Around 1990

Nuevo Flamenco

Also known as new flamenco

A documented late-20th-century flamenco fusion label most closely associated with Ottmar Liebert, with deeper roots in the genre-expanding work of Paco de Lucía and related crossover flamenco scenes.

Origins and context

An officially documented fusion style that emerged from flamenco traditions and late-20th-century crossover recording culture, especially around Ottmar Liebert's Santa Fe scene and Paco de Lucía's boundary-pushing flamenco legacy.

The sound

Instrument palette

The voices and tools most associated with this sound.

Flamenco guitar
Nylon-string acoustic guitar
Light percussion

History

The label is closely tied to Ottmar Liebert, whose debut album was originally issued as a local release called Marita: Shadows and Storms and then remastered and reissued as Nouveau Flamenco in 1990. Liebert’s own biography says he blended traditional flamenco feeling with jazz and pop songcraft, and his website calls that recording the album that “gave a new genre its title.” The broader idea of new or modern flamenco did not begin with one artist, though: Paco de Lucía’s official artist pages and streaming profiles describe him as a revolutionary guitarist who stretched flamenco toward jazz and other sounds, helping clear the ground for later fusion work. In that sense, Nuevo Flamenco sounds like a late-20th-century crossroads—part flamenco lineage, part contemporary crossover, with Santa Fe and other scene-specific contexts helping the style find an audience beyond Spain.