Barcelona Nights: The Best of Ottmar Liebert 1

Amazon.com

This compilation project's official title is already long enough, but for true accuracy it should read, The Best of Ottmar Liebert's First Two Recordings, Volume 1. Barcelona Nights strings together the more upbeat and animated selections from his two earliest recordings, Nouveau Flamenco (his famed debut) and Borrasca (plus one track, "Festival," from Poets and Angels). The package serves as the first installment in a two-disc series; the subsequent Surrender to Love will patch together romantically inclined selections of those early 1990s recordings. It's the same music, but with different sequencing and different packaging. As such, it offers graceful and pleasant listening, though the similarity in tempos gives the disc a slightly homogenous feel. Many like-minded guitarists have traveled the path that Liebert originally blazed, and Barcelona Nights offers an appealing reminder of the qualities that elicited such a huge initial reception: nimble, articulate fingerwork; charming, uncomplicated melodies; and just enough flamenco authenticity to convince maturing pop listeners that they had discovered something exotic. Highlights include the beckoning cheer of the well-known title track, and the earnest, uplifting energy of another early hit, "Heart Still/Beating." --Terry Wood