Lionel Loueke with Herbie Hancock @ KKL Luzern

Guitarist Lionel Loueke was born in the west African country of Benin. He moved to Ivory Coast in 1990 to study at the National Institute of Art. He attended the American School of Modern Music in Paris, France from 1994-1998. In 1999, Loueke was awarded a scholarship to Berklee College of Music, where he earned a degree in Jazz Performance in 2000.
Loueke auditioned for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California in 2001, and was selected in a world wide search by a panel of judges including jazz legends Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard and Wayne Shorter. He attended the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz until 2003.
In 2002, while still at the Thelonious Monk Institute, he started playing with trumpet player Terence Blanchard. He recorded two albums with Blanchard on the legendary Blue Note Label.
Loueke played on Terence Blanchard's last album and DVD Flow, Herbie Hancock's album and DVD Possibilities, Hancock's album River: The Joni Letters, and with his trio Gilfema, made up of Massimo Biolcati (bass) and Ferenc Nemeth (drums) on their album of the same name Gilfema (2005, ObliqSound). He has also recorded two albums under his own name: In A Trance, on the label Space Time, and Virgin Forest, on the label ObliqSound (2006 release). His Blue Note Records debut Karibu was released March 25, 2008.
Lionel Loueke has studied with Mick Goodrick, John Damiam, George Garzone, Russell Ferrante, Joe Diorio, Terence Blanchard, Dave Holland, Kenny Barron, Steve Turre, John Scofield, Louis Nash, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and many others.
Lionel Loueke has performed and recorded with Kenwood Dennard, George Garzone, Bob Hurst , Alphonso Jonhson, Angelique Kidjo, Terence Blanchard, Herbie Hancock, Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, Wayne Shorter, Jeff 'Tain' Watts, Charlie Haden, Richard Bona, Nathan East, Vinnie Colaiuta, Marcus Miller, Sting, Brian Blade, John Patitucci, Terri Lyne Carrington, Kenny Garrett, Roy Hargrove, Santana, Dennis Chambers, and Gretchen Parlato.

[@AbasiConcepts]

Paapakobe
Can you enlighten us more on what you might know about this Music, Instrument, tecnique tone and sound ?

[@marcelogaea1064]

14 years ago… p’shaw! This is now, timeless. Thank you for posting, Stephan.

[@martincaz7772]

Wow, when he started had no idea he was gonna go where he went ! 0.0 Awesome.

[@Eestimntgrl]

Yea! Was searching for this guy after seeing possibilities DVD. He was my fave on sister moon. Luvin it!

[@alxmackenzie]

Amazing!

[@MichaelGodinho]

Amazing player! Herbie's introductions are innovations. Thankyou for sharing.

[@doyley30]

Wow, enough said!
You had a workshop with him? You lucky thing!

[@euclid1618]

he uses Yamaha guitars, along with a few others. I believe he uses some super super SUPER thick strings, because he grew up playing on bicycle cables. He uses a bunch of pedals for stuff too. I have seen him slide a sheet of paper behind his strings to give him a certain sounds, so yeah, take what you can from that.

[@floobuscanoobus]

@Mokshal,
It's often in order to run stereo effects and get a really full sound.

[@5egf]

Love those Paradis guitars

[@Samuelsonfranz]

Amazing! : )

[@jgodin312]

he's not playing a godin. I think that guitar is made by a company called paradise, but I could be mistaken (Bela Fleck has a similar guitar he occasionally uses). Lionel Loueke does use the Godin Multiacs, though.

[@SriJah]

Wow ...

[@akandetimothee3320]

je fier de vous grand frère bon vent à vous

[@msaartitnia]

of course it will be good!

[@ozbizbozzle]

I have the same Godin guitar, it is the vocal harmonies that I asked about.

[@funktifiedghostdog]

@xnextgtrgodx lionel plays a lot on a godin multiac grand concert. uses a digitech whammy pedal too. there's some great video on the godin site of him talking about using the aforementioned sheet of paper between the strings near the bridge. hope this helps

[@rmsolympic1]

@funktifiedghostdog Amazing musician and guitarist. That guitar is beautiful, too. I also find it flooring that he uses a -huhn?-sheet of paper. Man, it would be interesting what he could do with other materials beside paper.

[@funktifiedghostdog]

yeah the guitar is def a looker! :-) in terms of the prepared guitar, if you're into that kinda thang, look for "touch the sound", great doc with fred frith, who goes far into that territory...or just clip some alligator clips to your own strings and explore...it's fun:-)

[@JoshSimmonsOfficial]

What song is this? Is there any recordings that are similar?