Home » Jazz Articles » Lionel Loueke

Jazz Articles about Lionel Loueke

About Lionel Loueke

210

Album Review

Herbie Hancock: River: The Joni Letters

Read "River: The Joni Letters" reviewed by George Kanzler

by George Kanzler
March 6, 2008

The participation of such former and present Grammy nominees and winners as Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza and Leonard Cohen (reading “The Jungle Line" like a beat poet), as well as the iconic stature of Joni Mitchell herself, may have immeasurably helped in winning this CD the Grammy Album of the Year award. But that doesn't diminish the significance of it being the first jazz album to win the award in forty-three years. For make no ...

537

Album Review

Herbie Hancock: River: The Joni Letters

Read "River: The Joni Letters" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
October 11, 2007

While it might be easy, on the surface, to view pianist Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters as a continuation of Possibilities (Hear, 2005), nothing could be further from the truth. Possibilities was an unapologetically pop record; River is unequivocally jazz--although such broad classifications shouldn't matter. River is, quite simply, a superb disc that takes Joni Mitchell's extant jazz proclivities and gives them an even greater interpretive boost. The majority of River is culled from Mitchell's “classic" songwriting ...

223

Album Review

Lionel Loueke: Virgin Forest

Read "Virgin Forest" reviewed by Terrell Kent Holmes

by Terrell Kent Holmes
June 5, 2007

Guitarist/singer Lionel Loueke's Virgin Forest blends West African rhythms with standard jazz idioms, boiling down the music to its soul-catching essentials. Loueke sings and scats in Fon and Mina, languages from Benin and Mali, and his vocals and guitar playing are so seductive that one doesn't need to understand either to be drawn in. Even songs whose titles suggest minimal circumstances--"Kponnon Kpété (A Plastic Bag and 25 Cents) and “Madjigua (Wishing For Money)--burst with joy and energy, ...

405

Album Review

Lionel Loueke: In a Trance

Read "In a Trance" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
December 6, 2005

When Benin-born guitarist/vocalist Lionel Loueke appeared at this summer's Ottawa International Jazz Festival, he was a real highlight amongst the entire group of stellar young players in trumpeter Terence Blanchard's band. His solo spot, where he used looping and harmonizing devices to create a veritable mini-orchestra with just one voice and guitar, illustrated how technology can be used to create something natural. Jazz Luddites regularly rail against the use of electronics to tarnish the “pure nature of jazz, but Loueke ...