Lionel Loueke - Karibu (2008)

Karibu is West African guitarist and vocalist Lionel Loueke's debut album for the Blue Note label, and his fourth overall. Loueke is best known to America's audiences as a sideman in Herbie Hancock's quartet, and for his stellar 2006 offering Virgin Forest on the wonderful ObliqSound imprint. Fans of Richard Bona's breezy blend of high string bass and wordless vocalizing will have a frame of reference at least in feel for Loueke's music, though the men are very different. On Karibu (Swahili for "welcome"), Loueke is joined by his longtime bandmates Ferenc Nemeth (drums/percussion) and Massimo Biolcati (bass), and by his former and future boss Hancock, and another musical mentor, Wayne Shorter, on a pair of cuts each, with one of them in common. Loueke's guitar playing comes off as sounding completely acoustic sometimes, as on the reading of John Coltrane's "Naima," like a griot's kora. The simple truth, however, is that he puts his instrument through a load of effects to get this sound. Loueke's wordless vocals and tongue-clicking are as much a part of his sound as his guitar playing and compositions. They add to the music a percussive effect and are often in counterpart to the rhythmic intent of Nemeth. The problem is, that the slick, under warm water production by Eli Wolf to make this music so accessible to American audiences can make some of these tunes feel as if they go by in a blur, and that have fewer dynamics than they do.