Ottmar Liebert has created 33 studio albums. Five have gone multi-platinum worldwide. Two may be the most important.
His first disc didn’t just cross over a couple of genres, it cross-pollinated an entirely new one. Liebert’s groundbreaking debut, Nouveau Flamenco, fused jazz improvisation with flamenco and took both Latin and Anglo listeners by storm. His most recent, The Complete Santa Fe Sessions, is the one that he considers a defining achievement.
Currently appearing with his trio Luna Negra, the threesome is touring in support of their latest release, a retrospective look at 15 of Liebert’s best.
“The new impetus was a bare-bones, stripped-down version of Song For Pablo for just bass and I,” he says. It worked so well it became a template on how to approach the other tunes.”
The guitarist’s career had modest beginnings in Germany. “When I was 11, I wanted an electric guitar,” Liebert says, “but I asked for a nylon string acoustic because we lived in a small apartment. An electric would have been way too loud.”
His penchant for electric guitar continued throughout the mid-’80s after a move to America in his 20s. He frequented the funk rock scene in Boston, influenced by Wah Wah Watson, the renowned Motown Guitarist.
A trip to Santa Fe sealed Liebert’s musical fate. “I was only going to visit for two weeks,” he says. “I was used to living in big cities. To stand on a mountaintop and be able to see 50 or 100 miles in the distance, well, it changed me.”
And so did trading his electric for a nylon string acoustic.
“I had known of the art form in my teens in Europe,” Liebert says, “but it wasn’t until I took on a flamenco teacher in Santa Fe in 1987 that the genre really grabbed me.”
His self-produced debut two years later grabbed the world’s ear with a fusion of flamenco melodies and pulsing Mexican rumba rhythms, quickly becoming the best-selling instrumental acoustic guitar album in history.
OTTMAR LIEBERT AND LUNA NEGRA 8pm Wednesday, Sept. 12. Golden State Theatre, 417 Alvarado St. Monterey. $40-$65. 649-1070, goldenstatetheatre.com
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