Ottmar Liebert's Fanmencos @ OLnet

Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra live @ Jazz Center, Istanbul, April 1, 2011

2011-04-17T12:34:00.008-04:00

The second concert of Ottmar's 2011 European tour I attended took place on April 1 at Jazz Center in Istanbul. When I learned that OL would perform there I found it a very good opportunity to finally travel that city.

Things were a bit unclear until the very moment I got to the club. I had tried to order tickets online but was confused first about the venue being Jazz Center and not Jazz Cafe, wondering if there was any difference in a city with 17 million inhabitants and a couple of potential locations with similar names. I had found a web site in Turkish and English that offered reserving tickets but differentiated between the first and the second set, charging for both. So I tried to verify if "two sets" meant two times the same set or simply the usual order with an intermission. Since nobody was able to answer that I voted for not reserving tickets but simply going there and then see. Jazz Center is a club a bit like BB King's in NYC where you are sitting at tables and are expected to dine which costs extra, of course. Needless to say that this turned out being my most expensive OL concert. Gent, in comparison, was the cheapest one. I do not regret at all, it was a special experience in various perspectives. And the music was, a bit in contrary to what Ottmar wrote in his blog, probably the best I have witnessed during the meanwhile 8 shows I went to. From a listerner's, a watcher's POV.

Jazz Center is situated in Ortaköy near the first of the big bridges and a beautful mosque at the water with a window view to Bosporus.

There certainly is an easy way to get there but I missed somehow finding it out in advance. With no direct metro line leading to the hotel complex the club is part of, I took a metro bus that I thought would drop me before that big bridge crossing the Bosporus. But there was no "final" bus stop so all of sudden I found myself leaving the continent and entering another. :-) Since simply taking the return bus would not have been of any real help, we went down to the water and took a waterbus back. It was just about the moment went the lights went on, in the city, at the bridge. Although it was a cloudy evening, it felt kind of mystique going towards Europe again, watching the city's skyline with all those mosques.

It took another walk until we finally found (!) the club. Jazz Center is quite a small venue in comparison with a lot of others Ottmar usually performs. Rather intimate, offering place for probably 50 visitors. No way the drums could be used the usual way! Jon was hanging around near the stage (saying that there was no backstage area that deserved the name) and we chatted a bit. He pointed to the monitors, to Houman's place where only the dumbek waited (and some of those small percussion devices), and to Michael's where the cajon had moved to and some stripped down drums. A towel placed on the hi-hat.

The very good thing for me was that we had a place directly at the stage, about half a meter next to Michael, one meter away from Jon, oneandahalf from Ottmar. So it turned out to be quite personal, in a sense listening to Ottmar playing live in a way I had always been dreaming of. The guys did a great job! Amazing how natural it sounded that Michael was playing cajon instead of Houman! And Houman playing dumbek in every piece! As if it had always been like this. There were some moments when Houman signalled to Jaren to change the sound a bit but really, nothing an amateur listener would have noticed... Speaking of Houman, he seemed to having had a good time, being quite vivid and smiling a lot. It was a good move to give the dumbek some space regarding that it was a Turkish audience they played for. So even with being forced to cope with a lot of disadvantages, Ottmar, Jon, Michael and Houman (and Jaren) did make the best out of it, performed wonderful music, not too loud not too quite for the listener, well-balanced between the instruments.

And then there was the episode with the chair that had been changed during the intermission and caused some obviously considerable back pain to Ottmar. A pity, to put it mildly, since performing with a view onto Bosporus could have been special for him and the others under different circumstances.

As for the music, the audience had a lot of fun especially during the two new yet unnamed pieces and the songs from NF and Borrasca. "The Road to Shiraz" and "Backwards Firefly" with their percussion parts fitted nicely the place. "Turkish Night", although despite a minor interruption ahead of the song was wonderful to hear - admitting that I might have been the only one noticing the song, its title, and its story knowing where the inspiration came from. One encore that day, and it was Ottmar coming back alone on stage playing "Silence". The audience was thankful for this, and some part of the audience probably more than the others. :-)

Some quick chats with Jon and Jaren after the show and then we took a taxi to Sirkeci to the hotel. We had been cheated a bit on arrival day so we knew what to do when taking a taxi in Istanbul: make sure that the taxameter is on, check that it is starting new and truely "command" the driver your destination. But well, Istanbul is a city that never sleeps and people try to bargain and fool you everywhere. It's kind of fun once you are used to it.

Luna Negra in concert in Gent, Belgium - March 23, 2011

2011-03-27T12:30:00.016-04:00

Probably I should start my short review of Ottmar's concert in Gent last Friday by saying how happy I was when I learned last year that he will finally tour Europe with Luna Negra. The times I attended a concert, Ottmar performed either with a string quartet or solo. Needless to say that those concert were great to witness nonetheless! So this spring 2011 Ottmar came to Europe accompanied by Jon Gagan on bass, Michael Chavez on drums and Houman Orei on percussion. I went to Gent late Friday afternoon (I am currently working in Brussels), in fact the first time ever that I visited Gent. I had heard a lot of positive things about the city, especially that it was more dynamic and more full of life than other cities in Flanders. From the tram I could see a lot of pubs but in general there is only one thing I noticed on first view: that the city was tidy (but probably I am biased since Brussels cannot be described as being so). Anyway, tidy, huge, renovated, that was what the venue looked like as well. The venue being the Handelsbeurs at a place called Kouter. There is a nice little restaurant part of the venue and, probably not surprisingly, when I stepped in there, the whole group of Ottmar's company sat there having dinner ...
The actual concert room was like a cinema or theatre with seats going down, looking down on the stage. Quite big the room, actually, which might be a reason why it was not completely full. One also must acknowledge that it must have been the first time ever for Ottmar performing in Belgium so it was really like a starter, good for advertising. And that it was indeed. The architecture of the room had another effect, a very positive one, since it made for an excellent acustics.

I sat in the first row but I heard that the music and the arrangement of the instruments were heard very good in the back as well. The musicians had left some space between the instruments, a bit removed in a sense but added to the impression of Ottmar' music being laid back, even when it heatens up.
When the concert started (in time!), the very first moment I thought, "oh my god, the drums are really loud!". But that was only a moment and even in the first row the harmony of the four instruments was wonderful to listen to. As for Michael and Houman playing together I had the impressions that it worked very well. In fact, one of the parts I enjoyed the most was the beginning of "Turkish Night", which was extremely groovy ... It is amazing how soft Michael can treat his instrument, take his playing during "La Luna" or at the end of "Dancing Alone" as an example where at times the drums sound as if fading out. If I am not mistaken, Ottmar had to broadly grin about this at one point ... As for Houman, cool percussion playing, funny how he followed the others constantly with his eyes, good harmony between him and Ottmar at the beginning of the second set, I would say ... It was good to finally see Jon play again - the last two times he took care of the sound when Ottmar played solo in Europe. I dig his bass playing, especially the parts in "Dancing Alone". I dare say that I also would have loved to hear the bass whale of "Garden at Dusk" live! :-) As for Ottmar, what can I say, his guitar playing and the sound of his guitar is unique, no? I heard people around me saying so and I had company who mentioned that as well. I am lost for words to describe that better ...
The guys played an amazing lot of old songs, five or six from the first two albums, if I counted right. Well, five from "Nouveau Flamenco" and one from "Borrasca" it should have been. "Passing Storm" sounded great in this combination. Three songs from "Petals on the Path" and I swear that it sent cold shivers up and down my pine when I heard the first notes of "On the road to Shiraz". What a fantastic song! "The Scent of Light" did not appear on the setlist, unfortunately, especially since this album was sold during the intermission. But hey, at least they offered something to acquire this time and I had the impression that quite a lot of people bought it. Speaking of the audience, I am not sure how many had heard some of Ottmar's music before. In the beginning it appeared to me as if they were visitors in a museum, regarding a painted masterpiece with the respectful distance. But when you looked around during the concert, you could see the feet teete and the heads nod rythmically. Those who were there will come back for sure ...
And then, yes, there was one thing where it became evident that the audience did know some of the tunes, the encore it was, when you could hear the people grunt affirmatively, you know what I mean, the first two notes of "Barcelona Nights" ... :-) After that, I nearly wanted to beg them to continue clapping since I knew that Ottmar might come out again to play "Silence", but they did not, they did not believe, not yet ...
A quick chat with Michael when it was over and then I had to catch the train back to Brussels. But it was okay, those guys were really tired after days of travelling. Off to Istanbul on Wednesday and hopefully (I do not have tickets yet) see you again on Friday night ...

Fan comment on "Petals on the Path" for amazon.de

2011-03-25T13:49:00.000-04:00

Luna Negra diesmal als Trio in Cream-Besetzung ...
The Cream, meine ich, denn der überwiegende Teil dieses 2010er Albums von Ottmar Liebert wurde von ihm selbst an der (Flamenco-)Gitarre, Jon Gagan am Bass und Michael Chavez am Schlagzeug eingespielt. Zu hören ist an einigen Stellen auch die Percussion von Robby Rothschild. "Petals on the Path" hat einige wunderschöne Stücke, bei denen man immer wieder aufs Neue verwundert ist ob der Lautmalerei aus dem Hause Liebert/Gagan. Die "Road to Shiraz" klingt wie ein Tanz die Straße hinunter, gutgelaunt und verträumt bis man an Shiraz tatsächlich vorbeigetanzt ist, und "Garden at Dusk" hat gegen Ende eine Basssequenz wie ein Walgesang, die den Ohren einfach nur guttut. Einige Lieder haben ein erhebliches Livepotential (Dancing Alone, Backwards Firefly, Road to Shiraz), da sie gut mit Schlagzeug/Percussion unterlegt sind und noch vertieft werden können ... Mit dem Anfang des Albums ("Jump") tue ich mich etwas schwer im Vergleich zu Ottmar's früherer Musik, komme aber trotzdem nicht umhin, dem Album fünf Sterne zu geben, weil die zweite Hälfte spätestens ab "Cedar Smoke" richtig schön ist in der bekannten zurückgelehnten Liebert-Manier. Die Hörqualität lässt wie üblich nichts zu wünschen übrig. Ottmar komprimiert ja so gut wie gar nicht, weshalb manchem das Album möglicherweise zu leise vorkommt. Tatsächlich ist der Klang besser, genauer, tiefer - einfach mal (gute) Kopfhörer aufsetzen und hineinhorchen!
Anspieltipps: "Shiraz" und "Backwards Firefly".

Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra on tour in Europe in March and April

2011-02-27T15:58:00.002-05:00

Mar 22 Riga, Latvia, The Great Guild Hall

Mar 24 Freiburg, Germany, Jazzhaus

Mar 25 Ghent, Belgium, Handelsbeurs

Mar 27 Munich, Gremany, Carl-Orff-Saal

Mar 28 Hannover, Germany, Pavillon

Mar 29 Cologne, Germany, Kulturkirche

Mar 30 Mainz, Germany, Frankfurter Hof

Apr 01 Istanbul, Turkey, Jazz Cafe

Apr 02 Istanbul, Turkey, Jazz Cafe

Apr 04 Athens, Greece, Badminton Theater

Apr 06 Trento, Italy, Teatro Sociale

Apr 07 Trescore Balneario, Italy, Teatro Nuovo

Apr 08 Piangipane, Italy, Teatro Sociale

Ottmar tours Japan in November

2009-10-26T16:48:00.001-04:00

The upcoming Japan dates:

Ottmar Liebert – Tour Schedule: Fall 2009 – Luna Negra

Nov 14 – Yokohama, Japan – Motion Blue – Tickets / Info

Nov 16 – Tokyo, Japan – Blue Note – Tickets / Info

Nov 17 – Tokyo, Japan – Blue Note – Tickets / Info

Nov 18 – Tokyo, Japan – Blue Note – Tickets / Info

OL @ Kulturkirche, Köln, 9 Oct 2009

2009-10-18T07:51:00.004-04:00

The timing couldn't have been more unfortunate for me. Just 4 days before Ottmar's Munich show I had moved to Brussels. So I thought about it, including that Ottmar might be distracted by many other things that day, and finally decided to try and make it to the Cologne show. And I did it! Yippie! Finished work a bit earlier, jumped on a train, changed trains 2 times (in Liège and Aachen), headed straight up to Ebertplatz in Cologne to catch the earliest metro possible (Google Maps help a lot) and arrived right 1 hour before the show in Kulturkirche started. Bought a ticket and found a tiny free seat right in the first row.

Kulturkirche is a nice venue. As Ottmar already mentioned in his blog, old Lutheran church with cultural events taking place there now, built in small bar where they sell Kölsch (famous local beer), Brezen (really!), and wine ...

I had the impression that the church was filled up to the last row in the end, so the atmosphere was good and it was rather cozy warm inside the (normally cold) hall.

I happen to stumble into Jon before the show started and yes, he did remember me from last year and we had a nice little chat that we continued after the show. I must say that I hardly saw Ottmar, briefly after the show, a quick hello, but there were quite a lot of fans around him demanding taking pictures, signing stuff or simply chatting a bit. He talked good about Carl-Orff- Saal in Munich and I was glad that he liked it there after last year's icy cold mirror tent.

The stage was interesting. As it was a church, on the left and right side of the normal altar area you found bible quotations engraved into the walls - and in the middle the slide show screen were later passed the pictures, little videos and some words and expressions Ottmar himself chose ("Zittern wie Espenlaub", and I suppose some Eliot Pattison?). Nice, really nice.

Ottmar appeared a bit more tense to me than the last times I saw him on stage but I might be mistaken here - not the best to read people's minds. After all, it was the 8th concert in 9 days! The Q&A did not really flow but in the end it is the music the visitors came for. And the playing went wonderful, as we are used to it for many years now. Only at one point he had to stop playing and retune a stubborn string but did that with a remarkable quickness.

I will not post a playing list anymore like I did in the past. If somebody who passes by likes to ask, don't hesitate to do! Just some glimpses:

Ottmar started playing some songs of "The Scent of Light" in a row until he switched over to earlier stuff like "Santa Fe" or "Snakecharmer". (Btw, after the show one guy asked him if he ever played tunes like "Summantra". Obviously in Germany for a long time what you could get in the stores were mostly "The Hours between Night + Day" and "Nouveau Flamenco", of course.) I was surprised and did enjoy it very much to hear "The Winding Road" (from "Leaning into the Night"), and for a brief moment I wondered if "Prelude No. 3" would follow (which did not). A very big thank you for the second encore, which were the "Night Travelling Raindrops" (from "One Guitar") in a totally improvised way. I would LOVE to have a recording of such an improvisation, no matter in which quality!!

The slideshow was fun. Beautiful how Ottmar grouped photos to colours. In the beginning "yellow" was the dominant tone, for example. The photos and the music combined for some fantastic imaginations. Impressive how he started the second set with "The Longest Night" (from "Winter Rose") while the dominant colour of the sliding pictures was red, a darker, warmer tone that fitted perfectly for deep night thoughts. During the encore the slideshow started right from the beginning. I did not know that it was more or less explicitly timed but maybe I was the only one noticing this at that very moment.

After the show I headed to my small hotel in "südliche Innenstadt" (southern city centre), a bit groggy but happy as can be, and fell sound asleep soon.

Many happy returns!

P. S. Seems that the guys are very much looking forward to the Japan shows in November ... :)

Ottmar 2009 - Solo

2009-10-04T17:10:00.002-04:00

Ottmar touring Europe again! Solo acoustic guitar with slideshow. (Pssst! The sound engineer is Jon Gagan :)) If you havet the chance the grab a ticket, go and get one (but leave me ONE for the Cologne show, I ask you ...)

Oct 01
Milano, Italy
Blue Note Tickets / Info

Oct 02
Vienna, Austria
Porgy & Bess Tickets / Info

Oct 03
München, Germany
Carl Orff Saal Tickets / Info

Oct 04
Leipzig, Germany
Spiegelpalast Tickets / Info

Oct 06
Berlin, Germany
Kleine Arena Tempodrom Tickets / Info

Oct 07
Hamburg, GermanyStage Club Tickets / Info

Oct 08
Hanover, Germany
Markuskirche Tickets / Info

Oct 09
Köln, Germany
Kulturkirche Tickets / Info

Oct 11
Riga, Latvia
The Great Guild Hall Tickets / Info

Eine herbe Schönheit - Stephen Duros' Miranda Fan Comment

2009-05-02T08:23:00.003-04:00

Here's what I wrote in German about Stephen's Miranda on amazon.de. See title link. Now if those who can easily do would go to the product's site and click "ja" that they found my comment useful it would be nice.

I borrowed a bit from Lawrence Russell's review and think that I should not write anything in English since there are many English natives out there following Ottmar and Stephen who certainly can do better than I. I promise I will click "yes" at the respective amazon.com page as well!

Schönheit betrachtend, so könnte man - die Titel des ersten und letzten Lieds frei übersetzt (Miranda, Kallistos) - dieses Album ohne weiteres beschreiben. "Miranda" ist die erste Veröffentlichung von Stephen Duros, zwischenzeitlich gefolgt vom mythologischen "Thira". Es ist ein instrumentales Album, mit der Flamencogitarre als "Stimme". Ähnlich wie auf "Thira" oder wie man es von der Musik Ottmar Liebert's kennt, präsentiert Duros jedoch keinen reinen Flamenco, benutzt vielmehr Elemente des Flamenco und vermischt diese mit anderen Rhythmen und Melodien. Das Ergebnis ist ein sehr schöner, ausgezeichnet zusammengesetzter (hier war neben Duros auch Jon Gagan, The Electric Company, Santa Fe, am Werk) Fluss an Musik, der seine eigene Geschichte erzählt und den Hörer in immer unterschiedliche Stimmungen versetzt - von der sanften Abendbrandung der kalifornischen Westküste über schlafwandelnde Gitarristen hin zum French Quarter in New Orleans.

"Miranda" und "Embrace", beide im Rumba-Rhythmus, das erste rauchiger, ein wenig im Mariachi-Stil, das zweite subtiler, mehr in Richtung Nuevo Flamenco gehend. "West Coast Sun" führt durch drei verschiedene Passagen, Tonalitäten, eine davon ein sehr interessanter Wechsel ins tiefere, langsamere, liebliche Register. "November" beeindruckt durch ein Intro voller Sehnsucht und ein Zwischenspiel voller Jazz. "Tonight" ist amerikanische Gypsy-Musik, Django Reinhardt läßt grüßen, die Percussion treibt voran.

"Kallistos", das Schöne, ist fast schon die Überleitung zum mediterranen Leitbild des folgenden Albums "Thira" (die andere Mittelmeerinsel Korsika wird auch "Kalliste", die Schöne, genannt) und ein perfekter Abschluss von "Miranda", wunderbar der althergebrachte Klang der Flamencogitarre, romantisch, kantig, verträumt, herb.

Es ist Stephen Duros zu wünschen, dass er ein größeres Forum findet. "Miranda" ist jedenfalls den Kauf - oder den Download - wert. Und vielleicht stellt er seine Musik in Europa ja auch einmal auf einer kleinen Tournee vor!

Ottmar live in Germany - Some impressions

2008-11-29T17:07:00.030-05:00

And finally Ottmar Liebert brought his music to Germany! That's how it all started for me: I had found Pandora's Box way back in the 90s and had written Ottmar an e-mail, honestly without expecting an answer, asking "When do you come to Europe?" - like so many people asked during the shows this one week in November, "Why do you come to Germany that seldom?". There's interest, without a doubt, and a market. But it won't be easy to get the whole combo abroad, that became clear as well. For the moment at least some solo shows, to entice agents, promoters and fans. Ottmar played a lot he presents at the other concerts as well, one can get an idea easily when following his online diary. Sitting in that cold tent in Munich, the last venue of the show, at least as I was concerned, I couldn't feel differently than being happy ...

I visited the shows in Freiburg on Monday and Munich on Friday. In Freiburg, I would have loved to bring my 87-year-old grandfather who is living nearby but that wasn't possible. The concert took place in a Jazz club, in a cave to be more precise, with vaulted ceilings. No photos taken, sorry for that, but my camera is not really working in obscure light anyway.
Imagine my surprise when I walked through the cave to find a good seat and in came Jon Gagan! Wait a second, wasn't this show supposed to be Ottmar solo? I checked, and it was. Jon took care of the sound this time, he said that Alan Behr had had no time. What a waste, you might think immediately, just get an upright bass out from somewhere and bring him to stage! But that's how it was and in fact it was Ottmar and Jon travelling Germany these 5-6 days, no families, no engineer, and no video-shooting-or-doing-the-lighting-or-best-playing-Flamenco-guitar-as-well guy ...
The show in Freiburg was at least full, if not sold out, and the audience obviously enjoyed the performance. Some where proud that the Jazzhaus was the first German venue for Ottmar after such a long time of being absent. As for the music, maybe as could have been expected, most people knew Ottmar from "Nouveau Flamenco" but not the newer stuff. When he turned into playing "Barcelona Nights", "Santa Fe" or "2 The Night", you could see people nodding their heads. Not as enthusiastic as one hears on the recordings from the US shows, more of a quiet nodding, but still. And I have also watched people being amazed by Ottmar's playing, his skills, his compositions, during tracks they did not know, particulary "This Spring Release 10,000 Butterflies". Plus, from the listeners' reactions, I think that "Up Close: Beginning" has the potential of becoming a live song like "Santa Fe" or else. I also did have the impression that these solo concerts where good advertising for "The Scent of Light", it's Grammy nominated!, but there was no merchandise (for customs reasons). So if you are from Germany looking for the tunes you did not know, go here or here and give it a try!

Freiburg is in one of the regions in Germany where the weather is usually better than elsewhere. It had snown a little bit the day over but not much. The bit had melted away and it was not too cold. At the end of the week, in Munich, the cold was much more intense. And the venue different. Here you can get an idea:

The venue had changed from late May to late November and now the Munich show was scheduled in a place called "Spiegelsalon"/"Mirrorlounge" which is situated in an industrialized part of Munich. It turned out that this mirrorlounge was a tent from the 1920s. Architecture and atmosphere kind of interesting, but you sat packed like sardines, which didn't make it any warmer, though, since they had to turn off the heating during the show, assumingly for noise reasons. I might have been the only one hardly noticing the cold, I was busy following the music ... :) Truth is that even Ottmar, when he came in, blew his hands in this "brrr brrr" way of blowing into your hands.

While in Freiburg, Köln, Hamburg and Mainz Ottmar was able to present his slideshow, it was not possible in Munich, mainly because of the architectural circumstances, as you can see quite good in the photo above: no suitable background or other device, and the columns would have hindered the view of a lot of people anyway.

So in Munich Ottmar had the difficult task to entertain the audience solo indeed, only him sitting there in the front, and the tent getting rather cold after a while. Personally I did not miss the slideshow; it was way more interesting to see him play "up close". Back in 2005, when seeing his shows in New York and Westhampton, I figured that there came sound out of his guitar that couldn't have been played by his ten fingers alone. Now I got a better view and it was really amazing, especially to see Ottmar's right hand move, what melody his thumb plays, and what the other four fingers are doing the very moment ...

But I guess the slideshow would have added a nice element. In Freiburg, some questioners related to pics they had seen (Ottmar playing for the children in Kham). And I will always be amused remembering what Ottmar said about the connections the brain makes, and then he played "The River" and I saw (blue) lines in several pictures in a row ...

You get totally new impressions of certain songs in this solo show version of Ottmar playing live. "Firelight", for example, was my least favourite of "The Scent of Light", if something like this exists anyway when talking about his music. Needless to say that I was totally hooked when I heard the chorus of this song being played live! It's there right now, I can't get it out of my head - despite a Drum Duet from a Chicago 2003 concert is playing on iTunes while I'm writing this ...

Deeply amazing what Ottmar can do with his acoustic guitar. Some weeks ago I had seen Dhafer Youssef playing his oud live in concert and that was impressing as well. But Dhafer uses live looping, the technique Matthew Schoening dedicated his whole new album to. Ottmar doesn't do such a thing. He is simply that skilfull, and in Munich his guitar sounded great, full and warm, although it became so cold inside the tent that people took on their winter jackets during the show! Maybe this appeared to me only because I sat directly under some speakers, but anyway, I don't know if this is a valid description in English but I had the image that Ottmar's Devoe was like a thoroughbred mare that needed to be tamed. And Ottmar did so, letting her escape only 2-3 times if I heard correctly. :P Ha, I have to think of Carlos Santana, how he asked his guitar to "hold still" while he played, but he was on drugs then, and very likely I'm only thinking this because on iTunes now "Ballad 4 Santana" from the Austin 2004 show is on!!

During the soundcheck, by the way, to my great surprise, Ottmar slipped into a song from "Leaning Into The Night". Think it was "Prelude No. 3" but am not sure. He didn't play it again during the show. A pity, indeed. But an endurable one regarding what fine tunes Ottmar usually plays and how he keeps surprising his audiences by including songs like "Bullfighter's Dream" during this year's summer concerts in the US!

Munich was crowded/full/sold out as well. Same phenomenom as in Freiburg what the people's knowledge of Ottmar's music is concerned. Some asked for song titles. You'll find them at the end of this entry.

Ottmar talking in German! :)

During the conversation part, Ottmar right from the first moment on talked in German. That was funny to listen to him talk in your own mother tongue for once! He appeared a bit sceptical about finding the right words during the show in Freiburg but in Munich, it wasn't an issue anymore. People didn't ask many questions, maybe they were no used to, so Ottmar every time quite quickly came to say, "Spiel ich noch'n paar Songs!", and played on ... :)

The two photos of Ottmar were taken by Gudrun. We met briefly before and after the show, in fact she found me!, she had a nice place in the first row and I think she took some clear pictures I could have never taken. A very small Fanmenco gathering in a sense!

To come to end, coming back to the questions from the audience to name track titles. Since this little tour is over, and in case one of the Munich visitors stumbles upon this blog, here is a list of what Ottmar played (and the according album where to find it). The order is more or less the one from Munich - and I'm not claiming that I got it all! :)

Silence (The Scent of light)
Snakecharmer (Hours between Night+Day)
Three Days Without You (The Scent of Light)
Santa Fe (Nouveau Flamenco)
This Spring Release 10,000 Butterflies (One Guitar)
2 The Night (Nouveau Flamenco)
The Longest Night (Winter Rose)
Duende del Amor w/ new Intro (Solo Para Ti)
Looking West Until The Train Disappears (One Guitar)
Samba Pa Ti/Barcelona Nights (Solo Para Ti/Nouveau Flamenco)
Up Close: Beginning (The Scent of Light)
La Luna (La Semana)
Firelight (The Scent of Light)
The River (The Scent of Light)
Night Travelling Raindrops (One Guitar)
Carrousel (La Semana)
Red Desert Sky (One Guitar)

Jon Gagan

2008-11-17T05:43:00.003-05:00

... in Round Mountain action ...

Ottmar in Germany

2008-11-16T09:38:00.000-05:00

Ottmar's finally touring Germany from Nov 24 until Nov 28. The concerts that were cancelled last May.

Please note that the concert in Munich will take place in the Spiegelsalon in Lilienthalstraße and not in Postpalast anymore (so says Eventim).

Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra. Lodi, California. July 10, 2008.

2008-07-12T18:51:00.002-04:00

Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra. Lodi, California. July 10, 2008.
Originally uploaded by ochazuke

The Scent of Light - a Review

2008-06-29T20:56:00.001-04:00

Pulled straight from my blog:

As I posted a couple of weeks ago, Ottmar's latest and greatest album, The Scent of Light, came out 13 days before we'd expected it to, and I posted before listening to it, still fresh with the excitement of just having found that the record, his first album with his band in four years, was even available. Well, now I have listened to it; if it's possible to wear the grooves off of an MP3, then I'm certainly doing so to these ten. For those also addicted to Ottmar's music like cocaine, or for those who read this blog for my cutting astrophysics commentary and might pick up the album, I offer my thoughts, recorded on first listen and updated after many:

Up Close: Beginning: We know it and love it. A cool intro song. In all honesty, I didn't find this song very exciting on the binaural album when we first heard it (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you should have clicked the link in the last sentence), but after hearing it in its full-up glory here, something just clicked. I've actually been inspired to pick it up on guitar, as it's a very fun, light song that I can see the guitarist jamming around for ages (the transcription process is alternatively highly fulfilling or mind-bogglingly irritating). I approve.

Streetlight: The album is getting started here. Really, the feeling you get, at least on first listen, is that Up Close was a warm up; the very groove of Streetlight suggests that we are now in the album. I started the album on speakers and switched to headphones between the first song and this, and am glad I did - I've never heard an album so richly textured, and it comes out on this song. This is definitely a headphones album. The songs are very non-linear. Would be repetitive but for the amazing textures.

Silence: Well, we've only waited through three years and fifty-nine live versions of this song to finally hear it in studio. Ottmar delivers, too - at nearly 11 minutes, the longest and twistiest song of some very long and twisty songs on the record. A perfect rendition of the live favorite until four minutes in, when suddenly we are hit with an unexpected breath of newness. Then the old returns, and the two wrestle together... I do wish that the old string quartet line from the Winter 2005 tour were in this (for shame, Ottmar's taken down the MP3 of that!), that was positively breathtaking, but Jon Gagan (who composed it) plays the line on bass, so not all is lost. As a matter of fact, very very little is lost. Props to Stevo on his awesome electric guitar line, too.

Firelight: A year after I was in Granada, exactly. Ottmar sub-labels this song as being inspired by his 1992 trip to Granada. I was not blown away on first go-through, but I did write "certainly merits relisten," which it did. It's one of my favorite songs on the album (in the top 10, definitely), although I remain a bit disappointed that it never conjures up images of Granada in my mind, and when I try to make the connection as I listen to the song, I find matching the song to the city to be difficult. That's not surprising, though. Ottmar's Granada in 1992 and mine in 2007 are separated by 15 years, different people with different perceptions, different experiences, different memories, different ways of expressing those memories, and of course the city itself is sure to have changed a bit, too.

Morning Light: Stronger hints of old Ottmar here. The main rhythm guitar line here is something very special. Truly a song telling a story, as Ottmar said the songs on this album would, and the sense of that is stronger here than in older Ottmar songs. As a matter of fact, I know it's not new to this album before because I wrote just about the same thing four years ago in a review of his last band album, La Semana, on Amazon, which people apparently still find useful today....

The River: Another familiar piece. Similar to the Up Close version from last year, until the texture comes in at just the right part of the song, courtesy of Stephen Duros... As with Up Close (the song), I wasn't a huge fan of this song until hearing it on the album. Very nice melody.

Candlelight: The appropriate imagery in the title. Nice, mellow piece. The fourth of the "Light" pieces. There's an interesting structure to this album. Five pieces we've heard in some capacity before, with vast roaming melodies and changes, and five brand new pieces titled after some sort of "light", which focus much more on developing a few ideas all the way, with heavy texture and layering. Well, that explains the album title.

Three Days Without You: Possibly the crowning jewel of the album. Has a certain depth to it... Along with Up Close and The River, it's the final of the three songs on this album which we first heard last year. It was the only one I really loved then, I was absolutely blown away when I heard the Culture Court mix (which is basically a truncated version of the full song) in April, and it's got a real place in my heart now. Nice to hear some of the old bits back, though I loved the CC mix. This version feels more complete. The structure is simple, the simplest of all of the songs on the album: some playing around in tangos, then a rumba chorus, then the same (more or less) playing around in tangos, then instead of the chorus a vast, expansive, unbelievably textured ball of gorgeous.

Moonlight: Nearly impossible to listen to all of the melodies, especially when this song is in Mellow Mode, as opposed to Funky Mode. Beautiful. A wonderful, eccentric, schizophrenic romp - must be paid close attention to to get the full benefit.

Up Close: Up Close re-imagined, and a lovely way to close off the album. As is only fitting for the final song, it takes the familiar version of Up Close - where Ottmar's arpeggios would come in just as he was about to play a melody's final note - and replaces arpeggios with a second guitar's chords, allowing us to finally hear - and Ottmar to finally play - each melody's resolution. Unbelievably satisfying.

rescheduled

2008-06-03T08:35:00.002-04:00

new dates according to the venues:
Freiburg Nov 24
Mainz Nov 27
Munich Nov 28

Things u find when looking for OL tix...

2008-03-29T16:14:00.002-04:00

Follow title link. Some Georg Hirsch reported 4 ARD Hörfunk about Ottmar back in 1997. "Leaning Into the Night" was the fresh album by that time.

Ottmar @ Postpalast, München

2008-03-29T16:11:00.002-04:00

No I know why: I was a little confused. Ottmar has written that he'd perform @ Munich, Postplatz, but it's the Postpalast in Arnulfstraße. Just ordered 2 tickets. Will I get a photo pass?

Edit: Here's a link to the venue.

Ottmar @ Jazzhaus, Freiburg

2008-03-29T15:58:00.002-04:00

4 some info follow title link.

P.S. Bought 1 ticket for the show in Mainz. Will order 2 4 Freiburg when being back in Germany next week. Still figuring out the Munich location...

An Evening with OTTMAR LIEBERT Guitar and Conversation

2008-03-29T15:56:00.000-04:00

"Ottmar Liebert – der unvergleichliche Virtuose mit seiner Akkustik-Gitarrefür fünf Konzerte im Mai auf Tour in DeutschlandSeit über 10 Jahren ist Ottmar Liebert – eigentlich gebürtiger Kölner, jetzt mit Wohnsitz in Santa Fe, New Mexico – nicht mehr live in Deutschland gewesen.Im Mai ist es endlich wieder so weit und der unvergleichliche Virtuose lädt ein zu „An Evening with Ottmar Liebert – Guitar and Conversation“ in Freiburg, Köln, Hamburg, Mainz und München.Dabei ist der Untertitel dieser Tour die genaue Programmbeschreibung: Guitar and Conversation – Gitarre und Geschichten. Denn Ottmar Liebert ist nicht nur einer der überragensten Gitarristen unserer Zeit, er ist auch ein Mensch, der nicht nur mit seiner Musik viel erzählen möchte, sondern auch über sie. Überhaupt ist Ottmar Liebert in jeder Hinsicht ein ungewöhnlicher Mensch und Musiker. Gut 23 Alben hat er seit 1990 veröffentlicht, sein letztes, „One Guitar“ wurde mit einer Grammy-Nominierung veredelt. Bereits sein Debüt „Nouveau Flamenco“ avancierte zu einem der meistverkauften Gitarren-Alben aller Zeiten und beinhaltet das atemberaubend schöne Stück „Barcelona Nights“. Mit seiner Band Luna Negra redefinierte er den Flamenco mit einem Mix mit Jazz und Bossa Nova und verhalf ihm somit wieder zu einer breiteren Zuhörerschaft. Dabei ist es nicht nur Lieberts unglaubliche Fingerfertigkeit, mit der er seinem Instrument rasende Rhythmen aber auch zarteste Melodien entlockt, sondern wohl vor allem auch seine unglaublich charismatische Ausstrahlung, die sich nicht nur auf der Bühne sondern auch in seiner Musik entfaltet und den Zuhörer von der ersten Minute an in den Bann zieht. Für Liebert ist der Flamenco gleichzeitig romantisch und gefährlich – eine Einstellung, die er auf sein ganzes Schaffen überträgt. Den es gelingt ihm immer wieder, die romantische innere Stärke des Flamenco mit seiner gefährlichen Kraft zu kombinieren und somit unvergleichliche Melodien zu komponieren - Melodien, die den Hörer mitnehmen, entführen, tragen, träumen lassen und tief im Inneren berühren. Und so darf man sich denn freuen auf einen Abend mit Ottmar Liebert, seiner Gitarre und vielen Geschichten; einen Abend, der einen weit, weit weg tragen wird – vielleicht romantisch und gefährlich zugleich…An Evening with OTTMAR LIEBERT Guitar and Conversation
Mainz, Frankfurter Hof, Donnerstag, 29.05.2008 um 20:00 Uhr"

A Glimpse of Light

2008-03-24T07:40:00.002-04:00

Title link will lead you to an entry in Ottmar's diary where he posts a wonderful excerpt from one of the tracks of his upcoming album "The Scent of Light".

Ottmar is coming to Germany ...

2008-03-20T05:58:00.002-04:00

May 26 Freiburg, Germany – Jazzhaus

May 27 Cologne, Germany – Kulturkirche

May 28 Hamburg, Germany – Small Musikhalle

May 29 Mainz, Germany – Frankfurter Hof

May 30 Munich, Germany – Postplatz

... and I promise you'll find me on 3 of these concerts! Freiburg is where my grandparents live, Mainz is close to where I will be at that time and Munich is home. Really looking forward to it after all those years. It will be Ottmar solo, by the way. If you want to see him perform with Luna Negra think of going to the US in summer 08 or spring 09. For concrete details, check out here.

Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra Concert Extravaganza Post-Game

2007-08-30T01:12:00.000-04:00

Originally posted on my blog:

What a show tonight! I tried counting how many times I've seen Ottmar live now since 2003 (it's some obscene number, pretty sure it's 7), and each time these guys seem to get better. The addition of Steve to the band--the first time I've seen them with a second guitarist--did a lot, it seemed to free Ottmar from the usual constraints of having to provide his own accompaniment, and Stevo's a damn good guitarist in himself. I wasn't sure what to expect, only knowing his solo stuff, and the verdict? The man is a beast at rumba flamenca. I think he told me he studied with a flamenco teacher in California and focused on rumbas with him, and it shows. The guy has a bag full of strumming styles and tricks (I need to get him to show me the 6/8 rumba strumming he used on The Winding Road/La Primavera!).

He ain't too shabby on the electric guitar, either, which came out a lot more from both guitarists than it did in past tours. I especially liked his electric guitar bit on Silence, the first song they played...you know, they've played that for I think three years now (and by the way, Ottmar, we have yet to see it on an album!), I must have heard five different renditions of it at this point, and they get something cool and new with each one. Sometimes it's Ottmar solo, with the band Jon does that great bass solo at the end and then in 2005 the string quartet did their thing after him, and this time in place of that, Steve did a really cool electric guitar solo. I wonder what that song will sound like when recorded--I think with all the ideas they have for it, it will be about 15 minutes long!

So, for the curious, here's the setlist (copied directly from the list the guys used):

Silence
La Luna
Carrousel (w new intro)
UnderWorld/Cocteau
Winding Road
Santa Fe
Snakecharmer

-------------------

Butterflies [the list says this, at least - he actually played Night Travelling Raindrops, from the same album, and my favorite piece on that particular disc]
Northbound [from bassist Jon Gagan's album Transit2]
Thira [from rhythm guitarist Stephen Duros's awesome album Thira]
New New Tangos/Rumba
Alegría Árabe
New Tangos/2 the Night
Sao Paulo

-------------------

Havana Club
Barcelona Nights

Setlist is here:

I kept track of the list during the performance on the back of a receipt (also in the picture), and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was pretty much all right. I was especially proud to find that what I called a new tangos/rumba is actually a new tangos/rumba on the list, considering that I've never actually heard of a tangos/rumba before!

Oh, and Steve said I rock - good eye, Mr. Duros!

A few pleasant surprises on that list. Winding Road was one of them--I forgot he mentioned that they were playing it this tour, and I really enjoy that piece. Alegría Árabe, 2 the Night, and Havana Club were all unexpected "oldies" that I enjoyed hearing, especially Havana Club. A couple of old tour favorites were missing (I was personally hoping to hear Duende del Amor with the usual bulería intro, and Heart Still/Beating), but all in all a very good set.

I didn't take many pictures tonight, mainly because my battery got low after about 3 shots (I may or may not have forgotten to charge it). I would have probably spent most of it on video anyway, but this did keep me--just in case--from taking the obscene, unnecessary amount of pictures that I did in 2004, or 2005 (in 2006 I was a bit more video-heavy). 2007 is at that link. Anyway, if you want to see what these guys look like, check out the 2004 and 2005 albums. Bassist Jon was there both tours and percussionist Davo was there in 2005. I kept it simple and snapped shots of Ottmar in action:

Stevo in action:

D+B in action:

And I managed to get a picture with every band member! Guitarists apparently are the least mature.

Westhampton PAC

2007-08-27T03:51:00.001-04:00

Westhampton PAC
Originally uploaded by o2ma

Ottmar on a little east coast tour. Cool venue here on the photo!

Ghost Ottmar flying in mid-air

2007-08-23T15:35:00.001-04:00

IMG_1213.jpg
Originally uploaded by stromo

Headline News

2007-06-26T18:27:00.000-04:00

Music: Flamenco (Tribal Beats) by WaWa
Mood: Festive

....Street date for the three SSRI releases is July 10

as noted on Stephen's Blog

Mountain Winery

2007-06-17T07:18:00.001-04:00

Originally uploaded by ochazuke

Wonderful photos of the Mountain Winery show taken by Yumiko. Check out as well Stephen Duros photo stream @ Flickr for photos of the same show.

Tour

2007-06-11T15:26:00.001-04:00

blur
Originally uploaded by Matt Callahan

Ottmar touring the West Coast at the moment, accompagnied by Jon Gagan, Davo Bryant and Stephen Duros.

On the cover

2007-06-11T15:23:00.001-04:00

On the cover
Originally uploaded by mj*laflaca

Check Stephen's blog if you want a copy!

Australia 1994

2007-04-14T05:08:00.001-04:00

20070403_3069.jpg
Originally uploaded by o2ma.

Surf-board from Sony Australia - 1994

Round Mountain CD release

2007-04-12T18:19:00.001-04:00

Our CD release
Originally uploaded by Round Mountain.

Big finale. Char + Robby Rothschild with Jon Gagan.

Wallpaper

2007-03-24T18:17:00.001-04:00

Wallpaper
Originally uploaded by o2ma.

Now available and a wonderful pre-cursor of exciting things to come via the forthcoming CD, "Up Close".

Ottmar Liebert at Upaya

2007-03-16T05:12:00.001-04:00

"One Guitar" remixed

2007-02-24T02:04:00.001-05:00

Andrew Gaskins remixes three tracks off "One Guitar", available now at the Lounge :)

-Adam

In the Studio with Ottmar Liebert

2007-02-22T09:33:00.000-05:00

Nice entry by Barrett Martin on his MySpace site. Follow title link.

Azhar

2007-02-16T11:56:00.000-05:00

Read this post of Ottmar's, Stephen's comment + then listen to the song. Learning about things like this always makes me shiver. Fantastic. Thanks for letting us know!

Stephen Duros Bio

2007-02-09T04:25:00.000-05:00

And here's a Stephen Duros Bio from CultureCourt.

Jon Gagan Bio

2007-02-07T05:41:00.000-05:00

Interesting Jon Gagan Bio @ CultureCourt.

El Brujo

2007-02-07T05:40:00.001-05:00

DSC07323.JPG
Originally uploaded by stromo.

Some nice new photos from the Luna Negra New Zealand Tour in 2006 posted by Stephen Duros @ Flickr. Click on the photo to see more.

o2ma

2007-02-01T18:21:00.001-05:00

o2ma
Originally uploaded by ochazuke.

Happy birthday from the Fanmencos!

Photo / Drawing by Y.

Ottmar Liebert, IMAC Theater December 1, 2006

2006-12-07T19:03:00.000-05:00

I know, it's about time! It's been just under a week since I saw Ottmar and I've not written a thing on it yet. Well, no more. Here is my review of things.

I'll have to start off with what might be obvious to a lot of people reading this: I've seen Ottmar a few times before, and each tour was different and had its distinct flavor, but this show was nothing like any of them. There was a guitar and some of the songs were the same--that was it! A completely new experience. Armed with just his guitar and a screen (hooked up to his MacBook Pro on stage) playing a slideshow of his pictures, from his recent pilgrimage in Tibet to images of home in Santa Fe. Without the band to back him up, the atmosphere was changed drastically--it was more relaxed, there was less of a frantic, energetic pace. The guitarist who originally introduced me to flamenco once told me that music isn't about the notes, it's about the space between them. Ottmar accentuated that Friday night. The bulerías were no less exciting than they've always been, but they were sparser, emptier--where he might once have used a chord on a beat, he would rest or do something percussive on the guitar (although this was less the case with the bulería in the video below). His trémolo was particularly clear and beautiful this time around, and he used a bit of it throughout the show.

To hear old favorites like "Snakecharmer" and "Santa Fe" reimagined in this minimalistic, band-less atmosphere--while it may have surprised many who came, having heard nothing but Nouveau Flamenco (an album title that I find to be more unfortunate by the day) and expecting an exciting "Barcelona Nights" fiesta--was, especially now that I'm learning guitar, very interesting, and ultimately--more importantly--very enjoyable. The show highlighted his virtuosity, I thought--unshackled by the constraints of having a 3-4 piece backing band, he seemed freer to do what he wanted, what he thought the song needed, and this proved to make for an amazing concert experience.

So the idea of "Solo Guitar + Talk" has gone through many incarnations, some of which have materialized and others which have never made it past the drawing board, but I was a bit surprised that the show was dominated by guitar--I was long under the impression that about half would be a PowerPoint presentation. Some of you can remind me, but isn't that more or less what the spring shows were like? Here, there was an interesting balance between that and a typical music show--in the second half, he took some questions from the audience, and he definitely talked a lot more in between songs than he usually did (is it on the Wide Eyed + Dreaming DVD where he says he dislikes speaking when he's performing? Not so this time!).

So we learned some interesting things between songs. He talked a bit about the history of flamenco and why no style is "pure", since art is always evolving. I remember a few songs in, the pictures had been cycling on the screen the whole show and he explained them, that they were pictures he'd taken all over, and that they were on random loop, so if you think the pictures you're seeing relate to what he's playing, it's all mental! (I didn't get that feeling much except once, when during one of the One Guitar songs, when this one picture completely fit the mood) He then reminisced about how in the early 90s, he was on the bus and Jon and the percussionist (I'm assuming Davo?) were sitting in front of the TV, eyes glued to the screen, playing Pink Floyd and saying "It matches the movie so well!!" :)

Then, as I mentioned, during the second half, he took Q&A from the audience briefly. Unfortunately, he only did it once or twice and cut it off after a few minutes. I'm not sure if he disliked the questions or just didn't like the talk interrupting him from the music, but if it's the former, I'd understand. There were some...well, interesting questions (like the person who asked "What artists inspired you?" very shortly after someone asked "Where do you get your inspiration?" and he essentially dismissed the question as unanswerable. And yes, there were at least two "Barcelona Nights" questions :) ).

All in all, the show was a beautiful experience. One that I doubt I will ever get to experience again, but that's OK--I think I enjoyed it as much as I really could. Photos are on Flickr, although there are much fewer than I usually take at his shows, for two reasons. First, there was less going on, in the band's absence--it was just him and the guitar, and I wasn't terribly close (that is to say, I was close, just far off to the side), so I couldn't get any nice guitar close-ups or anything of the like. Second, in lieu of a need to take lots of pictures, I wanted to free my memory card room (of which there was precious little--yes, I did run out, even after using up the entire 128 MB!) for...video! I uploaded them to YouTube, so the videos (using YouTube's fantastic embedded interface) are at the bottom of this post. Here is the setlist, as I recorded it during the show (accurate except that I didn't know the names of two of the One Guitar songs, and Sapo may have come before Dream):

Silence: No More Longing
The Longest Night (Soleá por Bulerías) --> Dream --> Sapo
Snakecharmer
This Spring Release 10,000 Butterflies
Santa Fe

---Intermission---

Unknown (Possibly new?) song --> Bulería
1G*
La Luna
1G*
Carrousel

---Encore---

Bombay

*"1G" means that he played a song from One Guitar whose title I wasn't able to recall at the time.

Videos:

East Coast

2006-11-28T11:52:00.000-05:00

OL touring the East Coast at the moment. Solo performances with a slideshow of images taken by Ottmar himself. For dates go here.

Ottmar Liebert in Kham, Tibet

2006-11-13T04:30:00.000-05:00

For more pictures go here. Photos courtesy of Joan Halifax Roshi of the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe.

Ottmar Liebert @ Guzzetta Grand Ballroom, Sacramento

2006-11-05T09:12:00.000-05:00

Photo taken by Yumiko.

Jon Gagan's Transit 2 now available in the lounge!

2006-10-29T13:34:00.000-05:00

Stephen Duros' Thira @ the Lounge

2006-10-18T09:23:00.000-04:00

SSRI artist Stephen Duros' brandnew album Thira's available in the Listening Lounge. Minimalistic (so says ARS) Flamenco guitar playing with a sense of the mediterranean (my guess looking at the song titles). First fan review is here. I'm off for my first listen.........

Thira

2006-10-04T16:47:00.000-04:00

Stephen Duros feat. Ottmar Liebert now @ MySpace as a PreListen...

Chengdu China

2006-09-28T09:26:00.000-04:00

Current local time in Chengdu-China

````````````

I found this on Ottmar's site and

thought I'd post it here.

Fanmencos wishing a safe journey

2006-09-23T13:17:00.000-04:00

One Guitar

2006-08-28T09:02:00.000-04:00

Ottmar's latest solo album now available in the Listening Lounge. Follow title link.

Ottmar in concert, Upaya Zen Center

2006-08-20T04:28:00.000-04:00

Taken by Joan Halifax Roshi. Some more photos to be found when clicking on this one. I like the glasses in particular.

Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra, Celebrity Theater August 9, 2006

2006-08-12T17:21:00.000-04:00

Well, as you can see here, the cats out of the bag. Under normal circumstances, just seeing Ottmar perform is a huge high point for me. Getting to spend some time with him adds to the experience more than I have the ability to explain.

After meeting the crew (yes, Jon Gagan is as cool as you think he is) and hanging out for a while, I headed back home so they could get ready for the show. A few hours later I was back at the venue. A friend from work who had never seen Ottmar live before had decided to attend (this could have been peer pressure). I caught sight of my neighbor from down the street as well.

The Celebrity Theater continues to be one of my favorite venues. The sound is good and the atmosphere pleasant. Wednesday’s show was no exception. The latest incarnation of Luna Negra includes Stephen Duros on rhythm guitar and soft synths, Dave Bryant on percussion, and of course, everyone’s favorite bass engine Jon Gagan who also lends his skill to the “hard synths”.

I’m not sure if it was just me but I never knew where to keep my focus. All four of these guys are having so much fun playing, you don’t know who’s going to do what next. This is my first time seeing Dave Bryant’s percussion and he does not disappoint. The crowd loved him. Stephen’s playing is a fantastic compliment to Ottmar’s. Before the show, the house music was a blend of Stephen’s new CD as well as Jon’s. Both are great but I’m really looking forward to putting in some serious listening time on Mr. Duros’ latest project.

Early in the set I was surprised by a new twist during Santa Fe. After most of the familiar sounds of this song had been played, Ottmar then reached for his electric guitar. This was so cool! After the show, he said that this was something new they started in Australia, as were some of the new bass changes on a few other pieces. What a great addition. The tone of the electric guitar seemed even better than it has before. I forgot to ask if he made some change there. I think it’s time for an electric guitar album. Stephen can play acoustic rhythm guitar and let Ottmar loose with the electric.

The start of the second half of the show begins with This Spring Release 10,000 Butterflies from the One Guitar CD. Ottmar plays this alone on stage and is then joined by the rest of the guys. It was great reminder of his solo shows. Those on the east coast of the US should watch for the upcoming dates. These shows are not to be missed. The intro to Duende de Amor is a fantastic new buleria, which should appear on next years release Up Close. Food for a buleria junkie to be certain.

As always, the show passed by too quickly. Before I knew it, the crowd had all left and I watched as the crew handled the tear down. From there I witnessed the now infamous “Fake Segway” episode. They had the nerve to put training wheels on the thing. After another chat while watching the trailer get loaded, it was time for the day to end. I would have loved to hitch a ride on the bus for the rest of the tour. Who knows, maybe sometime I’ll have the chance.

Kiva-fied

2006-08-07T23:09:00.000-04:00

A Luna Negra evening
Originally uploaded by nieve44.

The Kiva Auditorium was certainly an electrifed (kiva-fied) evening for various reasons. First, as Victor mentioned in the previous blog entry ..."the music completely rocked"! This was one of the very reasons Mario and I decided to attend the concert in Albuquerque...to see the new band! What a band!--and again as Victor said, they just seem to be "having so much fun" and the chemistry onstage certainly electrified the audience! To the right of me was this older woman who I will call granny---and granny was rocking to the music! I don't know whose toes were tapping more...hers, mine or the bands!

Another reason, I wanted to attend the concert was to hear Ottmar & the band perform in a different venue than the Verizon Theatre here in Houston, which is not an intimate venue. The Kiva complemented the performance by the band and the intimacy of the setting was electric! Such a sweet buzz! I loved listening to the chatter of the audience before the show and after. I ran into a woman in the hotel elevator across the venue and the first thing she asked..."are you ready for the concert"? She was all smiles and "charged up" about the show!

Just before the show started, I noticed that Jon came out and was tinkering with some equipment on stage! If I didn’t know better, I think he turned up the volume and added some additional “electric charges”! David’s hands were “on fire” and completely wowed the crowd! I wished I had a chance to shake those magic hands! Stephen Duros--love the electricity he brings with his guitar! I could’ve sworn, it appeared that he seemed to take the lead on a few notes! If so, kudos to Ottmar for the passing of the torch! Can’t wait for the new cd’s to come out from Stephen and Jon.

There were no photos allowed in the venue and thus no photos of the concert for fellow fanmencos to see. We tried to get a set list but the Kiva "guard/security" was on high alert!! As Ottmar mentioned there were some issues with security and the "after-show". A special thanks to one of Ottmar's assistants who saw Mario and I hanging outside the bus with posters in hand for an autograph. She rushed right over and took the posters up to the bus for Ottmar to autograph and was very apologetic about what happened after the show.

As we were leaving the show, I looked up into the sky and caught a glimpse of the August moon! The August moon appeared to be electrified as well! ;-)

Graveyard Shift

2006-08-05T11:42:00.000-04:00

Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra lifted spirits to a whole new level last night at the Crown Hill Cemetery Pavilion of Reflection (Wheat Ridge, Colorado). This benefit concert event raised more than $16,000 for the Collier Hospice Center!

So, what exactly does a concert in a cemetery look like? This beautiful new pavilion provided an intimate concert setting with surprisingly good acoustics, and the semi-outdoor feel took advantage of a beautiful Colorado summer evening!

And the music completely rocked! This incarnation of the Luna Negra band showcases the incredible talents of all the players… but I think the key ingredient that brings it together is that these guys seem to be having so much fun! It’s just a great chemistry to both see and hear, and that becomes contagious for the audience.

Speaking of incredible talents… we were treated to a live performance of “Northbound”, which will be on Jon Gagan’s upcoming album “Transit 2”. I’m just happy “Transit 2” is going to be released soon (this September) because I can hardly wait!

And what about that Stephen Duros guy we’ve all been hearing about? Well, his guitar and keyboard work brings a whole new depth to this band. In particular I think his guitar rhythms free up Ottmar to really go deeper with his improvised parts… and Ottmar takes advantage by making many of his classics sing like you’ve never heard them before! Ottmar was also free to make some quick transitions between flamenco and electric guitars, so suddenly you get all these new layers happening within each song… it’s like that witnessing the birth of something new and unexpected… you can’t help but smile!

Stephen’s unique guitar styling was featured in a performance of “Thira”, from his soon to be released album… which I’m incredibly excited for also (another September release)!

And you can’t help but get carried away by Dave Bryant’s energetic hand drumming! (He was clearly having way too much fun!) He brought the house down several times during the show, but a particular highlight for me was the depth he brought to the ever popular “Snake Charmer”.

After the show there was an opportunity to mingle with the band… how cool to spend some time with these guys and hear some of their perspectives and stories from their travels! Thanks Ottmar and Luna Negra for a “Gold Ticket” evening!

WHAT, NO PERFORMANCE PHOTOS?!?! Sorry folks… just prior to the start of the performance an announcement was made that photography during the show would be strictly prohibited. So I took that as an invitation to just sit back and get lost in the music. I hope you all get a chance to catch this tour and get lost in the music too!

Golden Ticket

2006-07-31T21:46:00.000-04:00

Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra will perform a benefit concert this Friday, August 4, 2006 in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. All proceeds will be donated to the Collier Hospice Center. Hope you’ve reserved your “VIP Golden Ticket”!

The VIP ticket gets you seating up front, access to a pre-concert reception, and a meet and greet with Ottmar Liebert and the Luna Negra band members following the show! The person who took my ticket reservation described it as “A true fan’s dream package”… to which I said, “Obviously you don’t know who you’re talking to!” (Just kidding, I didn’t say that, but I did think it!)

There is also a “general admission” ticket level at $65 (but let’s face it, if you found this blog you’re going to want the VIP ticket). Oh, did I mention that the venue is in the middle of a cemetery?! Spirits will be served, along with hors d’oeuvres, but only if you have the VIP ticket… all others must take their chances in the back.

Hope to see you there!

Ottmar touring Australia at the moment

2006-07-21T05:59:00.000-04:00

A bit late to post it here, I know, but better than never: Ottmar's touring Australia and New Zealand at the moment. Check his blog for road blogging and the Touring Schedule for the remaining dates. Hand and guitar on the picture are of Stephen Duros, part of the 2006 Luna Negra.

Kanji Cow travels to Upaya Zen Center

2006-07-08T03:58:00.000-04:00

Kanji Cow as created by Yumiko and supported by Ottmar Liebert. Read Ottmar's entry and follow the links there to know more about the Kanji Cow and scroll through Ottmar's diary for info about the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Nomad Clinic Project. A Kanji Cow can be acquired as a thank you for a donation to said project.

"One Guitar" Cover Design

2006-06-22T05:09:00.000-04:00

An album in the making. Highly interesting process. Check Ottmar's own blog and search for "Tears in the Rain"-entries (the working title of the formerly online-only album). Very beautiful cover art has just been finally decided. The original photos you can find in Ottmar's flickr appearance. "One Guitar" will appear later this year as a CD. The individual tracks you already can check out & download in Ottmar's Listening Lounge.

P.S. That's soo cool, I'm getting slightly mad, I fear... :)
P.P.S. Culture Court Review of "One Guitar" here.

EDIT June 28th: Since the beginning of this week, the "Tears in the Rain"-tracks are no longer available for purchase in Ottmar's Listening Lounge. Reason is that the former download-only album has transformed into the album "One Guitar" that will be acquirable as CD as well. Publish date should be around August - as soon as Ottmar comes back from the Australia tour. The new album - and therefor the according mp3 - of course will be available then (again) as a download version in the Lounge, yet in a new section. If you want to know more, check Ottmar's blog for news.

Touring Schedule

2006-06-17T07:17:00.000-04:00

In 2006 Ottmar Liebert so far is touring in June (Westcoast), July (Australia + New Zealand) and August (Southwest). To view the whole touring schedules, click the title link.

Ottmar @ Upaya Zen Center

2006-06-05T09:17:00.000-04:00

Wonderful set of photos assumingly taken by Roshi Joan Halifax from the Santa Fe Upaya Zen Center showing Ottmar Liebert performing for an intimate audience. Click on the photo to see more.

Rahim Alhaj @ Listening Lounge

2006-05-29T16:52:00.000-04:00

Ottmar Liebert now offers mp3 of Rahim Alhaj' albums "Friendship: Oud & Sadaqa Quartet" and "Second Baghdad" in his Listening Lounge. That's wonderful instrumental music with the irakien oud as the instrument in center. Confer also here, here and here, the last with further links.

Fanmenco Heaven

2006-04-28T22:17:00.000-04:00

Fanmenco Heaven
Originally uploaded by mRio.

First we were fanmencos-

then we became Flickerites-

some have become bloggers-

but now we have become friends!

There are more of you out there

that we missed on this special night

but we know you were there in spirit.

I know we're all still dreaming!

Photo taken by Ottmar Liebert! :-)

Santa Davo

2006-03-25T04:14:00.000-05:00

Stephen Duro's photos of Ottmar Liebert's Holiday Tour now @ flickr. Click on pic or follow title link.

Brandnew Tears in the Rain tracks

2006-03-19T13:01:00.000-05:00

Ottmar Liebert offers 6 new improvisations he recorded on March 2nd, 13th and 17th for purchase in his Listening Lounge. The tracks form part of the so far online-only album called "Tears in the Rain" and are gitarra flamenca only. Those are musical jewels, friends, go and download them!!

Silence

2006-03-18T07:19:00.000-05:00

"Silence - Nor more longing" live during the Holiday Tour 2005, now available as a free podcast. The opening track of end of last year's fantastic tour. A rather new tune that fans already regard as an all-time-Ottmar Liebert-classic. Perfect sound quality, incredible musicians including a string quartet. Go, check it out!

Bells - Holiday Tour 2005

2006-03-12T20:32:00.000-05:00

Check out the latest podcast. For non-podcasters, go here

Another fantastic song made even better by the live performance .

Pavane

2006-02-15T03:47:00.000-05:00

Pavane from Ottmar Liebert's Winter Rose album, now available as a new podcast here. Go figure and download! A must! Ottmar and Jon Gagan in fantastic shape.

Bombay 050901

2006-02-09T09:03:00.000-05:00

Test recording made in my living room with a portable hard-drive recorder and a Rhode Stereo microphone. Nothing was added, no EQ of any kind, no compression. Publishing owned by Sony Music. Full Copyright. The original can be found on the album "The Hours between Night + Day", released by Epic Records in 1993.

Ottmar put this song into podcasting a while ago, even before the Holiday Tour, in fact. Bombay 050901 is a test recording made in his living room! Hadn't noticed that before. Very interesting and fantastically played.

Happy birthday, Ottmar Liebert!

2006-02-01T03:38:00.000-05:00

Makeshift Studio4
Originally uploaded by o2ma.

Being quite certain that most participants of this fan blog have e-mailed you already, I nonetheless want to leave public greetings here as well.

May it be a positive year for you.

Cheers, Boris.

Happy holidays!!

2005-12-25T08:56:00.000-05:00

To all contributors and readers and sources of olnet.blog.

- Boris

Heart Still/Beating

2005-12-16T19:18:00.000-05:00

ottmar liebert(clarity of vision)
Originally uploaded by mRio.

Under a full moon
beneath the confines of the Verizon Theatre
Pavane's moon glowed with a wink from La Luna. Silence (No More Longing) fell upon the crowd and with the strumming of strings
and the magic of percussion hundreds of hearts became still yet were beating as one
as they weaved their Tango of music.
One by one we all joined in their Carrousel
and discovered exotic locations like Santa Fe, Goa, Sao Paulo, Barcelona and Bethlehem. After the Bells tolled we were taken to the Underworld
where we were introduced to the Snakecharmer.
Before we knew it we were floating and dancing to
to the beat of Le Cafe (Arabian Dance) and the Tango.
Once again Ottmar, Jon and the rest of the band
cast their Duende del Amor on the audience and this fanmenco was
all too sad to see it end so soon.

Nonetheless, sweet memories remain such an Ottmar photo pass
and a very prized setlist that was at the foot of Ottmar's chair.
Yes, Santa Claus came early and these two items will be tucked away
in my LE box.

A very special thanks to Mario (fellow fanmenco) for making the evening possible & for photo. To Kim & Jhon--2 budding fanmencos who attended their first Ottmar concert. By the way, during the concert I almost forgot I had my photo pass and camera in hand. I only took a few photos but my crappy little camera couldn't do much without a flash and I didn't want to abuse the rules--although we did see a few blinking flashes from the audience.

2005-12-04T09:03:00.000-05:00

Concert pics of Ottmar Liebert's shows during the Holiday Tour in New York and Westhampton are now uploaded.

For photos of the show @ B.B. King's Blues Club and Grill in Manhattan's 42nd Street on November 25th go here.

For photos of the show @ Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on November 26th go here.

Adam has put his pictures of both shows in this set.

Enjoy.

Davo Bryant @ Westhampton PAC

2005-12-01T17:25:00.000-05:00

O
Originally uploaded by Adam Solomon.

Anybody else thinking of Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now here? :)

OL holiday show, Alexandria VA, 28 Nov. 05

2005-11-28T23:26:00.000-05:00

From an e-mail sent to me by María José:

Adam - if you'd like, feel free to post this to the olnet blog (I think that's what it's called?). Wonderful show at the Birchmere, of course. Pura magia. Shalom! :)

Ma. Jose
------------------------------
----------------

What is it about this music? That's what I've been asking myself since first stumbling upon the online OL NPR interview unexpectedly in the Fall of 2004 and then, intrigued, sending away for La Semana from this SSRI website that I had never heard of. So much has happened in my life in the past 12 months and both OL's and Jon Gagan's music have been part of my soundtrack, elevating my mood even more when I was already feeling on top of the world and enveloping me with warmth when I felt as if I was about to jump off a cliff, plus every other mood in between. So to say that I was very much looking forward to the show at the Birchmere is an understatement.

The music began to whisk me away with the first few familiar notes. All the silverware clanging on dinner plates, conversations around me, and whatever other noise existed simply disappeared. OL's and Jon's fingers move so deftly and quickly on the strings, making it all look so easy. The string arrangements are skillfully woven into the melodies, as if they had always been part of the songs. I wondered if Davo had a treasure chest behind him with all kinds of wonderful percussion instruments - what child wouldn't love to rummage through it? I did not really pay much attention to which songs they played or the names of the songs, I was simply immersed in the music. The band got two standing ovations, one before the encore and another one afterwards.

I have been thinking that there should be a word to describe each of the following: (1) playing OL or Transit at night while being engrossed in a book, fighting the inevitability of sleep to read just one more page and listen to just one more song, only to drift off to peaceful slumber with the music still going, and (2) the ability of this wondrous music to transcend whatever you happen to be doing at the time. Now I think that there should also be a word to describe what it feels like to hear the band play live.

Ottmar Liebert in NY, Part I: Tour 2005

2005-11-27T00:32:00.000-05:00

Maybe it is because my life is so much busier now than it was then, but there seemed to be less anticipation for the arrival of Ottmar's annual New York shows this year than last. I just didn't have time to spend all day for the past few weeks thinking about how excited I was to see him perform again because I had (and have) so much on my plate. Which I suspect is why I am currently buried under the avalanche I was hit with last night and especially tonight--I was pretty much completely unprepared for the sheer depth of performance I have been fortunate enough to experience.

By the way, notice how this post is a Part I of a series, as with my posts on religion. This post will focus primarily on the strictly musical aspects of the three shows that I saw tonight and last night. Details of my day yesterday in the city before and after the show with Boris and his father, meeting Ottmar last night and tonight, and pictures will come later.

Read no further, by the way, if you have tickets to a future show on this tour and wish to know nothing about the setlists, the song arrangements, etc. For a "spoiler-free" review, see Heather's blog, or one of a few posts of Boris's blog (A, B). So this is a very interesting tour. For background, I've now seen him in the fall of 2003 once at B.B. King in the city, and then twice at the same venue just under a year later, and then twice last night at B.B. King and once tonight at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center. The addition of a string quartet in place of one of the percussionists, as can be expected, completely transformed the entire feel of the show. I am currently debating what route to take with this review, whether I should explain factually or simply gush about the feelings with which I am overflowing, and have decided I will simply do both. For starters, exact setlists are at the end of the post. And yes, I know what I am talking about, these are exact, I was pushy and ended up getting the string quartet's setlist last night and Ottmar's tonight. hehe.

So as I was thinking they might, the guys started with Silence. It was very little surprise when he strummed that first chord and although yes, Boris and I may have been the only ones in the venue who from that first note recognized the song (and at least I was probably the only one who expressed barely-restrained unadulterated glee immediately thereafter), and were certainly among only a few who had even heard it, it made the song no less amazing. Someone who had heard nothing of Ottmar in the past would have easily been blown away. This song, it has been and continues to be truly fascinating and an absolute treat to watch its evolution so closely as Ottmar has allowed us to. Remember when he first posted the earliest version of the song, right after his trip to the Zen center when the song was still a swirling mix of ideas coming together on one solo guitar? That version of the song grew on me during my trip to Israel, but it was not until the Listening Lounge opened up and a live rendition of the song, with which Ottmar seemed (and still seems) to enjoy opening shows, came on. The end, when he tremulos with Jon's bass playing over and then starts to rasgueado through to the end of the song is absolutely stunning. Mind-blowing. So throw a string quartet with Jon Gagan arrangements into the mix and what do you get? A budding Ottmar Liebert classic, I think. The quartet does not hold back at all during this first song in showing off their stuff. Some soft playing to tease you as Ottmar gently tremulos, and then those percussive sounds that we have grown to love to build the suspense right as he launches into the energetic strumming to finish off the song, and the string quartet dives right in. Boris said it sounded Irish and I certainly now see it as having sounded quite Celtic. A simply dazzling performance that elevates that song to yet-greater heights, an expression of absolute joy in its purest musical form. I really hope after the tour Ottmar will put a recording of this song in the Listening Lounge because it is something you simply cannot miss. I took a couple of videos tonight with my camera during that song and they are, quality aside, gorgeous, so I will e-mail Ottmar and see if he minds if I make them available either publicly or by request. In any other show this first song would even be the set's climax. Absolutely...impossible to describe, really, just amazing. This song is making its way into history. I am so excited to hear it on the album and I fervently hope that Ottmar decides to keep all these added pieces--the string quartet's arrangement--when he does begin to record up close.

The string quartet added so much. How a song like Duende del Amor, as if it were not already astounding live, can be lifted up with those strings is just beautiful. During the chorus, Ottmar played the rhythm guitar and the strings fiercely played the melody. It was how the song was meant to be, I think. It is probably fairly safe to say that Duende at Westhampton was the highlight of all three performances.

Yet the crowd only really erupted, as can be expected, during the next (and last) song. Ottmar played two notes and he had to stop, smile, and start over because the audience was so loud. He played those two notes again as a tease and then finally started playing the rest of the song. I don't think any of the readers of this blog need me to say that this song was Barcelona Nights (Boris: Barcelona Afternoons?). To be honest, this is the one song (except maybe Sao Paulo) that he plays as a staple at all of his shows that I just couldn't really get as much into. Maybe I am just so used to it that it doesn't seem as special, or maybe his material since is just so much better (although if that's the case, I don't think most of the people at the shows this weekend would have agreed!). I have to say, though, even though I was probably in pre-school the last time they were together, seeing Ottmar, Jon, and Davo play that song together again (the string quartet did not come back out for the encore) was really something special. It seemed like it was just like old times for the three of them. Such chemistry together, such emotion.

I couldn't get enough of Davo this weekend, and I talked to him a couple of times to tell him that. While I'll be the first to admit that I would have loved to see some more Robby and His Magic Kora, as Ottmar said in his blog, they couldn't have found anyone better to fill the position than Davo. More of a rock drummer than a new age drummer (to compare, say, Davo and Ron, both of whom are fantastic). He put so much flare and energy into the performance, and yet just like Ottmar and Jon, he made it seem so easy, so effortless.

All in all, the three shows were just astounding, and especially at Westhampton. Ottmar had some choice words to say about the B.B. King venue, and after seeing him play in the theater, I could understand why. The sound was just so much better, the acoustics were incomparable. Every note the strings played was so crystal-clear, such a beautiful sound. Even the tone of the electric guitar (especially the tone of the electric guitar) was amplified ten times by that venue, it was the most amazing thing. And I think it made the band perform better, too, because not just the tone of the music but the music itself felt so much better. I have seen Ottmar perform now six times during three tours and I think this tour (and tonight's show at Westhampton) could take the cake. It wasn't the pure holiday show (Winter Rose/Opium CD2/Leaning into the Night/etc.) that we might have expected but with the string quartet it was Ottmar Liebert as he has never performed before and may never perform again. It's an experience that must be treasured for a long time to come.

So I think...have I talked enough? More is to come :)

11.25.05 - B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, New York City, NY, Show 1

01. Silence: No More Longing (For Genpo Roshi and the Kanzeon Sangha)
02. La Luna (Lunatic Love Letter)
03. Heart Still/Beating
04. Carrousel
05. Bells/Coda: Christmas Eve at Friar Fripp's
06. Snakecharmer
07. Pavane
(Talk + Intro Band)
08. Duende del Amor
--------------------------------------------------------- (Encore)
09. Barcelona Nights

11.25.05 - B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, New York City, NY, Show 2

01. Silence: No More Longing (For Genpo Roshi and the Kanzeon Sangha)
02. La Luna (Lunatic Love Letter)
03. Heart Still/Beating
04. Carrousel
05. UnderWorld/Le Café
06. Snakecharmer
07. Pavane
(Talk + Intro Band)
08. Duende del Amor
--------------------------------------------------------- (Encore)
09. Barcelona Nights

11.26.05 - Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, Westhampton, NY

01. Silence: No More Longing (For Genpo Roshi and the Kanzeon Sangha)
02. La Luna (Lunatic Love Letter)
03. Heart Still/Beating
04. Carrousel
05. Bells/Coda: Christmas Eve at Friar Fripp's
06. Snakecharmer
(Talk)
07. Brazilian Tango ("Por una Cabeza" by Carlos Gardel)
--------------------------------------------------------- (Intermission)
08. Pavane
09. UnderWorld/Le Café
10. Morning Arrival in Goa
11. Santa Fe
12. Sao Paulo
(Intro Band)
13. Duende del Amor
--------------------------------------------------------- (Encore)
14. Barcelona Nights

Ottmar Liebert @ Westhampton Beach PAC

2005-11-26T23:54:00.000-05:00

My Dad and I arrived early in Westhampton with the only train possible in the afternoon which was around 2pm and gave us plenty of opportunity to explore the town by foot. After having walked about 2,5 miles we had found downtown and the Performing Arts Center rather early. Not wanting to be considered as stalkers, we looked for the beach. In downtown Westhampton I asked a couple how to get there and they looked at me rather astonished when learning that we wouldn’t have a car. They described another walk down two roads for about 1,5-2 miles which now made us smile instead and indeed 20 minutes later we were there. I wanted to walk barefoot on the sand and feel the waves hitting the land but I can tell you that it was the hell of cold. The afternoon we spent in the local Simon’s Café which in compariosn to the usual Starbucks offers a better quality and comfortable armchairs.

What a show @ Westhampton Beach PAC followed in the evening!! How emotionalizing, how quick and easily the spark hopped over from the group to the audience and back. Ottmar and his band themselves seemed to enjoy it right from the beginning. The PAC is a local theatre that in late autumn and winter nonetheless attracts a lot of the inhabitants from the surrounding towns. It was sold out and the atmosphere was fantastic. The stage set up was kept simple, no candles, no cloths in the beack of the stage. It’s just the band, Ottmar, Jon and Davo together with string quartet sitting in a half bow, enlighted by ever changing coloured lights (Steve Stephen). When taking pictures during all the songs and creating a mosaic out of them, you in the end would see all the colours of a rainbow.

The string quartet adds a welcomed classical touch to Ottmar’s music, very suiting for this calming time of the year. Personally I enjoyed the sound of real instruments very much. I would have loved to see Jon Gagan play upright bass as well, but have to admit that the Laklands create a soft and warm tone. Jon’s play is amazing in every respect, his ability of taking himself back, of offering the basic colours (together with the string quartet) of an acustic painting to which Ottmar and Davo then add the details.

Of all the songs Ottmar and the band played Bells and Morning Arrival in Goa impressed me most. Bells from the new Winter Rose-album started with Carla Ecker playing a violin solo and for some time it’s like a conversation between her instrument and Ottmar’s guitar. The song is beautifully smoothing, even more in the live version and Davo Bryant’s hand clapping that sets in in the middle of the songs only adds to it.

I had chosen the beginning of the second part of the show to take some photos from the back of the theatre where I could move without disturbing people. The starter of the second leg, Pavane already made it difficult for me because no matter that I already had liked this song before very much, to witness it played live is exceptional. It starts with Ottmar and Jon and this always will be amazing to hear: one guitar and one bass, nothing more, creating such a deep soundscape.

Finally I had to drop taking photos when with Morning Arrival in Goa not only one of my all-time favs came, but also, together with Bombay and Lush/Albatross the first tune that ever seduced me to Ottmar Liebert’s music. It was a moment that makes you shiver. I was standing in the back of the theatre and could only listen, yes, and watch the band play. Amazing with which means Davo created the ambient sounds!!
Davo Bryant’s simple kept percussion set up is wonderful. He's just sitting on his cajon on the right side of stage, most of the time using nothing more than his (taped) fingers to play (cajon, cymbal). Remarkable also how he plays with brushes a tambourine placed on a djembe with a towel inbetween to soften the sound (La Luna). Davo is a wonderful percussionist of Luna Negra. When asked by Adam, he himself called it a special "chemistry" between him, Jon and Ottmar, and Ottmar said so as well in one of his blog entries. All three of them have such a tender kind of playing their instruments, even when the music gets rougher (Duende del amor), it seems as if the fingers would hardly touch the strings or the cajon, as if they were flying over them. Ottmar laughed when hearing that, saying that even his mother once told him to look more in pain when playing...

While it's still valid what I wrote about Barcelona Nights the night before at B.B. King’s in NYC, I have to correct myself in so far that the spectators in Westhampton recognized four songs right away, the three others being Heart Still/Beating, Santa Fe and Duende del amor. Others got intense applause afterwards, to name two: Carrousel and Pavane. No need to mention that the band received two standing ovations that night.

Carrousel, by the way, has yet become an Ottmar Liebert classic, no?! The Tangos rhythm gets into the bodies of the listeners and makes them want to dance. It also offers a nice opportunity for some cool percussion and Ottmar’s hand clapping makes it quite Spanish. What made people shout out spontanously were two parts during Duende del Amor and Barcelona Nights when it was Ottmar and Davo chasing themselves to climaxes. Most of you have seen this before, Ottmar playing rasguados, watching his percussionist, not being able to stop himself from smiling.

Duende del amor by the way was started in a rather unfamiliar way. First I thought it would be Winter Blue from the new Winter Rose album in a sense. But Ottmar denied that, said that instead it would be a new Bulerias he's working on. But he could satisfy me in that way to assure me that Winter Blue indeed has an underlying Bulerias-rhythm. Later we chatted a bit about the hypnotizing effect of that rhythm as well as of some other songs of Winter Rose such as Pavane. Oh, and we also agreed on the high remix potential of Winter Blue.

Very unfortunately the band had to leave early for the scheduled show in Sellersville the next day. Instead, Adam’s Mum took us to Jamaica, not a bad equivalent either. ;)

Ottmar Liebert @ BB King's, NYC

2005-11-25T23:01:00.000-05:00

Don’t ask me wether the show was good or not because this is a question that is beyond my capability to answer. Named after the opening track Ottmar plays I tend to regard this Holiday tour, very likely because it contains the very first shows I ever attended, as the “No more longing”-Tour. The feeding of this desire is so overwhelming that it’s hardly possible to get hold of other emotions with the mental means I have.

Since Adam has already ranted about the show (and here) I won’t cover the songs he wrote about, he’s done that perfectly. Speaking of Adam, of course this first concert meant far more to me than “only” going to see the show. It brought the meeting of different worlds in the lobby of Milford Plaza, written signs became spoken sounds, electrons became a vivid movement, and my English turned out not too bad at all to talk with Adam. Going by Metro, passing by Adam’s spare time working place, having lunch at Frida’s café, dropping my Dad at Rockefeller Center, desperately trying to oversee Starbucks were in short the things we did over the afternoon. At 5:30 p.m. we stumbled into BB King’s.

The story about the “blue ticket” I already told in my blog. Both Adam and I had no idea that we had been put on the guest list. Of course I hoped for exchanging a couple of words with Ottmar but all in all my mind was freed from illusions. This was a strange new world for me and everything happening would have a good chance of leaving an imprint in my memory. When waiting outside BB King’s I was turning my head wondering where the busses might be (they had to be parked in New Jersey), pleased how many people were queuing to see Ottmar (where had they been in the online world?), there was one guy waiting next to me coming from Florida who had just ordered Ottmar’s latest CD (La Semana, he meant) at amazon but not listened to it yet, Adam and me joking about the BB King’s guys not knowing who we were (how dare they!?! :)), Adam disappearing into and appearing out of the crowd every now and then on the search for Cari. It must have been close to LSD-like impressions: alive was what my imagination never expected to be, refusing to hold still, moments popping out of the night as chewing gum bubbles, a few overground breaths on a submarine ride.

The waiting in the cold didn’t matter, we were placed at a table right at the stage together with a nice couple from New Jersey anyway. So that was it, I thought, the infamous venue I had read many things about, that I saw in those brilliant pictures Kiyomi took last year. Broad as can be, I’d name it, sitting at the table listening to Adam chat with our neighbours (about his participation in the Westinghouse competition), watching people streaming in, observing the club’s stuff move inbetween. My feet were cold, what I finally had realized, but again it didn’t matter since I was busy enough trying to make my awareness understand that there was the stage, the Devoe, the Laklands, that a cute waitress named Krystle (Crystal?) had already asked for the third time if I’d like to order something receiving some basic information instead by Adam about his photo pass and all access badge.

Two concerts scheduled on one evening already had made clear that a whole set wasn’t to be expected. But what would they play? And what leave out? From what we knew from reading Ottmar’s blog, we speculated about some quieter tunes, hoping for an Opium track for sure. My guess was “Bombay”, “Yasmeen” and “La Luna” and with Thanksgiving having passed just the night before we wondered what “Winter Rose”-tracks would be played. I felt certain about “Bombay”, remembering that Ottmar had mentioned that song himself some months back and recorded it anew for iTunes earlier this year. “Yasmeen” would have been the suiting Opium-track in my opinion, already existing in a classically played version (confer “Leaning into the Night”).
That both guesses were wrong Adam and I could clearify inbetween the two shows when having grabbed a setlist to see what was cut. As a more experienced Ottmar Liebert-concert goer maybe I would have been disappointed in a way the schedule forced the guys to be short. But I didn’t care. Maybe the drug could have been sweeter, more seducing, but it still was the drug.

Ottmar was so nice to replace “Bells” with “UnderWorld/Le Café” during the second show, a thing I told myself he did for those being able to realize it: Adam and me. Thank you.

The BB King’s venue is not favoured by Ottmar for acustic reasons and I suppose as well because people are having dinner first and being served in the meantime which always causes a certain level of noise. Repeatedly loud voices were heard from the direction of the kitchen which is not very fitting for the reception of Ottmar Liebert music. The string quartet had a tough time hearing their own playing. They had pulled the in-ear monitors out of one ear to be able to listen to their own instrument. But the spectators didn’t seem to be bothered. Everybody had turned the eyes towards the stage and the applause the band received was enthousiastic. The later could be noticed especially at the beginning of the encore: two notes and the “yeah”s and clapping were hard to be calmed again.

The two songs that impressed me most performed live during this first of my two evenings with Ottmar Liebert were “La Luna” for the wonderful and amazingly played percussion by Dave Bryant (using brushes and a towel placed between tambourine and djembe) and “Bells” for its intense violin parts that Carla Ecker played and the combination of violin/guitar playing. The string quartet fits very nicely in this song.
Bells and La Luna reached a new depths for me live which was a nice surprise because both so far hadn’t ranked among my personal favs.

After the end of the second show, things had to happen quick. A third act had been scheduled later that night at the club so all were busy deconstructing the set up, among them the musicians themselves. Ottmar was so kind to kneel down at the front of the stage for a couple of minutes to chat a bit but we soon left because we were supposed to meet again the next day “in a much cozier place”. Upstairs we stumbled upon Cari, Ottmar’s assistant, which was another welcomed and warm get-to-know. So finally the signature on the costumns declaration on the packages from SSRI got a face as well as that uninterruptedly ordering guy from far away Bavaria.

Adam and I left, parted soonafter for some time, to take a nap, dreaming.

Toronto Concert November 23, 2005

2005-11-25T11:21:00.000-05:00

Ottmar 3
Originally uploaded by Just Me Too.

As the man himself said:

I would suggest to anyone still wondering whether they should experience our upcoming Winter Rose tour - buy a ticket, book a flight or train if you have to, but check this out. This is going to be very special!

An amazing night. The string quartet was an incredible complement to Ottmar's music and the sound quality was everything you could ask for. Davo on percussion performed some jaw-dropping solos....and Jon & Ottmar? Well, what can I say? They were everything I expected and more! The clarity of the guitar was...I'm out of adjectives.

As you can see by the photos we were front row, almost dead centre of the stage. It's over much too soon.

To see all my photos go here.

Winter Rose @ Culture Court

2005-11-10T14:53:00.000-05:00

Always interesting to read review.

Winter Rose @ SSRI Store

2005-11-05T08:08:00.000-05:00

Winter Rose, Ottmar Liebert's latest album, is available for purchase at the SSRI Store now.

Winter Rose - First Impressions

2005-10-11T19:38:00.000-04:00

Music: Ottmar Liebert - Bells/Coda: Christmas Eve At Friar Fripp's (Winter Rose - Music Inspired by the Holidays)

This is no Christmas + Santa Fe. That album has been enshrined for me as one of Ottmar's most joyous works and one that I don't think I'll ever tire of, even on the longest summer day. From the very beginning of "Pavane" this album was evidently going to be different. It's much more laid back. Wasn't it meant to be something like an Opium Christmas? Well, I can definitely see the aspects of Dreaming in there, although of course it's also got a distinct hint of La Semana--it's actually very La Semana in the much more obvious ways, such as the fact that the rhythm guitar for "O Little Town Of Bethlehem/City Of Tijuana" is taken straight from "Evening (Languid Pace)", as with (as you probably all have known for a while) "Le Café" and "Cocteau".

My grandfather just walked in--he's in from Israel right now. He caught the end of "A Sweet Persimmon"--was very impressed.

And best of all, there's a whole track called "Kora". Score.

This isn't the album you'll play at your annual Christmas party. That's still a job for Christmas + Santa Fe, because that is most of all Ottmar's celebratory holiday album. This is the album

By the way, has anyone else actually went and bought this CD? I'm surprised, I've only heard of one other 'Menco who's got this, and that person just got it in the Lounge...Very little fanfare at all, even post-release.

EDIT: One last thing..."Le Café (Dream of Snow)" ends this album so...perfectly.

Ottmar Liebert's Winter Rose

2005-10-11T14:31:00.000-04:00

... available for purchase in the Listening Lounge.

Winter Rose in Germany

2005-10-11T11:46:00.000-04:00

Amzon.de has it. As an import of course. But the price is not too bad.

Winter Rose: One more day!

2005-10-10T14:22:00.000-04:00

Music: Ottmar Liebert - Santa Dancing/Deck the Halls (Christmas + Santa Fe)
Mood: Festive

One day more! Tomorrow, to as little fanfare as possible (not a single mention on Ottmar's blog or a Fanmenco's, except maybe mine, in weeks!), Ottmar's third Christmas album, Winter Rose: Music inspired by the Holidays, is coming out. Yes, that's right, 'Mencos, you heard me--way to make me almost forget that this thing was coming out this week!!

But, thanks to the college admissions process, I get to take tomorrow off from school and call in sick so I can finish my essays (one of which happens to be about Mr. Liebert), coincidentally on the day that this album comes out. Hells yes.

This song makes me happy, by the way :)

Tears in the Rain

2005-09-10T13:25:00.000-04:00

Ottmar Liebert now has started to publish an online-only album in his Listening Lounge called Tears in the Rain. It's pure music, guitar only, recorded as felt for, improvised, intimate, dreamy. Coming along with it are some pencil drawings as artwork. Magic of simplicity. Opening the door to more - to no more questions, to be precise. Go check it out!

0509021910

2005-09-03T10:09:00.000-04:00

If anybody wants to know how that day in that moment could have felt like, check out the mp3 of Ottmar's brandnew improvisation. You can find it in the Listening Lounge.
New as well a very different sounding version version of Bombay podcasted by Ottmar.

Unreleased

2005-08-06T23:35:00.000-04:00

Music: Ottmar Liebert - Untitled Opium (Unreleased)
Mood: Uplifted

Now this is why we love the Listening Lounge! Unreleased tracks from Mr. Liebert, starting off with one from La Semana sessions and one from Opium sessions. Honestly, I'll take La Semana sessions over Opium sessions, the latter is not one of my real favorites (don't kill me, Matt and Boris!) and I liked the unreleased LS track a lot better, but anyway...with what other artist will you get this, honestly? As I commented in his blog, this brought up an otherwise fairly depressing day because it really shows for the first time, I think, the incredible potential this Lounge has. Full albums that we can buy in a store are nice. Stuff from more obscure artists like Steve Stephens is nice too. Live tracks are even nicer. But this? Here we're getting brand new, unreleased material, exclusively online and just for a buck. Soon he'll be posting tracks from the up close sessions--when has this been done?? The Listening Lounge has been in the works for almost two years now, and now that it's finally here, it can go far. We picked a good guy to be our favorite guitarist ;)

Winter Rose - Front Cover

2005-08-02T13:20:00.000-04:00

Winter Rose - Front Cover
Originally uploaded by o2ma.

The cover of Ottmar Liebert's new album to be released on October 11th. Music inspired by the holidays but for all days of the year.

Launch of the new Lounge

2005-07-25T15:44:00.000-04:00

Please celebrate with Ottmar the launch of the new Listening Lounge where you will be able to download first class tracks from Ottmar and his friends. The Lounge is the most sophisticated, modern and consumer-friendly place to acquire music tracks in the iWorld as we know it so far. Go check it out and let the music take you away!!

jon gagan's road recordings

2005-07-12T08:13:00.000-04:00

Some of you might have read Ottmar writing about his bass player Jon Gagan playing around with sounds and music while being on tour. In the Round Mountain blog, Robby Rothschild now has linked an mp3 of their song "Unknowing" as twisted and turned by Jon Gagan on the road. Go check it out and leave a comment there!

Rialto Theater Tucson Arizona June 9, 2005

2005-06-21T21:52:00.000-04:00

The Rialto Theater is a restoration work in progress. It may have been a grand concert hall in its day but today, it’s a little tired. Even with the house lights on, it’s dark inside. A huge reddish-orange curtain hung at the back of the stage. OL’s new set up is very minimal and the colors used are very vivid. See his Flicker page for some pictures of the banners being used. Tired as the old Rialto may be, she gave us a fine evening.

When we arrived, after purchasing some shirts and another copy of La Semana, we made our way to our seats. Ron Wagner’s set up looked as it normally does with the addition of a rather stylized, rectangular box set to one side. Hmmm, what could that be? The magnificent Lakland basses were set on stage, along with the near legendary Devoe Negra guitar and the Stratocaster copy. New Luna Negra member Brandon Draper had an amazing assortment of percussion goodies. There were a few of the “Tupperware” drum pads in addition to the cajon and other traditional drums. As we watched some of the final set up, my daughter noticed a breeze on stage was blowing Ron’s chimes. Ron was busy trying to close a vent that was directing the air conditioning across the stage to cure that problem.

For this tour, the band is wearing black. The idea is to draw attention to the faces and hand as they play. Four figures in dark clothes drifted in from back stage, settling in at their places. The new intro piece is not a buleria but it’s awful damn good. The guitar flows back and forth, some of the sections are familiar but the entire piece is very fresh. I could already feel the sense or relaxation as I focused on the sound.

After the intro, the songs flow on. The first half of the show flew by. I was trying my best to enjoy the show and get as many pictures as I could. During one percussion take over, Brandon started to really dig in and Ron got up from his normal cross legged position and sat on that rectangular box I mentioned. We were then treated to Ron and Brandon each playing cajon in unison for a few minutes. It was fun watching Ottmar and Jon as they watched these percussion masters at work. When he was really pleased, OL would smile and stick out his tongue. The drum duet before intermission was spectacular. I really hope to see Brandon on tour again. I mean, after this Sunday’s show of course.

We all remember Adam’s love of the kora intro done on last year’s version of Snakecharmer. Not to be out done, Brandon has put a new twist on this piece. Returning from intermission, sound starts to echo from the back of the room. There is only one instrument that sounds like this, a didgeridoo. Brandon walked across the main floor in front of the stage as he played, then back up the stairs and sat down never missing a beat. I hope that a board recording of this newest Snakecharmer makes its way to the Listening Lounge soon.

Not long after, a wonderful buleria intro brought in Duende del Amor. OL also treated us to Querencia, a song that I cannot get enough of. Mixed in during the night were two new pieces for the upcoming release. They were played like they were old standards and I can’t wait to hear the recorded versions. At the end of the show, as the last song of the standard set ended and the band introductions were made, my daughter leaned over and asked what the encore song would be. “Ballad for Santana”, I replied. She shook her head in disagreement. A few moments later, she gave me a disgusted look, as my guess was right.

Chelsea Bridge

2005-06-14T10:11:00.000-04:00

A new free mp3 from Ottmar Liebert's bass player Jon Gagan to be found here for June 2005.

nouveau

2005-06-09T16:06:00.000-04:00

Check out Ottmar Liebert's new welcoming site here and download a brandnew guitar solo mp3 for free here.

Where the name Luna Negra once was inspired by

2005-06-01T04:35:00.000-04:00

Canción de Jinete (1860)

En la luna negra
de los bandoleros,
cantan las espuelas.

Caballito negro
¿Dónde llevas tu jinete muerto?

Las duras espuelas
del bandido inmóvil
que perdió las riendas.

Caballito frío.
¡Qué perfume de flor de cuchillo!

En la luna negra,
sangraba el costado
de Sierra Morena.

Caballito negro
¿Dónde llevas tu jinete muerto?

La noche espolea
sus negros ijares
clavándose estrellas.

Caballito frío.
¡Qué perfume de flor de cuchillo!

En la luna negra,
¡un grito! y el cuerno
largo de la hoguera.

Caballito negro
¿Dónde llevas tu jinete muerto?

- Federico García Lorca

Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra Summer Tour 2005

2005-04-29T07:32:00.000-04:00

Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra are going on tour again this summer. Please find the regularly updated tour dates here.

OL as seen by Ashkan Sahihi

2005-04-17T06:35:00.000-04:00

To all those who stop by by coincidence: scanned pictures from the time of the Opium recording (1995) taken by Ashkan Sahihi are available here.

Ottmar Liebert photos from Die Zeit magazine

2005-04-16T03:54:00.000-04:00

I've scanned the photos from the 1995 article about Ottmar from the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit magazine seprately and in a slightly better quality. You can find them in this set. The photos were taken by Ashkan Sahihi back then.

Marita: Shadows + Storms

2005-03-06T08:18:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Carol my curiosity was finally smoothed a bit. Here are the covers of OL's very first recording, the famous "Marita: Shadows + Storms".

Better sizes you find @ my flickr account. For those of you who don't know the story: after having played around in certain restaurants in Santa Fe for a while, local artist Frank Howell asked Ottmar if he wanted to record some of his songs. The agreement was that Howell sold 1,000 copies in his gallery while the master remained with OL. Miraculously, a tape of the recording found its way to Californian radio stations which added a couple of the songs to their playlists. That way the Higher Octave label became familiar with the music, contacted and signed Ottmar. "Marita" was repressed and published as "Nouveau Flamenco".
In the booklet of the anniversary edition of NF, Ottmar wrote that he presented a far more original order there. So the Marita-sequence may have been like this:

1 Amores: Marita I = Surrender 2 Love
2 Las Cartas Perdidas = Santa Fe
3 Barcelona Nights
4 Adios a la noche = Flowers of Romance
5 Marita Walking = 3 Women Walking
6 Caros Rapidos y Mujeras = 2 The Night
7 Lonely Hours
8 An Answer (Mi Amor) = Road 2 Her / Home
9 Passing Storm
10 An April Dream = After The Rain
11 Heart Still Beating = Heart Still / Beating
12 Blue Afternoons = Moon Over Trees
13 Waiting 4 Stars 2 Fall
14 La Memoria / Shadows
15 Sudden Shadows
16 Amores: Marita II = Surrender II

I am uncertain about # 4 and # 6. Adios a la noche could be 2 the Night. Any correction is welcomed. :-)

Adam already pointed to the interesting change of title from Heart Still Beating to Heart Still / Beating, which indeed implies a slightly other idea. Also he smiled about the title of # 6. What is wrong, the Spanish or the English title?

EDIT: The drawing should be Frank Howell's. Compare the following pics I found at ebay.

Notice the titles of the two poems, Sudden Shadows and Passing Storm. Unfortunately I cannot offer you a better to be viewed version.

OLnet Update v2.0

2005-02-03T16:41:00.000-05:00

We're still hard at work on getting this site up for you guys! I realize it's been so long since we collected donations and registered to set it up, but...we're really trying. We really wanted to have it ready 2 days ago, for OL's birthday, but...unfortunately, sometimes things just don't work out the way you want them to. Anyway, we have some really cool stuff planned for the site (maybe even an OL toolbar for IE! hehe :) ), so just be patient, my friends!

Adam

Happy birthday

2005-02-01T04:17:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday, Ottmar Liebert!

Origins

2005-01-15T15:29:00.000-05:00

Please find the article from the German weekly "Die Zeit" about Ottmar Liebert that introduced me to him and his music back in 1995 at my flickr-account. I read this article, the next day I went to a shop, looked for his CDs and bought "The hours between night and day" without listening to it once. The rest is no secret. You need to be logged in @ flickr or wait until OLnet opens. It's only in German, sorry.

Snakecharmer Live @ Austin

2005-01-14T14:29:00.000-05:00

Music: Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra - Snakecharmer (Live @ Austin)
Mood: Peaceful, happy :)

Everyone HAS to hear this, if you haven't already...click the title to get there. The intro to the intro to the intro with the kora, guitar, and bass is really just mind-blowing.