I’ve been listening to songs from West African, nylon string, jazz guitarist, Lionel Loueke this morning. There are some streams from his new record “Karibu” (a Swahili word meaning welcome) at his website. I saw a Herbie Hancock thing on cable a few months ago that featured Louke and I was struck by his chord voicings and tight, fluid syncopation. This guy is a polished player. He played on Herbie’s album, “River: The Joni Letters”, a tribute to Joni Mitchell which won the Grammy for “Album of the Year”. Hancock, by the way, plays scorching piano on the song “Seven Teens” from the “Karibu” set. Wayne Shorter plays on the album as well along with Loueke’s trio.
If you haven’t heard Lionel Loueke, you need to. This is not “archivist” jazz, it’s fresh sounding, vibrant and intensely musical.
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