Lionel Loueke

Though originally from Benin in west Africa, guitarist Lionel Loueke has spent the greater part of his career studying and performing in various countries other than his own.

His first musical inclination was actually percussion, but he was influenced by his older brother, who played the guitar. As the story goes, Loueke started off playing African pop, discovering jazz after borrowing a friend’s copy of a George Benson album.

He first left Benin to attend the National Institute of Art in the Ivory Coast, eventually leaving Africa altogether to further his studies at the American School of Modern Music in Paris.

His next move would be to America after being awarded a scholarship at Berklee College of Music. Loueke graduated from Berklee and went on to study at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles, where he would study with mentors such as Wayne Shorter, Terence Blanchard and Herbie Hancock, who would later describe Loueke as “a musical painter”.

Loueke’s profile received an extensive boost around three years ago, when he was picked as the top Rising Star guitarist two years in a row in Down Beat magazine’s Critics Poll, an achievement surely abetted by the release of the guitarist’s acclaimed 2008 Karibu album, his debut outing as a Blue Note recording artist which, apart from bassist Massimo Biolcati and drummer Ferenc Nemeth, also featured guest appearances by Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock.

Loueke released Mwaliko, the follow-up to Karibu last year. The album features various duets that have been described as “innovative and intimate”, twinning Loueke’s signature warm African jazz timbre with contributions from Angelique Kidjo, Esperanza Spalding, Richard Bona and Marcus Gilmore.

With such stellar endorsements it is little wonder that Loueke has become such a leading name in the international jazz circuit.

Lionel Loueke will be performing at the Malta Jazz Festival with Massimo Biolcati and Ferenc Nemeth on July 14.

www.maltajazzfestival.org