Music: Officium – Jan Garbarek + The Hilliard Ensemble
Borya has posted scans of my very first CD, the album that became Nouveau Flamenco.
The album title, the drawings and the poetry are Frank’s. All of the titles on the left side of your list are Frank’s. I don’t think I would title a song Caros Rapidos y Mujeras, but Frank had a great story of having a Porsche in Spain, and following the great Fado singer Amalia Rodriguez, driving from one concert to the next.
You have lined the titles up well. I have a comparison chart somewhere in my studio – which is still closed and full of moth balls – but that looks about right…
I kept some of Frank’s titles, like Barcelona Nights, modified others, and wrote new ones. Heart Still Beating became Heart Still/Beating, my thoughts about Berlin and the fall of the wall. Marita Walking became 3 Women Walking etc.
PS: Wikipedia writes about Fado
Whether it emerged from the singing of the Portuguese sailors or was derived from Brazilian music styles like Lundum and Mondinha is unknown.
The first impression I had listening to Fado at Frank’s house was that a major influence was moorish/arabic music. Flowers of Romance on NF is a simple folk song that was inspired by that music.
A couple of questions–did #4 become “Flowers of Romance” or “2 the Night”? The translation makes sense as “2 the Night”, but on NF2000 it corresponds to “Flowers of Romance”. Also, were these almost like demo recordings for Nouveau Flamenco, or did you use the same sessions?
The big thank you for sharing goes to Carol. She made me very happy in letting me see the cover art, something I was curious about for a long time. If I could I’d send you flowers. Real ones.
The pics from the litography I found at ebay.
And thank you Ottmar for taking up the topic and giving us some more insight.
Thanks to everyone of you!…Nice to know the history, of the very first album I ever owned of Ottmar’s! Changed my musical life forever…:-)))
Thank you, Boris, for giving me a chance to share. Real flowers won’t last as long as your good thoughts. I’m touched.
Thanks everyone for this great material – really this is a little bit of history! It is amazing to learn how things took place and picture the emotions behind them, the pleasant surprises, the major acceptance validated by a contract! And the rest is history and we became part of it! I am glad this whole thing happened because I would have never bought a CD with Marita as the main title and Caros Rapidos y Mujeras as one of the songs. . .:-)
I do hope you are not still moth-proofed out of your studio, Ottmar. That must be more than troubling.