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Lionel Loueke Group Live at BIMHUIS Amsterdam
Lionel Loueke has gone a long way, from playing to cassette tapes in his native Cotonou, Benin, to performing for president Obama at the White House. He is part of the bands of Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea and collaborates with the greatest talents of his generation, including Esperanza Spalding and Robert Glasper. Personnel: Lionel Loueke guitar, Massimo Biolcati bass, Ferenc Nemeth drums. Playlist Introduction Bimhuis Radio (00:00) Live Concert @ Bimhuis: Lionel ...
read moreLionel Loueke: The Journey
The Journey finds Benin's guitar prodigy Lionel Loueke in a stripped-back setting, often painting gentle sound-sketches using only his voice and a guitar. In place of his long-standing trio, comprised of drummer Ferenc Nemeth and double bassist Massimo Biolcati, Loueke has assembled a divers array of guest musicians for subtle accompaniment when needed. The fifteen songs compiled on this album exhibit some of the most versatile music the guitarist has created to date, and represent a sort of summary of ...
read moreLionel Loueke: Close Your Eyes
Three short seasons and fifteen releases into Newvelle Records' vinyl subscription service, guitarist Lionel Loueke is the first artist to be featured a second time as a leader/co-leader. The Benin-born Loueke holds a Jazz Performance degree from Berklee and has played with many top artists including his mentor Herbie Hancock, George Garzone, Wayne Shorter, Charlie Haden and John Patitucci. In 2017 he shared credits with pianist Kevin Hays on the label's sophisticated Hope and he returns to lead a trio ...
read moreLionel Loueke Trio at A-Trane
Lionel Loueke Trio A-Trane Berlin, Germany February 22, 2018 How Beninese guitar-virtuoso Lionel Loueke manages to find the time for the multitude of projects he is involved in year after year remains puzzling. Already featured on Chick Corea and Steve Gadd's 2018 release Chinese Butterfly and Czech saxophonist Lubos Soukup's Zembe, Lionel Loueke has two of his own projects in the works for a 2018 release all the while still finding the time to catch ...
read moreFriedrich Kunzmann's Best Releases Of 2017: Ethno-Jazz on the rise
2017 brought us much innovation and accomplishment in jazz. While many releases are certainly noteworthy and deserving of high critical acclaim, for me, only a handful truly stood out and prevailed in last year's maze of sharps, flats, and scales. Considering myself an enthusiast of pretty much all things jazz (no specific sub-genre receiving special treatment), I was surprised to find such a narrow selection of albums composing my last year's Top 5. Narrow, because three out of the five ...
read moreLionel Loueke: GAÏA
Those who figure that this reunion between guitarist Lionel Loueke and his longtime trio mates will be a simple trip down memory lane have another thing coming to them. While Loueke, drummer Ferenc Nemeth, and bassist Massimo Biolcati could've certainly delivered another globally-infused set replete with fluid gestures and finely-calibrated interplay, à la their work on earlier Loueke outings like Virgin Forest (OBJECT/ObliqSound, 2006) and the pair of albums they made as the cooperative trio known as Gilfema, they didn't. ...
read moreLionel Loueke: GAïA
Guitarist Lionel Loueke brings a presence to jazz unlike any other due in part to his West African upbringing heard in the uniqueness of his playing, vocals and phrasing which have enriched recordings from trumpeter Terence Blanchard to singers Angélique Kidjo and Luciana Souza. Recorded live in front of a small audience Gaïa finds Loueke with longtime trio-mates bassist Massimo Biolcati and drummer Ferenc Nemeth in an intimate session that captures his musicality and spontaneity. While the ...
read moreMelissa Aldana and Lionel Loueke at Charlie Parker Jazz Festival
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 ...
read moreLionel Loueke: Creating His Own Lines
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 ...
read moreLionel Loueke: Heritage
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 ...
read moreLionel Loueke: Heritage
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 ...
read moreLionel Loueke: Heritage
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. ...
read moreShowcase
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Roma by Enrico Rava
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It's Morning by Led Bib
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Playing The Room by Avishai Cohen - Trumpet
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A Moment of You by Daniela Soledade
