San Jose Jazz Festival: Lionel Loueke

Lionel Loueke’s music is instantly recognizable, with a sound unlike any other in jazz. His guitar lines have an eerie, weightless beauty, flashing like diamonds, enigmatic as the Sphinx, and usually accompanied by his own high-pitched, wordless vocals. Loueke’s fascinating set at the San Jose Rep stage bore the imprint of his homeland (Benin, in West Africa) but was no particular place or age. Instead, it seemed to come down from another plane of existence.

There may not have been much differentiation between tunes in the first half of the set, but that hardly mattered. The magical neverland they evoked unfolded kaleidoscopically, revealing myriad levels and inviting the listener to fall in, to lose oneself in the ebb and flow.

This succeeded not only because of Loueke’s prodigious skills, but because of the astounding interplay of his trio (which also works in a collective mode under the name Gilfema). Hungarian drummer Ferenc Nemeth is one of the great listeners in modern jazz, a master of textural subtlety who shapes space around his bandmates — lifting, propelling, adapting instantly to any change in mood. Italian bassist Massimo Biolcati, meanwhile, stretches and compresses that space with the swinging pendulum of his gently rocking lines. The trio breathes together, going beyond dialogue and into the realm of telepathy.

This feature came to the fore in the latter half of the set, as Loueke stood face to face first with Biolcati, then with Nemeth, toying with time and tone, each dancing around the other in a game of dodge and feint like a man trying to outwit his own reflection in a mirror.

As the set progressed, the energy level gradually rose and Loueke took the sound farther afield. At times, his guitar sounded more like a harp. At others, it evoked a keyboard. He prepared the guitar by sliding a card under the strings to create a gourd-like sound, then forsook the strings to play the body of his instrument, transforming it into a futuristic talking drum.

Such sounds, mesmerizing as they may be, do not generally turn one into a household name, even among the community of jazz fans. Few in the audience seemed to know much about Loueke or his cohorts before the show. They know now. And this is a music that once heard is not readily forgotten.

Filed Under: Concert Reviews

Tags: Ferenc Nemeth, Lionel Loueke, Massimo Biolcati, San Jose