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| Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra in New Zealand Grammy nominated guitarist, twice nominated by Billboard magazine as New Age Artist of the Year Ottmar Liebert and his long-time partners Luna Negra are announced dates for two stunning New Zealand concerts in Auckland (July 27) and Wellington (July 28 ) . ,Since 1990, Liebert has released a total of 22 double-platinum albums, becoming the biggest-selling guitar albums of all time. Redefining Flamenco music and marking Liebert as one of the most talented, influential and creative guitarists and performers to surface in years. His fans -- hardcore guitarists and guitar fans, instrumental music aficionados and numerous lovers of his often poignant, always inspired sound -- are ardent in their appreciation of Ottmar Liebert. Ottmar Liebert composes, performs and records music in a "Nouveau Flamenco" style, which mixes elements of flamenco with jazz, bossa nova, and other genres. Ottmar Liebert's music can be difficult to categorize, which is welcomed by the artist himself. It is usually placed in the New Age section at record stores, or under world music from Spain. Born in Cologne, Germany to a Chinese-German father and Hungarian mother, Ottmar Liebert began playing guitar at age eleven. Following the completion of a course of study in classical guitar, the eighteen-year-old musician embarked on a series of journeys through Russia and Asia. He travelled widely and studied traditional music, but found little outlet for these crucial experiences in the Western pop music of the late '70s and early '80s. First in Germany and then in Boston, Liebert put his guitar skills to work in a series of jazz-funk bands, the last of which broke up in 1985. Frustrated and disillusioned with the East Coast music business Liebert headed West. In Santa Fe, Liebert found himself captivated by the city's laid-back artistic ambiance and freed from the need to make it in the music business. He began playing his own music for his own pleasure, and later for increasingly receptive audiences in local restaurants. By 1988, the first incarnation of his new band, Luna Negra, had been born. The CD which eventually became Ottmar Liebert's debut album Nouveau Flamenco began its life as a self-produced local release titled Marita: Shadows and Storms. Santa Fe artist Frank Howell had arranged for the pressing of 1, 000 copies of Marita to be distributed along with his drawings. When copies of the disk found their way to a number of radio stations, programmers began adding tracks to their playlists. Higher Octave Music remastered Marita and released it nationally under the title Nouveau Flamenco. By 1993, the album had been certified gold in the US; by 1996, it was close to platinum. Two subsequent Higher Octave releases - Poets & Angels (1990) and the Grammy-nominated Borrasca (1991) - followed Nouveau Flamenco to #1 on the Billboard New Age charts. Solo Para Ti, the 1992 Epic label debut by Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra, featured Carlos Santana's trademark guitar on two tracks, including the Santana classic "Samba Pa Ti." The album not only went to the top of the New Age chart; it cracked the Billboard Top 100 Pop albums, garnered Liebert a second year of acclamation as Billboard's new age artist of the year and was certified gold in December, 1995. Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra reached thousands of new fans in 1992 as the opening act on Natalie Cole's "Unforgettable" US tour and through a pair of performances on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show." In 1993 a new Epic album, The Hours between Night & Day consolidated Liebert's position as an avatar of global music. The acoustic guitar master now thickened his sonic weave with electric guitar riffs in pursuit of what he characterized as "real acoustic and electric musicianship with some programmed computer-aided music design." Among the album's high points were a mind-opening rediscovery of the Fleetwood Mac/Peter Green classic "Albatross"; and the transmogrification of the Marvin Gaye soul standart "Mercy, Mercy Me" into the Spanish "Ten Piedad de Mi" with the addition of Josй "Grillo" Blanco's lead vocals. In February, 1995, Epic released Euphoria, a remix collection inspired by Luna Negra's 1993-94 tours of Europe and South America. Ottmar gave "complete freedom to add and subtract and reconstruct our songs" to such master mixers as Steve Hillage, Aki Nawaz, and DJ SLip (of Compton's Most Wanted fame). Responding to years of fans' requests, Liebert released ЎViva! - the first concert album of his career - in June, 1995. ЎViva! was, as Ottmar promised, "a true live album - no edits, no overdubs, no fixes" - and it captured all the energy and emotion of a classic Luna Negra performance. By softening up the edges and adding a Latin-influenced bed of tropical percussion, Liebert has turned Flamenco into a widely appealing genre that has topped the new age charts on multiple occasions. Liebert's music is designed to please the audience with a sprinkling of exotic flavors. Songs such as "Ballad for Santana" showcase the bittersweet side of his playing, while the hit "Barcelona Nights" is as attractive as a starry night on a Mediterranean cruise. A variety of styles make up Liebert's sound: Rumba, Merengue, classical, dance, jazz and rock all help to make his music the accessibly exciting aural opiate that it is. Liebert has said that "flamenco is a music both romantic and dangerous; it is an attitude as much as it is a musical genre." Therein lies the philosophy that catapulted him to fame at the end of the '80s with an engaging mix of subdued flamenco guitar and South American percussion, rock, jazz, and pop influences. Liebert's "attitude" actually suppresses the more challenging and "dangerous" aspects of flamenco in favor of the romantic - and the stylish. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |