Lionel Loueke | |
|---|---|
 Loueke playing a skeleton guitar in 2008 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 27 April 1973 Cotonou, Benin |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer |
| Instrument | Guitar |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Labels | ObliqSound, Blue Note |
| Website | lionellouekemusic |
Lionel Loueke (born 27 April 1973) is a guitarist and vocalist born in Benin. He moved to Ivory Coast in 1990 to study at the National Institute of Art. [1]
Loueke grew up in what he has described as a family of poor intellectuals in the West African country of Benin. He began playing percussion instruments around the age of 9 but was influenced by an older brother who played guitar, which he began playing himself when he was seventeen. He listened to guitarists George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Joe Pass, and Wes Montgomery. [2] It took Loueke a year to earn the $50 he needed to buy his first guitar. When he lacked money to buy new strings, which had to be bought across the border in Nigeria, he soaked the strings in vinegar to keep them clean. [3] When the strings broke, he replaced them with bicycle brake cables, which damaged the neck of the guitar and compelled him to find a carpenter to fix it. [4]
He studied at the National Institute of Art in Ivory Coast, the American School of Music in Paris from 1994 to 1998, Berklee College of Music from 1999 to 2001, and the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (previously the Thelonious Monk Institute) from 2001 to 2003. [2]
He got his first professional job by accident. At a club during a break, he took a guitar from the bandstand and started playing it. The club's manager heard him and offered him a job. He played African pop music, but he discovered jazz when a friend returned from Paris with a copy of an album by George Benson. This inspired Loueke to study jazz in Paris. He auditioned for the, then, Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of California Los Angeles. He was selected in a worldwide search by a panel of judges, including jazz musicians Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, and Wayne Shorter.
After UCLA, he appeared on Blanchard's albums Bounce (2003) and Flow (2005) and on Hancock's Possibilities (2006) and River: The Joni Letters (2007). [2] He has also worked with Avishai Cohen, Charlie Haden, Angelique Kidjo, Francisco Mela, Gretchen Parlato, Kendrick Scott, Alison Wedding, [2] Brian Blade, Terri Lyne Carrington, Dennis Chambers, Vinnie Colaiuta, Kenwood Dennard, Nathan East, Kenny Garrett, Michael Eckroth, George Garzone, Roy Hargrove, Magos Herrera, Bob Hurst, Alphonso Johnson, Marcus Miller, John Patitucci, Dianne Reeves, Santana, Sting, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and Cassandra Wilson.
He belongs to the trio Gilfema with Massimo Biolcati and Ferenc Nemeth. [2] Both were his classmates at Berklee in Boston. Gilfema recorded the albums Gilfema (2005), and Gilfema + 2 (2008) for ObliqSound. As a solo act, Loueke recorded the live album In a Trance (2005) for Space Time Records and Virgin Forest (2006) for ObliqSound.
He made his major-label debut in 2008 when Blue Note released his album Karibu. [1] NPR praised his fusion of African music with jazz harmonies, vocal inflections, and complex time signatures. [5] The album includes Biolcati and Nemeth and guest appearances by Hancock and Shorter. His album Mwaliko (2010) is a collection of duo and trio performances that combines traditional West African music with jazz. Guests include Angélique Kidjo (a native of Benin), Richard Bona from Cameroon, and American musicians Marcus Gilmore and Esperanza Spalding. His 2012 album Heritage was released on Blue Note and was produced by Robert Glasper. [6]
Loueke sings in Xhosa-inspired aspects, such as clicks (e.g., Nonvignon from Karibu). He doesn't speak Xhosa, and the singing is akin to scatting, having no linguistic meaning. [7]
In early 2008, Loueke's "Kponnon Kpété" won Best Traditional World Song in the 7th Annual Independent Music Awards. Virgin Forest was nominated World Fusion Album of the year. [8]
In 2009 he won a Fellow Award from United States Artists. [9]
Loueke recorded with the Australian band The Vampires on their album The Vampires meet Lionel Loueke. The album was nominated for the 2017 ARIA Music Award for Best Jazz Album. [10]
Gilfema with Ferenc Nemeth and Massimo Biolcati
Blue Note All Stars
With Jeff Ballard
With Terence Blanchard
With Oran Etkin
With Herbie Hancock
With Angelique Kidjo
With Ferenc Nemeth
With Gretchen Parlato
| With others
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Herbert Jeffrey Hancock is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the post-bop sound. In the 1970s, Hancock experimented with jazz fusion, funk, and electro styles, using a wide array of synthesizers and electronics. It was during this period that he released perhaps his best-known and most influential album, Head Hunters.
Benin has played an important role in the African music scene, producing one of the biggest stars to come out of the continent in Angélique Kidjo. Post-independence, the country was home to a vibrant and innovative music scene, where native folk music combined with Ghanaian highlife, French cabaret, American rock, funk and soul, and Congolese rumba. It also has a rich variety of ethnomusicological traditions.
Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo is a Beninese-French singer-songwriter, actress and activist noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Kidjo was born into a family of performing artists. Her father was a musician, and her mother worked as a choreographer and theatre director. Kidjo has won five Grammy Awards. She is a 2023 Polar Music Prize laureate.
Taylor Eigsti is an American jazz pianist and composer. Eigsti's trio features bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Eric Harland. He is also a member of Eric Harland Voyager, Kendrick Scott Oracle, and Gretchen Parlato's group.
Habib Faye was a bassist, keyboardist, guitar soloist, arranger, composer and Grammy-nominated producer from Senegal. He was mostly known as the musical director for Youssou N'dour's Super Étoile de Dakar. He was one of the most talented African bassists of the last quarter-century.
Gretchen Parlato is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, Esperanza Spalding, Terence Blanchard, Marcus Miller and Lionel Loueke.
River: The Joni Letters is the fortieth studio album by American jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, released on September 25, 2007, by Verve. It is a tribute album featuring cover songs of music written by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell.
Djin Djin is the eighth studio album by Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo. It was released on April 27, 2007, on Razor & Tie. The album won Best Contemporary World Music Album at the 2008 Grammy Awards.
Mark Guiliana is a Grammy-nominated American drummer, composer and leader of the band Beat Music. He has played with Avishai Cohen, Brad Mehldau, David Bowie, Meshell Ndegeocello, Gretchen Parlato, Jason Lindner, Lionel Loueke, Dhafer Youssef, Tigran Hamasyan, Matisyahu, St. Vincent, the European piano trio Phronesis and his own groups, Heernt and the Mark Giuliana Jazz Quartet.
Kendrick Scott is an American jazz drummer, bandleader, and composer. He is the founder of the record label World Culture Music.
Flow is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard, released on June 7, 2005 by Blue Note Records. The album was nominated for a "Best Jazz Instrumental Album" Grammy Award in 2005.
The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz is a non-profit music education organization founded in 1986. Before 2019, it was known as the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, but was then renamed after its longtime board chairman, Herbie Hancock.
ObliqSound is a record label in New York City.
Gilfema is a jazz trio consisting of Lionel Loueke (guitar), Ferenc Nemeth (drums), and Massimo Biolcati (bass).
Ferenc Nemeth is a New York based, Hungarian jazz drummer and composer.
Dayna Stephens is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. In addition to leading his own group, Stephens has performed extensively with Kenny Barron, Ambrose Akinmusire, Taylor Eigsti, Julian Lage, Eric Harland, and Gerald Clayton. Stephens grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Berkeley High School. He went on to study at the Berklee School of Music and later at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.
Kavita Shah is a vocalist and composer from New York, NY. She has been hailed by NPR for possessing an “amazing dexterity with musical languages”.
Lage Fosheim Lund is a Norwegian jazz guitarist who lives in New York.
Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble is a Finnish–Beninese afrobeat and funk band. Its leading lights are the Finnish guitarist Janne Halonen and the Beninese singer, percussionist and saxophonist Noël Saïzonou.
Kinfolk: Postcards from Everywhere is the second studio album by American musician Nate Smith, and his first as bandleader of the namesake band Kinfolk. It was released on February 3, 2017, on Ropeadope Records.
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