Lionel Loueke Trio live at Jazzfest Berlin 2009

Lionel Loueke · voice & guitar
Massimo Biolcati · bass
Ferenc Nemeth · drums

recorded live at Jazzfest Berlin 2009, Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Main Stage, November 4, 2009

1. Karibu
2. Novigon
3. Seven Teens
4. Vera
5. Akwe

Loueke’s story begins in Benin, a small country in West Africa, where he spent a lot of time listening to his older brother playing the guitar. Eventually when Loueke was 17 years old, his brother let him borrow this guitar, and he quickly realized that he had a great facility for the instrument.

Before even graduating from the Monk Institute, Loueke began touring in Terence Blanchard’s sextet, a highly-creative band that recorded two albums for Blue Note (Bounce and Flow) and allowed Loueke to begin expressing his own voice as a soloist and composer. Since leaving Blanchard’s band he has been hired by Hancock and become a prominent member of the pianist’s current quartet, touring extensively and recording on Hancock’s Grammy-nominated album, River: The Joni Letters as well as recording and performing in his own right.