Loueke’s hallmarks—as a teenager in West Africa, the guitarist once replaced a broken string with a bicycle brake cable. Early on, his novel approach impressed mentors like Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, who sit in for two tracks each on Karibu, Loueke’s major label solo debut. His daring imagination has made it one of the year’s finest jazz releases.
A typically resourceful Loueke groove, like the standout title track, meshes a lilting melody and rich harmonic progression over a quietly propulsive Afro-Brazilian rhythmic bed. Like George Benson, Loueke often scats along with his solos, and mouth clicks as well. But he also augments his improvisations with an elegantly deployed array of digital loops, pitch-shifting pedals, and a digital voice harmonizer that occasionally makes him sound like a one-man Ladysmith Black Mambazo. His trio, which includes bassist Massimo Biolcati and drummer Ferenc Nemeth, seems telepathically attuned.Loueke favors odd meters like 17/4—a tendency he attributes more to Stravinsky and Bartok than African polyrhythms—but makes them seem easy, nearly organic to the process. There Loueke goes, inventive as ever.
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