Lionel Loueke - Mwaliko - Available 2.9.10

Apr 26, 2010
LIONEL LOUEKE: NPR TINY DESK CONCERT

NPR MUSIC
LIONEL LOUEKE: TINY DESK CONCERT
By Patrick Jarenwattananon

Listen to any Lionel Loueke record long enough, and you'll wonder, "How did he make that noise?" The West African-born jazz guitarist has developed an extensive palette of sounds, experimenting with low tunings, fast finger techniques, nylon strings, acoustic and electric axes, even jamming paper in his strings. And he also sings -- or, more accurately, vocalizes. The clicks, wet smacks, the singing-along-to-his-solos, even the spasmodic speaking-in-tongues exhortations; he says they just come naturally to him. Naturally, when Loueke's trio came to Washington, D.C., earlier this year, we asked him to demonstrate his toolkit in a Tiny Desk Concert.

Check it out here:
http://n.pr/au7kkW

Mar 18, 2010
Boston Phoenix Review

Benin-born, Paris-and-Berklee-educated guitarist Loueke knows how to cover a lot of ground and make it all sound of a piece. A veteran of Herbie Hancock's band (Hancock and Wayne Shorter were high-profile guests on his 2008 Blue Note debut), he plays what you could call jazz with an Afropop accent. But that's not totally right either.

The leadoff track here is a duet between Loueke and clarion-voiced Afropop star (and home-town neighbor) Angélique Kidjo: "Ami O," by the Cameroonian songwriter Ebanda Manfred. It's pop, but both artists improvise fiercely, Kidjo scatting and Loueke complementing her with his full array of guitar sounds and clicking vocalisms.

There are equally lilting duo turns with bassists Richard Bona and Esperanza Spalding — in each case, bright-toned pop frameworks enclose a rich weave of darting bass, guitar, and voice lines. Shorter's "Nefertiti," meanwhile, is abstracted into its component rhythmic-melodic cells by Loueke and drummer Marcus Gilmore. Elsewhere, Loueke gets into his straightest jazz grooves with his regular trio mates, bassist Massimo Biolcati and drummer Ferenc Nemeth. Here's a jazz disc that's as accessible as it is uncompromising.

Read more: http://thephoenix.com/boston/music/97161-mwaliko-2010/#ixzz0iZ94bPdD

Mar 18, 2010
NPR - All Things Considered: Jazz Meets African Rhythms On 'Mwaliko'

Guitarist Lionel Loueke is shaking up the New York jazz scene with a sound that combines post-bebop fusion, lyrical ballads and even African rhythms and melodies. Loueke's new CD is titled Mwaliko, and it's his best work yet.

Loueke is fluent in African, Brazilian and bebop rhythms. He might play simple folk chords, then stretch them into elaborate re-harmonizations. He might sing in his deep, velvety baritone, then pluck out clean melodies on his nylon-string guitar before layering on effects that make it sound more like an organ. And all that in a single song.

Loueke's longstanding trio contributes three of the 12 tracks on Mwaliko. Most of the others are intimate duets with free-thinking young players such as bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding or drummer Marcus Gilmore, who anchors Loueke's take on Wayne Shorter's brooding classic, "Neffertiti."

Loueke's mentor, Herbie Hancock, calls him "fearless... a musical painter." Hancock loved Loueke's music from the start because, as he put it, "no territory was forbidden." That includes Africa. Loueke was born in Benin, a country known more for traditional drumming and salsa-inflected dance music than for jazz. A lot of good players from countries like this wind up in Europe or the U.S., where they strive for a Western sound and leave all traces of African music behind. Not Loueke. His duet with Cameroonian bassist Richard Bona draws on the palm-wine guitar style — very old school and very sweet. Better still is Loueke with vocalist Angelique Kidjo, also from Benin, reworking the Afropop hit "Ami O."

"Ami O" is explosive and exuberant. It honors the simple charm of a popular dance song, gracing it with subtlety and sophistication without a hint of a superior air. That's unusual, and just one example of Loueke's ravenous stylistic reach. "No territory forbidden" is a kind of jazz credo, but a tough one to live up to. Lionel Loueke walks the walk, and Mwaliko solidifies his standing as a truly original voice in today's jazz.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124529576

Jan 29, 2010
Everything Clicks for Benin-Born Guitarist Lionel Loueke

Like many artists who have explored and embraced music from across cultures, guitarist Lionel Loueke is wary about bringing exotic, unfamiliar sounds to mainstream audiences.

Of course, in his case the audience in question is in Benin, where Loueke was born and raised. And the sounds are those of the modern jazz he embraced as a music student in Paris in the mid-'90s and has personalized in the decade since moving to the U.S. to study at the Berklee College of Music and then at the Thelonious Monk Institute. That's all evolved further in gigs as a member of Herbie Hancock's band and regular work with Terence Blanchard and others, as Loueke has developed a distinctive sound with his low-tuned nylon string guitars.

Even with the great amount of African elements he's put in his music -- as heard to remarkable effect on his new album, 'Mwaliko,' being released by Blue Note on Feb. 9 -- he just feels he has to approach things differently when back in Benin.

"Oh, yes, I do," he says. "When I was home for the holidays and played a concert, I always do that. I play differently in a way. I don't play with the same musicians, for one thing. And jazz is not a music well known in Benin. So what I try to do is play mostly traditional songs people already know and make arrangements on top of it and show them the possibilities, what you can do with the simple traditional songs. The audience seems more connected. It's the best way to bring them music they don't know. Been doing that for 10 years now. It works."

Not that it's any easier when things are reversed.

"It's the other end," he says. "Same way when I'm here in the US, and people don't understand the other side. It's something new and different."

Arguably, though, the music on 'Mwaliko' might work in either setting. Here, in a series of duets (with fellow Beninian Angelique Kidjo, Cameroon-born jazz bassist Richard Bona and rising star bassist-singer Esperanza Spalding) and tracks with his intuitive trio Gilfema (with bassist Massimo Biolcati and drummer Ferenc Nemeth), he's perfected a blend that he'd been evolving over the course his four previous albums. It seemed that in this project everything just, well, clicked -- both figuratively and literally:

'Twins,' one of two duets with Spalding, is among the several spots on the album where Loueke engages in percussive mouth and vocal sounds that cut deep to his African roots. It's certainly something that's struck Western audiences as exotic, though for the musician it's so natural that it's not even really a conscious act.

"Sometimes when I do a workshop, people are asking me how you control it," he says. "Hard for me to explain. When it comes out I have no control. I just let it out -- no special rule to explain it, and I like it like that. Sometimes it comes out, sometimes not. I don't force it. Sometimes I feel it's too much, but that's me. Like I said, I have no control, really."

Loueke certainly knows about being introduced to new musical ideas -- a key epiphany commemorated on this album by an interpretation of Wayne Shorter's 'Nefertiti' (which was a title track of a 1967 Miles Davis album when Shorter and Hancock were in his band).

"I heard 'Nefertiti' in Paris, was a student there in 1996, I think," he says. "I never heard of Wayne Shorter before that. Shame on me! Coming from Africa, I wasn't exposed to people like Wayne or John Coltrane. So I studied in Paris and discovered Wayne because I studied his music for a semester. That was the first time. I remember just the same way as when I heard Coltrane. I loved what I was hearing without understanding. It was completely different that what I used to listen to at the time. I couldn't understand it musically. But I felt connected."

At that point he'd been focused on bebop and traditional jazz, especially guitarists such as Django Reinhardt, Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery. It was that "vocabulary of music" that he was trying to learn, he says. And then he heard the more modern guys.

"It changed my mind completely," he says. "The spirit of this music is about improvisation and the moment. No point to go back and play like 1945 for me any more. If I'm listening to somebody playing from that generation playing that music, I respect it a lot. But if I listen to somebody from my generation, well, if he's learning, that's one thing. But if he thinks that's the only kind of music, that's not good."

One person he doesn't have to explain all this to is Angelique Kidjo, who sings on two songs on the album. They come from the same town, Ouidah. Her spots here return the favor he did playing on her wide-ranging new 'Oyo' album, as discussed in a recent Around the World.

"I've known her long, long, long," he says. "My older brother was playing with her in high school. Her mom and my mom are from the same village and grew up together."

The two songs she sings on are the opening, Ami O,' originated by Cameroon artist Ebanda Manfred and popular in Benin when the two were growing up and suggested for these sessions by Kidjo, and the traditional 'Vi Ma Yon.' The latter, Loueke says, is the one that reminds him most of home.

"We don't even know who wrote that one," he says. "It's a really traditional song from Benin. Really, really grew up listening to that in so many different configurations. Heard so many traditional singers singing it. 'Vi Ma Yon' is about how important it is to have children, to have a kid. Deeper than that, the words are so old, even when I see the words I have to go back to understand. It's a song that most of the time they sing it to give like an offering to the king or queen. In Abomey, a town in Benin where that kind of groove comes from, they sing it when they do an offering, offer food or a goat or something."

Connecting that to the ultramodern musical concepts he embraced in Paris would seem a stretch, but as Loueke discovered in his studies, African roots and inspiration were not scarce in the new music.

"Definitely going deeper into their music I realized that those guys all drew on African music," he says. "Coltrane has a song, 'Dahomey Dance.' Dahomey was the old name of Benin [until 1975]. Wayne Shorter, Herbie, they all played with African musicians and incorporated that into their music. I can hear that. And what I learned gave me courage to keep going in what I do to learn the other side."

Several highlights mine that for great artistic riches. 'L.L.,' written for Loueke by Nemeth, and the solo guitar 'Intro to L.L.,'take great flights across cultures and continents with personal spirit. Another trio piece, Loueke's 'Griot,' showcases his guitar sense in a setting that once might have been called "fusion" but transcends all the clichés that came to saddle that genre.

And the closing 'Hide Life' brings a playfulness straight out of African traditions with the vocal and instrumental sparring with Bona, who took a similar path to the American jazz scene from Cameroon. The title makes a pun on "highlife," the skittering West African dance style that's been among the most influential of the content's popular sounds for decades and loomed large for both these musicians in their youth, taking him back to his years of learning by transcribing guitar parts from recordings by Congolese stars Franco and Tabu Ley Rochereau and, of course, such Nigerian Afropop titans as Fela Kuti and King Sunny Adé. The words, though, are about the gossip that infects any culture, from a small village in Benin to Loueke's current home of New York.

"The lyrics of that song are about people always trying to get in your business," he says, laughing. "It's not their business! It's a happy song -- we're inviting each other to forget about those people who try to stop the good part of life. So I said sometimes you have to hide yourself. Should be high in life, but I prefer hide in life!"

He's not hiding much, though. Loueke will be touring to promote the album, and back in Benin he's stepping up efforts to nourish interests in music. He's overseeing the construction and staffing of a music school, and on his last trip he did everything he could to encourage some budding performers.

"I discovered some young musicians I want to help because they're very talented," he says. "So much talent, but they need help. They remind me how I was when I was like them, trying to get out and learn. For example, there's a bass player named Manu, 22 or 23, has never left the country. I played a concert with him, we played. He has no place to play jazz, but he had a group they started. They know more than 150 standards. You just name it and they know it. But there's no place for them to play. I'm amazed how they can get to that level. They just go on the Internet, download some tunes and learn to read, everything. I already asked Berklee to give him a scholarship. Hopefully, he can have that."

And then perhaps young Manu can help open more ears -- on both sides of the cultural equation.

Jan 29, 2010
Loueke on the Road

Guitarist Lionel Loueke has announced a first run of tour dates in support of Mwaliko, his sophomore album for Blue Note Records, which will be released on February 9. Mwaliko (pronounced mwah-LEE-koh), Swahili for “invitation,” comprises a series of intimate duets with vocalist Angelique Kidjo, vocalist/bassist Esperanza Spalding, vocalist/bassist Richard Bona and drummer Marcus Gilmore. The album also includes three new tracks featuring Loueke’s longtime trio with bassist Massimo Biolcati and drummer Ferenc Nemeth.

Originally from the small West African nation of Benin, Loueke — who was recently awarded a 2009 USA Fellowship — has appeared on numerous standout recordings such as Herbie Hancock’s Grammy-winning River: The Joni Letters (2008) and Terence Blanchard’s Grammy-nominated Flow (2005). The guitarist’s 2007 Blue Note debut, Karibu, established him as a one of the brightest new stars on the scene.

Lionel Loueke—2010 tour dates

February 18-21: Jazz Showcase, Chicago, IL

February 25-28: Jazz Standard, New York, NY

March 8: Blues Alley, Washington D.C.

March 11: Regattabar, Boston, MA

March 13: Kennesaw State University, Atlanta, GA

March 25: Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI

March 26: Manchester Craftsman Guild, Pittsburgh, PA

April 6: Capilano College, Vancouver, BC

April 7-10: Mondavi Center @ UC Davis, Davis, CA

Dec 23, 2009
LIONEL LOUEKE RETURNS FEB. 9 WITH “MWALIKO”

On February 9, 2010, Blue Note Records will release Mwaliko, the new album from acclaimed vocalist/guitarist Lionel Loueke. Mwaliko (pronounced mwah-LEE-koh) is Swahili for “invitation,” and the album comprises a series of searching, innovative, intimate duets with special guests vocalist Angelique Kidjo, vocalist/bassist Esperanza Spalding, vocalist/bassist Richard Bona and drummer Marcus Gilmore, as well as three new tracks featuring his longtime trio with Massimo Biolcati on bass and Ferenc Nemeth on drums.

Originally from the small West African nation of Benin, Loueke has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past several years. Praised by his mentor Herbie Hancock as “a musical painter,” he has appeared on numerous standout recordings such as Hancock’s Grammy-winning River: The Joni Letters (2008) and Terence Blanchard’s Grammy-nominated Flow (2005). Loueke’s 2007 Blue Note debut, Karibu, established him as a one of the brightest new stars on the scene, and prompted The New York Times to declare him “a startlingly original voice” and “one of the most striking jazz artists to emerge is some time.”

Dec 23, 2009
LIONEL LOUEKE AWARDED USA FELLOW

December 15, 2009

LIONEL LOUEKE AWARDED 2009 USA FELLOWSHIP;

United States Artists (USA), the national grant-making and advocacy organization, has named guitarist Lionel Loueke the recipient of a 2009 USA Fellowship. The recipients were announced December 14th at a ceremony in Los Angeles at which Loueke performed. The USA Fellows program annually awards fifty unrestricted grants of $50,000 to artists of all disciplines who are chosen for the caliber and impact of their work. They include contemporary experimenters and traditional practitioners in the areas of Architecture and Design, Crafts and Traditional Arts, Dance, Literature, Media, Music, Theater Arts, and Visual Arts. For more information, visit www.unitedstatesartists.org.