Flamenco Meets Classical: A Chat With Ottmar Liebert
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Crosswinds/Steve
Lawrence Liebert was born in cologne to a Chinese-German father and Hungarian mother and began playing guitar at 11. I've long been a fan of Liebert's music, so I was naturally curious about his work-old and new--his life in Santa Fe and the course of his career. SL: Tell me about living in Santa Fe. OL: Oh there's a lot of great musicians here, and I love the landscape; I love everything about it. SL: You're going to stay here. OL: Absolutely. This is actually the first place that I've ever felt at home. More at home, so that, in fact, when I go to Cologne now, where I was born and grew up, I'm uneasy there. I've done so much traveling over the last few years that right now the biggest joy I get is being in Santa Fe, just waking up, looking across the field and just really enjoying being here. SL: When you did Nouveau Flamenco, the first album, did you expect it to be a huge record or that kind of a success? OL: Absolutely not. It was recorded more or less in a garage. You know, it just took off on its own. Actually, we'll be working this year on a new edition of Nouveau Flamenco. It will come out as a 10-year anniversary in April of the year 2000. SL: It wasn't quite what you had in mind the first time? OL: I've felt that now that I'd really like to remix it and mix it the way it should sound. I've never been able to do that, and its kind of been funny, because even Flamenco, in the last seven years has become a style, a category, people call the music 'nouveau,' whereas for me in the beginning it was kind of tongue in cheek. I'd been reading an article on nouveau cuisine, and I felt, well, hey, it's not traditional Flamenco, so why don't I just call it Nouveau Flamenco. This was a time when everything was 'nouveau' this and 'nouveau' that, and I thought, um, funny. But it was interesting to me that the album and the music became sort of a hornet's nest. A lot of people that were traditional said 'how can you do that.' Then, there were a lot of other people saying, 'Oh this is great, you are opening a lot of people up to Flamenco.' SL: So the re-mixed version will be very different? OL: It will sound the same way but better, and we have discovered six or seven songs that were not available that I had recorded. It was like a big year for me. I had recorded 20 songs in five-six months and two of those songs, or three of those songs, were never released on Nouveau Flamenco. And another three or four songs have never been released, but they are all from the same time period, so the package will have the remixed, re mastered version of Nouveau Flamenco, which will sound fabulous, and six or seven new tracks. SL: How do you feel about the label 'New Age?' I ask because, to my ear, your music is a lot more muscular than much of what is classified as New Age these days. OL: It's just a label. I mean, whey the hell not new age. I didn't pick the category, the record company is a New Age label, and they took Nouveau Flamenco and said 'let's do it.' Yes, there is (new age) stuff that I can't listen to but there is stuff that I can't listen to in rock n' roll, jazz and classical music. But, to me it's only about good music, and Duke Ellington said there's only good and bad music. And, it's a label that has been thrown on me like a dart board, and so that's where I am. I have made three albums that have been nominated for Grammy awards, and I've been on that Billboard chart, actually until this year. This new classical album was number on in the cross-over classical chart for 5 weeks or so. And, actually in the general classical chart in some areas, it was number one as well. SL: How long has this album been out? OL: Since September 2nd. SL: So tell me the story. It's a real departure. had you thought about doing a classical record? OL: No I had not. I love orchestra and the first time I heard it really done beautifully in a more contemporary way or in something I could relate to, it was on a Pat Methene record a few years ago. So, what happened is that the president of Sony Classical, when I was in a meeting in New York, came in and said, 'I heard you were going to be here today, would you be interested in doing a record for us?' So, we made a one-album deal with Sony Classical. I wanted to do an album of beautiful melodies. I didn't want to do an album of athletic guitar music. I don't feel I have to prove anything to anybody; therefore, I said let's just pick beautiful melodies. Let's not worry about whether it was written for guitar, let's not worry about whether it was written for piano, for voice, for whatever, let's just pick beautiful melodies, because to me, classical music in this century, especially the second half of this century has become very intellectual. And there's something very good about being intellectual, but you also need to have something more visceral, more gut level, and there's something to a beautiful melody, it goes into your heart. SL: How do you work: What is your day like? OL: Well, if I'm starting on an album, I usually start with a general emotion, a general feeling, and I start with an overall catch word. Then I'll start writing music, and it usually happens very easily. SL: so what would be a catch word for the next album? OL: Summer. In the beginning right when spring turns warm into summer and people wear less clothes and they are just starting to smile, and there are leaves again. I want to do a summer album because I think it's very upbeat, and I don't have a title for it yet, but it's a general feeling, and I was out with this rumba band, so I want to do something very upbeat. SL: And what are your plans for the next 12 months then? OL: Next year is pretty much my recording year. I have about three or four projects that I'm going to work on and the only show we're going to do next year, and it may be the only show we do anywhere next year, will be April 25th, which is the last Saturday in April, we'll do a benefit for Salazar Elementary School here in Santa Fe. |