I was looking for something in that big, dark cupboard that’s the internet – an article I wrote for Musician Magazine sometime around 1992 or 1993 – and found this today… it’s a couple of years old, but some words can survive that time…
Music Notes: Ottmar Liebert’s Flamenco Revolution – Washington Life Magazine:
“Here’s the important thing that most people don’t realize, that all these traditions that seem so unique and unified, whether it’s jazz or flamenco, are really the result of a whole bunch of different things running into each other like marbles that hit each other. Most people know that flamenco’s Spanish, but they don’t know that probably something like 60% of traditional flamenco is Arabic. When you hear them singing and flattening the final note, that’s a very Arabic thing to do. I’d say at least 60% of flamenco. Why does flamenco sound that way and not like the gypsy music in Spain or the gypsy music in the Balkans? It’s because of the Arabic culture that was there for, what, 600 years? Then you’ve got the tangos, flamenco, and rumba, and that all came from the Caribbean, so if you took all of that away, what would you have? You’d have some folk dances, some Sevillanas and a few other things like that, but you wouldn’t have this richness that comes out of combining it.”
I believe I said Why does flamenco sound that way and not like the gypsy music in France or the gypsy music in the Balkans?…
Interesting. I really could have done without that first paragraph, but the writer let you do a lot of talking, which was great. My favorite paragraph: “Liebert not only plays his brand of flamenco-tinged music with flair, skill and inventiveness, but he appreciates the deep and unique history behind flamenco music as well.”
I like your deep, rich approach.