Liebig grew up in Los Angeles and was influenced as a child by rock and blues music of the 1960s. He first started playing jazz in highschool. He started experimenting with different sounds in college and between 1974 and 1976 he belonged to
John Beasley's band. At the age of 19, he played rhythm guitar for the
soul jazz pianist and singer
Les McCann, with whom he worked on 4 albums. In 1979 he left McCann's band to attend
California State University, where he studied classic double bass, music history, and composition until 1983. After he graduated, he created the fusion band, BLOC, with
Nels Cline. He also played with
Julius Hemphill's JAH-Band along with
Alex Cline and
Bill Frisell. He spent a lot of time playing with musicians in Los Angeles that were interested in freely improvised music. Afterwards, he busied himself with his own classical compositions. After the breakup of the BLOC in 1991, he played one tour with
Michael Penn, but then decided to focus on improvised music and composition. He formed the group, Quartetto Stig, with violin, trumpet, drum s and contrabass guitar (6-string electric bass). With this group, his compositions began to come to life. Additionally, they recorded three albums, 1993
Hommages Obliques, 1995
Lingua Oscura, and 1997
Pienso Oculto, through
Vinny Golia's
Nine Wind Records. Afterwards he disbanded Quartetto Stig and worked on the creation of Stigtette (flute, clarinet, trombone, and contrabass guitar) and
The Mentones (alto saxophone, harmonica, drums, and contrabass guitar), the worked on music from American
folk blues, but in the language of
free jazz. Additionally, he created a trio including himself, Vinny Golia, and drummer Billy Mintz. With this trio he worked on two albums for
Candence Jazz Records,
No Train 1999 and
Antipodes 2001. In 1999, he worked with percussionist
Gregg Bendian and Nels Cline on
Myriad. In 2001, he worked on a longer composition titled
Pomegranate for his
third stream band,
Kammerstig, that was influenced by
Igor Stravinsky. On the same album, he played with other musicians such as Nels Cline,
Mark Dresser,
Jeff Gauthier, Vinny Golia, Ellen Burr, and
Tom Varner. After 2000, the following albums emerged: The Mentones'
Locustland and
Nowhere Calling, Minim's
Quicksilver, Stigtette's
Delta, as well as the
kelpland Serenades with
Anna Homler, and the album
On the Cusp of Fire and Water with Vinny Golia and
Michael Vatcher. In 2000, he collaborated with Gregg Bendian, Jeff Gauthier, and
G.E. Stinson on the album,
Bone Structure, released in 2003. Recorded live in the studio, it was a collection of twelve 'songs' showcasing collective improvisation that DownBeat magazine gave four stars. Aside from his ensemble work, he also wrote music for improvised chamber ensembles, including for: The Meninas Quartet
(2005–2006), Second Practicca Quintet (2000–2005), for the electric jazz band Lane Ends Merge Left (1997–2005), a few pieces for solo contrabass guitar, some longer pieces for his ensemble Kammerstig, as well as for Panharmonicon (2005–2006). In 2006, Liebig worked with guitarist G. E Stinson and the Tee-Tot Quartet by Joseph Berardi (percussion), Dan Clucas (cornet), and Scot Ray (dobro). In 2008, he published the Tee-Tot Quartet's album,
Always Outnumbered, which was a mix of blues, rock and roll, bop, swing, and free jazz music. The album was influenced by
Charles Mingus,
Robert Johnson,
Louis Armstrong,
Muddy Waters, and
Skip James. In 2018 he released "Last Call" with Men-Tot Six (a combination of the Mentones and Tee-Tot Quartet), and Nomads with flutist/vocalist Emily Hay. In 2005, he was named a bassist deserving wider recognition in the
DownBeat poll, and in 2008 he was nominated for the
Alpert Awards in the Arts. ==References==