Lionel Loueke Plugs In
Award-winning guitarist Lionel Loueke, a native of Benin, dazzled the jazz world by blending his African roots with the modern jazz vocabulary on his signature acoustic, nylon-string guitar. His gentle virtuosity has graced the work of such jazz heavyweights as Terence Blanchard, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter, and informed several well-received recordings of his own.
Photo by Brantley Gutierrez.
For his latest album, Heritage (Blue Note Records), however, Loueke has ditched the nylon strings in favor of steel and added an electric guitar to his bag. Though displaying the same lyricism as the nylon, acoustic Loueke, the steel-strung and electrified Louekes take a more percussive attack and, if possible, groove even harder. Heritage also finds the guitarist actively stretching his concept of what a guitar can do, and he amplifies this expansion with judicious use of pedal effects on the electric instrument.
Working with a new trio that features Michael Olatuja on bass and John Davis on drums, Loueke brings his electric project to the New Mexico Jazz Festival, first for two nights at the Outpost in Albuquerque, then moving up to Santa Fe to open for trumpeter Terence Blanchard, whom he will also join onstage.
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