Lionel Loueke
Lionel Loueke, one of the jazz world’s most searingly original and sought-after guitarists, has devoted the bulk of his output to original music. But Close Your Eyes, originally released on vinyl by Newvelle in 2018, found the Benin-born Loueke focusing entirely on standards and canonical jazz classics. Joined by the marquee rhythm section of bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland (known for their inspired teamwork in groups led by Charles Lloyd, Aaron Goldberg and more), Loueke applied his distinctive rhythmic and harmonic approach to material from the Great American Songbook as well as the oeuvre of jazz greats John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. Now, thanks to Sounderscore Records, an independent label founded by Loueke’s longtime Gilfema bandmate Massimo Biolcati, Close Your Eyes is being issued for the first time on CD and digitally, streaming on all major platforms, with download and CD purchase links to be found on the label’s website sounderscore.com.
Three additional songs not featured on the vinyl release — John Coltrane’s “Countdown,” Hoagy Carmichael’s “Skylark” and Thelonious Monk’s “We See” — are also now available for the first time on the Sounderscore reissue.
Loueke’s maiden effort for Newvelle was the extraordinary 2017 duet session Hope with veteran pianist Kevin Hays (digitally reissued by Edition Records in 2019). For that encounter Loueke played nylon-string acoustic guitar, the instrument that brought him to prominence with his flagship trio Gilfema on such releases as Karibu, his first Blue Note album, in 2007. Nylon-string was also in the foreground for HH, Loueke’s magisterial 2020 solo tribute to Herbie Hancock. On Close Your Eyes, however, Loueke continues to refine an electric guitar sensibility he’s been pursuing on record since Heritage in 2012 — not to mention in his sideman work with Hancock, Dave Holland, Chick Corea and other luminaries. (He recorded Close Your Eyes, in fact, during a one-day break from overlapping tours with Corea and Hancock.)
Current Release
2021
Sounderscore Records
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