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October
1999 His first album, Nouveau Flamenco, released a decade ago, not only established Liebert as a pioneer in contemporary acoustic guitar music, but its title also became an accepted style of music, opening the doors to dozens of like-minded musicians, including Canadians like Jesse Cook and Robert Michaels. What's more, because Liebert's discs have usually landed in the New Age bin, they helped redefine the concept of that genre, moving it from atmospheric background mush filled with bird calls and water sounds to include intricate instrumental pieces flowing with melody and bristling with complex rhythms. If a musician has to be lumped into a category, New Age turned out to be a pretty good spot for Liebert. "Think about it," he says. "You can do anything you want. If you're in the jazz category, it's a little more restrictive of what you have to do. Same with pop or rock. But New Age, just look at what's in there: everything from Steve Halpern healing music to all sorts of drum stuff, as well as this sort of music." Ask him to detail some highlights of the decade that saw him become an influential, million-selling artist, and he doesn't point to his industry success (Grammy nominations and Billboard awards) or sales figures. Instead, he talks about getting the chance to open for musicians he admires: jazz legend Miles Davis in 1990, a year before his death, and guitar hero Carlos Santana in '96. Davis, he says, was one of his all-time favourite artists, while Santana has been a huge influence. "The first concert I saw was Earth Wind and Fire opening for Carlos Santana when I was 14 or 15 years old in Cologne, Germany, where I was born. I remember that show as if it were yesterday. Actually my music is a lot more influenced by those two bands. It's a lot more groove oriented than say, traditional flamenco. "In 1996, we toured with Carlos for eight or ten weeks and he brought my whole band out for an encore during his set. I would stand backstage waiting to go back on with Carlos and realize here I am, 25, 24 years later and it's happening. I'm playing with the guy that I went to see at my first concert. It was sort of a dream come true." Another highlight of the decade is that his music has attracted such a diverse audience. His fans include young people who've danced to the club remixes from his Euphoria album, classical music aficionados who heard his 1997 orchestra collaboration leaning into the night, "an amazing number" of heavy metal fans who simply appreciate his guitar prowess and New Age buffs who meditate to his melodies. He doesn't bring it up, but one suspects that a personal highlight of the decade must be meeting his wife, Kelly. His new album, Innamorare/Summer Flamenco, bears the unmistakable stamp of being in love. After excursions into techno and classical, the disc is pure romance, a richly rhythmic flamenco feast that returns to the roots he displayed on his first album. The music was inspired by a trip to Tuscany in 1997, a few months after his marriage. The honeymoon glow is evident throughout the disc, especially on pieces like Bella and Ode 2 Love. It's also dedicated to his wife. Liebert neatly skirts the topic of their relationship, except to say that he met her in Santa Fe, where he lives, and she's the reason for the joy he's expressing in his music these days. "I think that's certainly why the album is so happy," he says. "I don't think I've made this happy an album since the first one. "I was in a very different spot than that which brought me to the (1996) album Opium, which I'm still very proud of, but it was still a more introspective album. I was at the end of a relationship and in 1994, my mother died. Then the year after recording that album I met my wife." Liebert was born in Germany 38 years ago to a Hungarian mother and a Chinese-German father. He started classical guitar lessons at age 11. At 18, he traveled through Asia with a guitar, learning the power of music as a form of communication. He decided to move to the United States to play music. Liebert played in East Coast jazz/funk bands and, for nearly 10 years, supported himself with odd jobs, including washing dishes, working as a bank teller and darting through traffic as a bicycle messenger. When he moved to Santa Fe, Liebert settled into the laid-back atmosphere and began playing music for pleasure. Drawn to the emotion of flamenco, he developed a following by performing in restaurants. A cassette Liebert recorded for a Santa Fe artist to distribute as a party gift found its way to radio stations and was discovered by the California-based New Age label, Higher Octave, which re-released it nationally as Nouveau Flamenco. A remastered version of that first album, including five additional tracks, will be re-released next year to celebrate its tenth anniversary. He has other plans for the year 2000: After a quiet New Year's Eve at home with his wife, some friends and six bottles of champagne that have already been purchased, Liebert plans to do more touring, probably with a scaled-down version of Luna Negra XL, the eight-piece group he's bringing to Centrepointe Theatre tomorrow (XL stands for extra large). There's no mention of starting a family. "I sort of have one," he says, listing an African parrot and two dogs. There were three Tibetan Mastiffs, but the youngest, a nine-month-old pup, died recently from a bacterial infection. "That was about as rough as it's been," he says. "It was a day when we were in Dallas and I had to do an in-store and play two shows and I felt like crying the whole time. I'm amazed at how much these animals have enriched my life." Dogs are great, but what about a baby for the guy who can't stand excess noise? "I might," he says cautiously. We'll see how that goes." |