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The
Santa Fe Sessions Some smooth jazz radio programmers don't feel that World-influenced
instrumental music belongs in our format these days. Funny. Because I
can recall back to a time (1988) when a certain young guitarist by the
name of Ottmar Liebert released a very small batch (1000 copies) of his
first CD, "Nouveau Flamenco".
One of those copies landed in
the hands of then KTWV (The Wave) programmer, John Sebastian in Southern
California. John decided to play a couple of tracks from this CD. Following
this historical event, when this KTWV air personality reported for duty
each Saturday & Sunday afternoon, she spent most of her time on the
air answering the hundreds of phone calls from crazed listeners demanding
to know who the artist was. I wanted to start answering the Wave request
lines, "Ottmar Hotline, how may I help you?".
Ask any of the
alumni about this. Talaya, Keri, Don, China, they'll tell you. We all
remember that it was as if a narcotic had been slipped to the greater
Los Angeles area when we played the uplifting guitar tunes. When John
attempted to track down the unbenownst star, he come to find that Mr.
Liebert was traveling abroad and wouldn't return for a month. During
that time, the first pressing of "Nouveau Flamenco" had sold
out feversihly and listeners who couldn't find the album anywhere were
terribly disturbed; dare I say angry.
When Ottmar returned to the U.S.
he had a recording deal waiting for him with Higher Octave and thousands
of built-in fans in L.A. The story gets boring after that and involves
a larger label deal and enormous audiences at sold out venues, blah,
blah, blah. But I will always fondly remember the time when everyone
was clamoring for the music of an unknown, independent Santa Fe guitarist.
The
good news here is that Ottmar + Higher Octave have rekindled their relationship
and have released "The Santa Fe Sessions". This
is not a compilation album or a Best of. The CD contains new recordings
of ten compositions that first appeared in different form on albums released
between 1990 and 1995, plus two new compositions. It's a must for Ottmar
fans (old & new). Sandy Shore |