Artist.......: Lionel Loueke
Album........: In a trance
Label........: Space Time Records / Blue Geo
Genre........: Jazz
Catnr........: n/a
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: 04-05-2006
str.date.....: 00-10-2005
quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: www.bluegeo.com
track title time
01. A Prayer For Peace 04:24
02. Benny's Tune 00:52
03. In A Trance 04:08
04. Mivakpola 05:45
05. Gbeto 02:47
06. Fifa 04:58
07. Nagbe 01:25
08. Okagbe 04:46
09. Be-Nin-Bop 07:04
10. Boum-Boum !!! 03:44
11. Always Will Be 06:08
12. Nonvignon 05:28
Runtime 51:29 min
Size 66,5 MB
Release Notes:
from allaboutjazz :
When Benin-born guitarist/vocalist Lionel Loueke
appeared at this summer's Ottawa International Jazz
Festival, he was a real highlight amongst the
entire group of stellar young players in trumpeter
Terence Blanchard's band. His solo spot, where he
used looping and harmonizing devices to create a
veritable mini-orchestra with just one voice and
guitar, illustrated how technology can be used to
create something natural. Jazz Luddites regularly
rail against the use of electronics to tarnish the
"pure" nature of jazz, but Loueke clearly doesn't
subscribe to such a narrow view. Technology is only
as good as the hands it's in, and an increasing
number of artists are finding ways to utilize it to
stretch the shape of jazz.
Loueke came relatively late to the guitar. After
mastering indigenous percussion instruments in
Benin, he picked up guitar at the age of seventeen
and, in the ensuing fifteen years, has amassed a
wide breadth of formal education at institutions
including Paris' American School of Modern Music
and Boston's Berklee School of Music. In the past
three years Loueke has recorded and performed with
significant artists including Herbie Hancock,
Charlie Haden and, of course, Blanchardùwho has
used Loueke increasingly since the release of
Bounce (Blue Note, 2003).
Loueke's solo debut, In a Trance, demonstrates in
no uncertain terms why these artists are clamouring
to work with him. Playing acoustic guitar almost
exclusivelyùeven more specifically, the
nylon-stringed varietyùLoueke combines the folk
music of his birthplace and other locales with a
rich harmonic language that may not be jazz by a
reductionist definition, but is by any contemporary
standard.
If there's any frame of reference for Loueke, it's
Egberto Gismonti. Like Gismonti, Loueke's enthic
roots are clear, but while "Nonvignon" has an
unmistakable highlife groove, Loueke's guitar lines
insidiously incorporate more outside-the-box
thinking. "Benny's Tune" stems from the same raw
Brazilian tradition that Gismonti has explored for
decadesùmore Amazon rainforest than Rio de Janeiro.
The most remarkable thing about In a Trance is its
live nature, with no overdubs. Loueke's organic use
of looping technology transforms one voice and one
guitar into something much bigger. He transforms
his guitar into a percussion instrument, creating
rhythm loops by slapping it and using his fingers
on it as if it were a drum. That's not particularly
new, but the percussive intro to "Mivakpola"
demonstrates just how much farther Loueke takes his
instrument.
Loueke's writing ranges from the darkly lyrical
"Fifa" to the melancholy solo electric lament
"Always Will Be," the blues-inflected
"Boum-Boum!!!" and the brief, rhythm-driven
"Nagbe," where he builds a virtual chorus of vocals
in real time.
Intimate and revealing of a mind that views
stylistic barriers as artifices to be dissolved, In
a Trance demonstrates in the most musical way just
how seamlessly technology can integrated. Loueke
may have but one voice and one instrument, but in
their surprising variety and orchestration, he
makes clear why he's become so widely in demand in
such a short period of time.