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Melissa Aldana and Lionel Loueke at Charlie Parker Jazz Festival
by Ernest Barteldes
Melissa Aldana and Lionel Loueke Summerstage at Charlie Parker Jazz Festival Marcus Garvey Park New York, NY August 23, 2014 Playing before a packed audience at Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park, Chilean saxophonist Melissa Aldana made her Charlie Parker Jazz Festival debut backed by a piano-less trio rounded out by Pablo Menares (bass) and Francisco Mela (drums), kicking off with a down-tempo take on George Gershwin's “I Loves You Porgy" in ...
Continue ReadingLionel Loueke: Creating His Own Lines
by R.J. DeLuke
Lionel Loueke, the guitarist from Benin in West Africa who brings to jazz music rich melodic and rhythmic sensibilities influenced from his homeland, always had an eye for inventing his own lines; injecting his own persona into the music even when it was against the rules. Even when he didn't yet realize the magical sounds he heard on recordings by the likes of George Benson, Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass contained, in fact, improvisations.Now well established in the ...
Continue ReadingLionel Loueke: Heritage
by Ernest Barteldes
On Heritage, Benin-born Lionel Loueke takes a more electric approach than on previous releases, which mostly featured his acoustic, nylon-string guitar. This change is immediately felt on the opening “Ifê," beginning with the muted notes of an acoustic steel-stringed guitar whose sound resembles a kalimba (thumb piano). Loueke is backed solely by his trio (rounded out by bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Mark Guiliana) here, and plays a dexterous solo with the help of a pitch bender pedal.Co-producer ...
Continue ReadingLionel Loueke: Heritage
by Franz A. Matzner
Lionel Loueke's Heritage deftly intertwines modern jazz constructs with traditional African themes in a highly personal exploration of these two cultural streams which define Loueke's upbringing and musical identity. The result is a gracious, elevating and welcoming sound that still challenges preconceived notions.Thoughtfully composed, the album's ten pieces together present an intimate--sometimes philosophical--complex musical meditation on the concept of heritage. Tunes like “Ouidah," inspired by the village where Loueke's mother was born and a center of the slave ...
Continue ReadingLionel Loueke: Heritage
by Mark F. Turner
Lionel Loueke's two previous Blue Note recordings--Karibu (2008) and Mwaliko (2010)--displayed his usual virtuosity as a guitarist/vocalist who links his West African Beninese musical roots with a modernist jazz outlook that is uniquely his own. On Heritage, he's assembled new musicians and hooks up with innovative pianist Robert Glasper, who coproduced and performs on the album. Glasper's work as a producer--as witnessed on his acclaimed Black Radio (Blue Note, 2012)--is the perfect fit with Loueke's eclectic ideas. ...
Continue ReadingLionel Loueke Trio: Half Moon Bay, CA, May 22, 2011
by Bill Leikam
Lionel Loueke TrioDouglas Beach HouseHalf Moon Bay, CaliforniaMay 22, 2011 Knowing only that guitarist Lionel Loueke had an international reputation, expectations were put away, as we entered the concert curious to see and hear his unique trio. Born in the West African country of Benin, Loueke was accompanied by his stalwart sidemen, Swedish-born bassist Massimo Biolcati and Hungarian drummer Ferenc Nemeth. The playlist was selected from Loueke's two most recent albums, Mwaliko and the ...
Continue ReadingLionel Loueke: Mwaliko
by AAJ Italy Staff
Decisamente esile la proposta del beniniano Lionel Loueke (già sodale di Terence Blanchard e Herbie Hancock, fra gli altri) così come ci giunge da questo Mwaliko (in swahili “invito"), pur in possesso di un suo aplomb, una sua coerenza, che di fatto coincidono però con un gusto reiterato per l'effimero, l'ornamentale, l'(artisticamente) impalpabile.La modesta consistenza -nonché la genericità -dell'album (il quarto di Loueke, più i due del trio Gifema con Biolcati e Nemeth, qui presente in tre brani) ...
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