Song:Aziza Dance
Album:Gaia
West African born Lionel Loueke is one of today's top jazz guitarists. He has recorded as a leader since the late 90s and is a very popular sideman. He was born Apr. 27, 1973 in Cotonou, Benin. He started playing guitar as a teen influenced by Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and others. Loueke moved to the US to study at Berklee on Boston in 1999. Then he auditioned for a spot at the Thelonious Monk Institute at UCLA in Los Angeles. The judges were Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Terence Blanchard. Not only did he win the spot but he joined Blanchard's band appearing on the 2003 album Bounce and the 2005 album Flow. He also appeared on Hancock's 2006 album Possibilities and 2007 album River: The Joni Letters. And he has appeared as a sideman for many others. Loueke formed Gilfema in 2005 with Italian bassist Massimo Biocalti and Hungarian drummer Ferenc Nemeth. They were classmates at Berklee. After releasing two albums, Loueke signed with Blue Note. Aziza Dance is from the 2015 album Gaia. This song also appears on the 2016 album by the supergroup Aziza led by Dave Holland along with Loueke, Chris Potter and Eric Harland. Loueke is also a member of The Chick Corea + Steve Gadd Band. They released an album in 2017. Loueke has recently released three albums for Newvelle Records. And he has recorded recent albums with German singer Celine Rudolph and pianist Kevin Hays. And he has appeared on recent albums by Philip Bailey and Jeff Ballard. Loueke has just finished a European tour with Herbie Hancock. Tomorrow he will play Carnegie Hall with his trio. Here's Lionel Loueke with Massimo Biocalti and Ferenc Nemeth performing Aziza Dance at Subculture in New York City as part of the 2015 NYC Winter Jazz Festival.
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