Ottmar Liebert, Musical Artist of the Summer Quarter 2006

Ottmar Liebert was voted by the members and visitors of Universe Spirit as our Musical Artist for the Summer quarter 2006

Born in Cologne to a Chinese-German father and Hungarian mother, 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 traveled widely and studied traditional music but found little outlet for these crucial experiences in the Western pop music of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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, New Mexico, 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 that 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 one thousand copies of Marita to be distributed along with his drawings. When copies of the disc found their way to a number of radio stations, programmers began adding tracks to their playlists. Marita was remastered and released nationally under the title Nouveau Flamenco. By 1993 the album had been certified gold in the United States; by 1997 it was platinum in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Two subsequent releases -- Poets & Angels (1990) and the Grammy-nominated Borrasca (1991) -- followed Nouveau Flamenco to no. 1 on the Billboard New Age charts.

Solo Para Tí, the 1992 Sony Music 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 the United States and Canada in 1995. Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra reached thousands of new fans in 1992 as the opening act on Natalie Cole's Unforgettable U.S. tour and through a pair of performances on Jay Leno's Tonight Show.

Since 1990, Liebert has released a total of 23 albums, including live releases, Christmas CDs, 10 CDs of original music, a DVD and remixes. His debut album sold double-platinum and has become one of the best-selling guitar albums. 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 Liebert.

Today, Liebert offers his own recordings and those of other artists, plus loops and individual tracks that make up some of the songs, in his newly created Listening Lounge, where one can find recordings unavailable elsewhere under a Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 license.

Albums