scenic back roads. We get a lot of feedback that our music
helps people with healing or life's transitions, and we use our music to
support environmental groups.
If I looked at the foundation for my music, I'd
say "beauty in tone," like a Georgia O'Keefe painting or the movements
of Tai Chi. Passion is at the heart of my work for me, and playing is the
universal alignment of passion. Eric and I are very passionate about going
about this the correct way. And I love teaching music to school kids to
nourish this passion.
Yeah. Passion is a big deal!
ERIC
TINGSTAD, guitar
Carol:
How did you begin with the guitar? 
Eric:
I began playing rock and roll guitar in high school. I wanted to continue
with the guitar in college, but the only guitar you could take was classical.
Basically, what I play is the Segovia
tradition, but on a steel strung classical guitar.
Carol:
Oh, so that's how you get that distinctive sound.
Eric:
It has the sensitivity of a classical guitar, but with the presence of
steel stylings.
Carol:
Was the early Windham Hill movement
an influence in your direction?
Eric:
I was already establishing my style by the time I knew of Alex de Grassi
and Will Ackerman. I met them both around 1980, and we were doing similar
styles. I was also influenced by Ralph Towner.
A pretty apt description of my style is "Northwest
Impressionism." Impressionists paint from a mood space: the subject matter
is not as important as the ambiance. I never really thought of myself as
the creator of a "New Age mood"; I am classically trained.
Nancy and I actually have a lot of variety and world
influences in our music. A lot of people associate our sound with the "pastorale"
sound, but then the next tune will be something from Peru or Spain. We've
been all over the United States, and with our current album, American
Acoustic, reflects the Irish/British source of music.
Carol:
Do you write down your music?
Eric:
I play, then write it down. I've written a lot of sheet music; it's a lot
of work! The music classically structured, it has a melody with accompaniment.
But we trade a lot of nuances and we pay attention to how we arrange the
songs in the set. "Oaks" plays differently as an opening piece or as an
encore.
Carol:
How did you meet Nancy?
Eric:
She was with Paul Winter, then played with Spencer Brewer. Nancy and I
crossed paths in 1981, playing at the same festival. I was talking to Spencer
one day, and he told me that Nancy had moved to the area. We tried playing
together several times, where she would improvise over my compositions.
It was working, but we hadn't found our sound yet. I started to work on
a solo Christmas album and asked Nancy for her ideas. Things then started
to happen: we had a template to try out different arrangements. We had
so much fun working together, and we came up with something that was a
little different.
We established a sound with The Gift, Emerald,
Woodlands,
Legends,
and Homeland. We then did In the Garden, with many instruments,
percussion, overdubs, a lot of production. Then we did Star of Wonder
with the ensemble. We each did a solo album. But people kept hinting for
us to 
return
to the sound and simplicity of The Gift, with just the two of us.
So we did Pastorale, where we came back to our roots.
We had a lot of affirmation for our music as the
duo, so we recorded American Acoustic. We had been talking with
Narada about re-releasing come of our tracks, so we decided to rerecord
some of the classics, which we did as a live studio concert with minimal
overdubbing.
Carol:
What are your plans for the rest of 1998?
Eric:
The fall is very busy for us with touring and Christmas concerts.
We'll stick with the duo, and next year talk about another album.
Carol:
How do you work together?
Eric:
There's a lot of ways we work together with a lot of give and take. She'll
come in with a piano arpeggio and I'll have to adapt it for the guitar.
A lot of times, I'll write a chord progression, then she'll take off on
the embellishments. We give each other a great perspective.
Carol:
Has it been easy to maintain a relationship. . .
Eric:
After fourteen years? We get asked that a lot. How can a platonic male/female
entertainment duo stick together, especially with the amount of time we're
on the road? We both have our own families. But from the very beginning,
Nancy and I made some very strong deposits in each other's emotional bank
accounts. The trust level was there very quickly. We've had many musicians
come and go in our years together, and it's not that I don't trust them
not to steal something…well, Nancy is really there. There's a comfort.
I'd consider her my best friend. And then there's the music that nurtures
us. I doubt we'd have lasted if we played the music The Ramones play.
TINGSTAD
& RUMBEL Discography
All
Tingstad & Rumbel albums are on the Narada label
TINGSTAD
and RUMBEL Website
For airplay copies, contact Lisa Samper at Narada
414-961-8335, fax 414-961-8351, lsamper@narada.com
copyright 1999, Carol Wright