Lionel comes to the front of the stage
Lionel Loueke had the good fortune to play guitar on the Album-of-the-year-winning "River" CD by Herbie Hancock. He had the misfortunate to get mixed low, so it's hard to hear most of his contributions. On his solo album, you get much more of Lionel. On the opening title track, he's playing African-style guitar and singing wordless vocals. Lionel brings in Herbie Hancock for "Seven Teens", and it has a much jazzier sound. Lionel's guitar style is not conventionally jazzy. It's more percussive, sometimes horn-like, and he doesn't run off a string of eighth or sixteenth notes. "Skylark" is back to the core trio. The bassist, "Massimo Biolcati" and the drummer, "Ferenc Nemeth", are a very good rhythm section. They sound good and creative in the jazzy or African-style songs. "Zala" is another trio song with unison guitar and singing, with some Dave Matthew-style (and I'm sure he cribbed it from an African artist) yelps signify the end of a verse. "Naima" has Wayne Shorter, and it references the melody, but is relatively abstract. "Benny's Tune" is the jazziest of the trio songs. "Light Dark" has Shorter and Hancock together. This is a similar lineup to the "River" CD. The big difference is that the guitar is mixed louder, so there are three prominent voices. It's a good song, and sounds unsurprisingly similar to Wayne Shorter's 21st-century output. "Agbannon Blues" is a good, bluesy song, and "Nonvignon" closes the CD with another African-style trio song. This is a pretty good CD. Some of the trio songs are a little light, and the guests dominate the songs they're on.
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Outstanding!
Mr. Louke is an extraordinary guitarist!
I first heard his playing, live on the radio (Soundcheck, WNYC), solo.
It was a thrill. Then add the extraordinary players, including Mr. Shorter and Mr. Hancock, and we have a really fine record. Bravo and good luck to you Mr. Loueke!
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