Guitarist Loueke grooving with jazz's top players
Lionel Loueke chuckles when asked what his parents in Republic of Benin in West Africa said when he broke the news that he was playing with Herbie Hancock.
“My father said, ‘Herbie wHO?’ ” said the 35-year-old guitar player, wHO leads his trio into the Regattabar Th. “I told him that (Hancock) played with Miles Dwight Filley Davis, and he said, ‘Oh, I’ve heard of Miles Davis.’ My phratry is happy for me, just they don’t in truth know the music I’m playing.”
Up until of late, jazz fans didn’t know his music either - or his name. That’s start to change and chop-chop. Loueke (whose full name is pronounced LEE-oh-nell lou-AY-kay) is considered by many the about original freshly jazz guitar voice today.
Loueke has been playing with Hancock for several days at present. He appeared on the pianist’s “River: The Joni Letters,” the CD tribute to Joni Mitchell named Album of the Year at the holocene Grammy awards, and will spend the summer on enlistment with Hancock.
On top of that, John Hancock and saxist Wayne Shorter ar featured guests on Loueke’s newly album, “Karibu.” The title means welcome in Swahili, and could reflect the receipt the guitarist has received from jazz heavyweights such as trumpeter Publius Terentius Afer Blanchard, world Health Organization hired Loueke for his band spell the guitarist was still in school.
“It’s completely wish a dream to me,” said Loueke from his home in Freshly Jersey. “On that point are 2 kinds of dreams, single where you feel that if you put in the movement you’ll someday gain the dream, the other where it’s not something you think about because it’s non loss to happen. Only totally this is natural event.”
Loueke did more than close his eyes to make this dream came true. He started out followers his older brother’s footsteps by picking up the guitar and playing Afropop when he was adolescent. Then a friend of his brother’s from French capital came to visit and arrived with a George Benson album.
Benson’s music reverberated with Loueke. From there, he discovered his biggest influence, Wes Montgomery, whose music inspired Loueke to move to Paris to study jazz. After that came Beantown and Berklee College of Music, where Loueke met his current triad mates, bassist Massimo Biolcati and drummer Ferenc Nemeth.
“Karibu” captures non only Loueke’s adventurous piece of writing, where odd meters coexist comfortably with breezy grooves and fluid guitar lines, merely likewise his predilection for tackling meaty classics such as Whoremonger Coltrane’s “Naima,” which showcases Shorter’s treble.
There’s as well plenteousness of Loueke’s singing. He oftentimes mutely sings along with his improvisations, giving a jubilant nod to his native Occident Africa - and Benson, perchance, on “Nonvignon.”
Just even though he regularly visits his hometown of Cotonou, Benin’s capital, and is starting a music school there, Loueke says he isn’t attempting to fuse cultures or genres in his music.
“I was encouraged by a teacher to be myself, so naturally my desktop testament be part of the music I
