Lionel Loueke is a guitarist born in the west African country of Benin

Benin

Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...

. He moved to Ivory Coast in 1990 to study at the National Institute of Art. He attended the American School of Modern Music in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 from 1994-1998. In 1999, Loueke was awarded a scholarship to Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...

, where he earned a degree in Jazz Performance in 2000.

Biography

Lionel Loueke grew up in what he has described as a family of poor intellectuals in the west African country of Benin

Benin

Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...

. 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 in his late teens.
It took Loueke a year to earn the $50 he needed to buy his first guitar. However, he could not afford to replace the strings

Strings (music)

A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain"...

, which had to be special-ordered from Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

. Instead, he soaked his strings in vinegar

Vinegar

Vinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...

 to keep them clean. When the strings broke, he had to replace them with bicycle

Bicycle

A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....

 brake cables

Bowden cable

A Bowden cable is a type of flexible cable used to transmit mechanical force or energy by the movement of an inner cable relative to a hollow outer cable housing...

 which were very hard on his fingers. Loueke got his first professional job by accident, when a club manager heard him playing a guitar he had grabbed off the bandstand during a break and offered him work. He played African pop music, but discovered jazz when a friend returned from Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 with a copy of an album by jazz guitarist George Benson

George Benson

George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....

.

This inspired Loueke to study jazz in Paris. He then won a scholarship to study at the Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...

 in Boston. In 2001, Loueke auditioned for the Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...

 Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California. He was selected in a worldwide search by a panel of judges including jazz musicians Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, Terence Blanchard

Terence Blanchard

Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz...

 and Wayne Shorter

Wayne Shorter

Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...

. He attended the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz until 2003.

In 2002, while still at the Thelonious Monk Institute, Loueke began playing with trumpeter Blanchard. Loueke was featured on two albums with Blanchard for Blue Note Records

Blue Note Records

Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...

, Bounce

Bounce (Terence Blanchard album)

Bounce is a 2003 jazz album by Terence Blanchard, released through Blue Note.- Background :Bounce is the Blue Note recording debut of trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard. The album is a mix of the sounds of Africa, Brazil and America, with the styles of swing, hard bop, free form, groove and...

(2003) and Flow

Flow (Terence Blanchard album)

Flow is a 2005 jazz album by Grammy winning trumpeter Terence Blanchard, released through Blue Note, and was nominated for a Grammy Award "Best Jazz Instrumental Album" in 2005.-Background:...

(2005). He subsequently has had a prolific career as a sideman. He has performed on jazz pianist Herbie Hancock’s albums Possibilities

Possibilities

Possibilities is the forty-fifth studio album by American jazz musician Herbie Hancock, released in the United States on August 30, 2005 by Vector Recordings. The album features a variety of guest musicians such as John Mayer and Carlos Santana...

(2006) and River: The Joni Letters

River: The Joni Letters

River: The Joni Letters is the 2007 album by Herbie Hancock. His 47th studio album, it was released on September 25, 2007 by Verve Records. The tribute album is a homage to Joni Mitchell, a longtime associate and friend of Hancock...

(2007), and also worked with Kenwood Dennard, George Garzone

George Garzone

George Garzone is a saxophonist and jazz educator residing in New York city.Saxophonist George Garzone is a member of The Fringe, a jazz trio founded in 1972 that includes bassist John Lockwood and drummer Bob Gullotti, that performs regularly in the Boston area and has toured world wide. The...

, Bob Hurst, Alphonso Jonhson, Angelique Kidjo

Angélique Kidjo

Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, commonly known as Angélique Kidjo is a Grammy Award–winning Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Time Magazine has called her "Africa's premier diva". The BBC has...

, Dianne Reeves

Dianne Reeves

Dianne Reeves is an American jazz singer. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado.-Early life:Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan to a very musical family. Her father, who died when she was two years old, was also a singer. Her mother, Vada Swanson, played trumpet. A cousin, George Duke, is a...

, Cassandra Wilson

Cassandra Wilson

Cassandra Wilson is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating country, blues and folk music into her...

, Wayne Shorter, Jeff 'Tain' Watts

Jeff 'Tain' Watts

Jeff "Tain" Watts is a jazz drummer born in 1960 who has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Betty Carter, Michael Brecker, and others.-Biography:...

, Charlie Haden

Charlie Haden

Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman...

, Richard Bona

Richard Bona

Richard Bona is a jazz bassist and musician. His real African name, as he said live in Montreal in a show with Bobby McFerrin, is Bona Pinder Yayumayalolo...

, Nathan East, Vinnie Colaiuta, Marcus Miller

Marcus Miller

Marcus Miller is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career...

, Sting, Brian Blade

Brian Blade

Brian Blade in Shreveport, Louisiana is an American jazz drummer, composer, session musician, and singer-songwriter.-Early years:...

, John Patitucci

John Patitucci

John Patitucci is an American Grammy-winning jazz double bass and jazz fusion electric bass player.-Biography:Patitucci is of Italian descent and was born in Brooklyn, New York, where he began playing the electric bass at age ten, composing and performing at age 12, as well as the acoustic bass at...

, Terri Lyne Carrington

Terri Lyne Carrington

Terri Lyne Carrington is a jazz drummer, composer, record producer and entrepreneur. She has played with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Yellowjackets, and many more...

, Kenny Garrett

Kenny Garrett

Kenny Garrett is a Grammy Award-winning American post bop jazz saxophonist and flautist who gained fame in his youth as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and of Miles Davis's band. He has since pursued a critically acclaimed solo career...

, Roy Hargrove

Roy Hargrove

Roy Anthony Hargrove is an American jazz trumpeter. He won worldwide notice after winning two Grammy Awards for differing types of music, in 1997, and in 2002...

, Santana

Santana (band)

Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...

, Dennis Chambers

Dennis Chambers

Dennis Chambers is an American drummer who has recorded and performed with John Scofield, George Duke, Brecker Brothers, Santana, Parliament/Funkadelic, John McLaughlin, Niacin, Mike Stern, Greg Howe, and many others. Despite a lack of formal training, Chambers has become well known among...

, Magos Herrera, and Gretchen Parlato

Gretchen Parlato

Gretchen Parlato is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Lionel Loueke, Wayne Shorter and Kenny Barron....

.

Loueke formed the trio Gilfema

Gilfema

Gilfema is a jazz trio consisting of guitarist Lionel Loueke, bassist Massimo Biolcati, and drummer Ferenc Nemeth. The name of the group is derived from the first letters of the musicians' names, Gil for Lionel Gilles Loueke...

 with Massimo Biolcati

Massimo Biolcati

-Biography:Massimo Biolcati was born in Stockholm, Sweden and grew up in Sweden and Italy. Biolcati has performed and recorded with the likes of artists such as Michael Bublé, George Garzone, Jeff Ballard, Terence Blanchard, Ravi Coltrane, Paquito D'Rivera, Herbie Hancock, John Scofield, Wayne...

 (bass) and Ferenc Nemeth

Ferenc Nemeth

-Biography:Nemeth was born in Keszthely, Hungary. At 14 he left home to study classical percussion at the Richter János Conservatory in Győr. He also attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and received a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music. He later studied at the New England...

 (drums), classmates from the Berklee College of Music, and released two albums on the ObliqSound label: Gilfema (2005), and Gilfema + 2 (2008), featuring clarinet players Anat Cohen

Anat Cohen

Anat Cohen is an Israeli jazz clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader.Cohen went to the United States in 1996. Her debut album, Place & Time, was released in 2005 on Anzic Records. In 2007 she won the awards for Up and Coming Artist and Clarinetist of the Year from the Jazz Journalists Association...

 and John Ellis

John Ellis

-Politics:* Sir John Ellis, 1st Baronet , British Member of Parliament for Mid Surrey 1884–1885, Kingston 1885–1892* John Ellis , Irish Fianna Fáil politician...

. Under his own name, Loueke recorded the live album In a Trance in 2005, and Virgin Forest, which was released by ObliqSound in 2006.

Loueke made his major-label debut in 2008, when Blue Note released his album Karibu. NPR.org praised the guitarist for his fusion of traditional African music with modern jazz harmonies, unique vocal inflections, and complex time signatures. The album features Biolcati and Nemeth, as well as guest appearances by Hancock and Shorter. His latest album, Mwaliko (2010), is a collection of duo and trio performances that mixes traditional West African music and jazz. Guests include fellow Benin native Kidjo, Cameroonian bassist and singer Richard Bona, bassist Esperanza Spalding

Esperanza Spalding

Esperanza Spalding is an American multi-instrumentalist best known as a jazz bassist and singer, who draws upon many genres in her own compositions...

, and drummer Marcus Gilmore, doing a version of Shorter’s classic composition "Nefertiti".

In early 2008, Loueke's "Kponnon Kpété" won in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards

The Independent Music Awards

The Independent Music Awards is an international program that honors top-ranked independent artists and releases in more than 50 Album, Song, Music Video and Design categories....

 for Best Traditional World Song. And Loueke's "Virgin Forest" was nominated for World Fusion Album of the year.

As of 2008, Loueke and his wife, Benedicta, had moved with their two children to a home in North Bergen, New Jersey

North Bergen, New Jersey

North Bergen is a township in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, the township had a total population of 60,773. Originally founded in 1843, the town was much diminished in territory by a series of secessions. Situated on the Hudson Palisades, it is one...

.

Discography

As leader

• In a Trance, Independent release (2005)
• Virgin Forest, ObliqSound (2007)
• Karibu, Blue Note Records (2008)
• Mwaliku, Blue Note Records (2010)

As Gilfema

• Gilfema, ObliqSound (2005) w/ Massimo Biolcati-b, Ferenc Nemeth-d
• Gilfema + 2, ObliqSound (October 2008), in trio with Massimo Biolcati, Ferenc Nemeth and guest clarinetists Anat Cohen and John Ellis

As sideman

• In a Dream
  In a Dream
  "In a Dream" is a song written and produced by Randy Taylor-Weber of Galaxy Freestyle Records. The song was first created in San Leandro, CA in 1989 in an upstairs studio with a three girl group by the name of First Kiss. It was a house recording made just for the pure enjoyment of entertainment...
  
  (2009) - Gretchen Parlato
  Gretchen Parlato
  Gretchen Parlato is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Lionel Loueke, Wayne Shorter and Kenny Barron....
  
  
• After the Big Rain (2007) - Avishai Cohen

External links

• Official site
• Lionel Loueke's artist page on ObliqSound
• "In Conversation with Lionel Loueke by Ted Panken (Jazz.com)
• Lionel Loueke: Jazz Meets African Rhythms On 'Mwaliko' audio report by NPR
  NPR
  NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...