Luis Villegas

Infobox musical artist
Name = Luis Villegas


Img_capt = Onstage in 2007
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Background = solo_singer
Birth_name =
Alias =
Born = birth date and age|1969|7|28|mf=y
East Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died =
Instrument = guitar
Genre = Jazz, Latin,World, New Age
Occupation = Musician, songwriter
Years_active = 1996–present
Label =
Associated_acts =
URL = [http://www.luisvillegas.com www.luisvillegas.com]
Notable_instruments = Custom-made Flamenco guitar made by Pedro Maldonado in Malaga, Spain in 1999

Luis Villegas is a Mexican American guitarist known for New Age music, flamenco, and jazz. He also had a small role in the film "Collateral" as a member of a band.

elected recordings

*"Guitarras De Navidad" (Tenure 2007)
*"Casa Villegas" (Baja/TSR 2003)
*"Spanish Kiss" (Baja/TSR 1999)
*"Cafe Ole (Domo 1998) "Nominated for a Grammy for Best New Age Album"' "

Bio

"EARLY YEARS~~"

Luis Villegas is a first-generation Mexican-American born in East Los Angeles, CA and is now an Internationally-renowned guitarist. An amazing guitarist who loves flamenco and jazz and rock and blues and classical, he grew up listening to traditional Mexican Ranchero music. As a boy, he met the famous Mexican Ranchero singer, Vicente Fernandez, and listened to traditional Mexican ballads. It was not Mexican music that attracted him to the guitar because the first instrument he ever wanted to play was an electric guitar. This was in the mid-1980s when the rock and roll heavy metal explosion was happening in Los Angeles. And it was that rock and roll that got him hooked on the guitar.

Luis played in rock bands all through High School and into college. Then in his early twenties something happened. Luis found he’d hit a wall in his appreciation for rock music and needed a different stimulus to fuel his musical visions.

"EXPERIMENTAL YEARS~~"

That new vision began to grow when he picked up the acoustic guitar and started playing with classical, jazz, and even flamenco music. Many of his techniques are based on flamenco guitar techniques, using a lot of thumb.

Luis was experimenting, learning different music and techniques. He practiced intensely, concentrating on the incredible techniques that would garner him so many accolades. Those techniques and the music he heard inside himself, was channeled through an instrument from his youth: the Spanish guitar.

"TODAY’S MUSIC~~"

Luis and his band performed constantly in the Los Angeles area before signing his first recording contract in 1998. He released his debut CD, "Café Ole" (Domo) that year which won him a spot on the Grammy ballot for Best New Age Album of 1999 and gained Luis a respectable following amongst other guitarists.

Today Luis Villegas and his Band have a unique style and even though he plays with a variety of very talented musicians, that style shines through in every performance. Luis rode his personal style into the Nuevo Flamenco wave and, most recently, he is one of the very few Latino musicians to be popular on Smooth Jazz stations across the country. He is also heard regularly at some of the most prestigious Jazz Festivals such as The Playboy Jazz Festival, Catalina JazzTrax Festival, and The Sedona Latin Jazz Festival.

"THE FANS~~"

Fans of Latin jazz guitarist Luis Villegas have been known to travel a fair distance down the freeway to hear the Grammy nominated musician perform at venues from the Temecula Jazz Festival to the La Ve Lee Jazz Club in Studio City. And more than a few of Villegas´ devotees have crossed the ocean to Catalina Island where the guitarist has appeared at the Catalina Jazz Festival and the Catalina Country Club. In December, 2004 the "Luis Villegas Official Fan Club" was formed and the members continue to fully support Luis’ music.

"SUCCESSFUL YEARS~~"

Excitement has accompanied the versatile guitarist since the launch of his debut CD, "Café Ole", earned him a Grammy nomination.
~~The Tucson Weekly hailed Villegas as "the Carlos Santana of Spanish guitar"
~~Daily Vault Album Reviews raves, "Villegas and his band easily prove that they have the talent worthy of stardom."
~~On December 21, 2007, Luis was featured in an interview with Val Zavala and performed with several of his band members on the PBS television show “Life and Times.”

Even larger audiences found Villegas via his next CD, "Spanish Kiss" (Baja/TSR) in 1999 and the numerous compilation CDs he appeared in during the following two years. Guitarists worldwide took notice when Villegas' name appeared alongside guitar icons such as Al DiMeola, Steve Morse, Ottmar Liebert, Jesse Cook and Strunz & Farah.

"Casa Villegas" (Baja/TSR), his 3rd CD, was released in 2003 and marked Luis' debut as a producer as well as performer. It stayed on the SmoothJazz.com charts for six weeks after its release on the strength of the single, "Whittier Blvd".

Luis was asked by his (then) label, Baja/TSR, to create a Christmas album. After working on it for some time, negotiations for producing the album fell through and Luis subsequently left the label to pursue his career as an Indie artist. The Christmas album, "Guitarras de Navidad" found its way to his fans anyway. Then, in 2007, the album was updated with several additional songs and a new cover and licensed to the Tenure label, under the guidance of Juan Carlos Quintero. It was released in August in good time for the 2007 holiday season.

Luis has worked with many of the leading artists and musicians in the world. He recorded a duet with classical guitarist Liona Boyd in 2001 which was nominated for a Juno Award (the Canadian Grammy). In 2003, he performed with Nuevo Flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook, and performed for Carmen Elektra and Dave Navarro's much-publicized wedding on MTV in 2004. He's also worked with Janet Jackson, Marc Anthony's acoustic band and Placido Domingo.

In watching a Villegas performance, you are immediately struck by his genuine love for all musical instruments as well as for the talented musicians who share the stage with him. Luis is a “musician’s musician” whose joy in the pure music itself is evident not only to his fellow musicians, but to those in the audience.

Because of his enthusiasm for all music, musicians far and wide consider it a privilege to perform with him. It isn’t possible to list everyone but here are some of the musicians Luis has performed with: Abraham Laboriel: bass ~ Alberto Salas: piano ~ Gregg Bissonette: drums ~ Guillermo Guzman: bass ~ Luis Perez: percussion ~ Joey Heredia: drums ~ Ricardo “Tiki” Pasillas: drums ~ Michito Sanchez: perc ~ Rique Pantoja: piano ~ Charlie Bisharat: violin ~ Steve Reid: percussion ~ Arturo Solar: trumpet ~ Garret Smith: trombone ~ Carlos Cuevas: piano ~ Fausto Cuevas: percussion ~ Ronnie Gutierrez: percussion ~ Joe Garcia: guitar/vocals ~ Juan Carlos Portillo: bass ~ Ramon Yslas: percussion ~ Jorge Villanueva: percussion ~ Pablo Correa: drums ~ Paul Tchounga: drums ~ Andy Abad: guitar ~ Chris Trujillo: percussion ~ Ricky Adorno: bass ~ Scott Vomvolakis: perc ~ Keith Dasalla: perc ~ Rene Castro: percussion ~ Jesse Stern: L bass ~ Cassio Duarte: percussion

"THE FUTURE~~"

Luis is currently in pre-production on his 5th CD due out in 2008. The new CD, under the working title, "The New Brown Sound", is scheduled for release by the end of the year. "It’s a departure for us," Villegas explains. "We’ve moved from a Nuevo Flamenco sound into the ´brown sound´ that had its roots in my old neighborhood of East LA and was made popular by bands like "War", "Tierra", and "El Chicano". The best way to describe it is to say it’s jazz mixed with rock and Latin rhythms."

This information was posted with permission from Luis Villegas.

External links

* [http://www.luisvillegas.com/ Luis Villegas's homepage]