Lionel Loueke
| Lionel Loueke | |
|---|---|
Loueke playing a skeleton guitar. Photo by Sheldon Levy
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| Background information | |
| Born |
April 27, 1973 Benin |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Labels | ObliqSound, Blue Note |
| Associated acts | Gilfema |
| Website | www |
Lionel Loueke (born 27 April 1973) is a guitarist and vocalist born in 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.
Lionel Loueke grew up in what he has described as a family of poor intellectuals in the West African country of Benin. He began playing percussion instruments around the age of 9 but was influenced by an older brother who played guitar, which he began playing himself in his late teens. It took Loueke a year to earn the $50 he needed to buy his first guitar. However, he could not afford to replace the strings, which had to be ordered from Nigeria. Instead, he soaked his strings in vinegar to keep them clean. When the strings broke, he had to replace them with bicycle brake cables which were hard on his fingers.
Loueke got his first professional job by accident. At a club during a break, he took a guitar from the bandstand and started playing it. The club's manager heard him and offered him a job. He played African pop music but discovered jazz when a friend returned from Paris with a copy of an album by jazz guitarist George Benson. This inspired Loueke to study jazz in Paris. He won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 2001, he auditioned for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of California Los Angeles. He was selected in a worldwide search by a panel of judges, including jazz musicians Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, and Wayne Shorter. He attended the Institute until 2003.
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