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Luis Villegas is a first-generation Mexican-American born in East Los Angeles, CA and is now an Internationally-renowned guitarist. A self-taught guitarist who plays flamenco, jazz, rock, 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, however, that attracted him to the guitar but rock and roll since the heavy metal explosion was in full swing in Los Angeles.
Luis played in rock bands all through High School and into college garnering some mild success with the band Slumlord in 1988 and 1989 fronted by Scott Kidd who later went on to become a famous radio DJ known as Uncle Scotty. Luis quit Slumlord in 1990 when he found he’d hit a wall in his appreciation for rock music and needed a different stimulus to fuel his musical visions.
That new vision began to grow when he picked up the acoustic guitar and started experimenting with classical, jazz, and even flamenco music. Being self-taught, he emulated guitarists from the records he listened to. Many of his current techniques are based on flamenco guitar techniques such as rasgueado, alzapua and picado.
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.
In 1991, he recorded a demo of original material in a style that was very new to American audiences. This new style was being made popular at the time by artists such as The Gipsy Kings, and Strunz and Farah.
Luis then formed a band to play some of this new material. The band, which originally consisted of friends from rock bands he had played with, formed a huge following in the Los Angeles area.
In 1996, Luis recorded and released his first CD independently entitled Cafe Ole. Members of his band as well as studio musicians, Gregg Bissonette and Abraham Laboriel lent their talents to the CD. Less than a year later, Luis signed his first recording contract with Domo/EMI records.
Domo/EMI released Café Ole with a new cover and some newly recorded songs in 1998. The album earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Age Album in 1999.
Even larger audiences found Villegas via his next CD, Spanish Kiss (Baja/TSR) in 2000 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 Plácido Domingo.
Today, Luis Villegas stays close to the Los Angeles area. Even though he plays with a variety of very talented musicians, his 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.
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 his fans. Because of his enthusiasm for all music, musicians far and wide consider it a privilege to perform with him.
Fans of Luis' have been known to travel a fair distance to hear him 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 makes frequent appearances 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.
Luis is currently in the studio working on his 5th CD due out in 2009. The new CD, under the working title, The New Brown Sound, is scheduled for release by the end of the year and is being produced by George Benson's musical director David Garfield. Drummer Gregg Bissonette makes a return appearance on this release. "This CD is a departure for me," Villegas explains. "I’ve evolved from a Nuevo Flamenco sound into a sound reminiscent of 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. But with a modern edge."
Luis resides in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and two children. He is currently teaching guitar at Santa Monica High School for Santa Monica College.
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