Last weekend, Spring (no, more like Summer) peaked at New York City. It was a perfect Saturday afternoon for being out and about. It was especially highlighted by seeing one of my new favorite musicians live in concert. Lionel Loueke is a spectacular artist, and musician. I first heard of the guitarist/vocalist in 2002 when he was recording for Terence Blanchard on the latter's Blue Note debut, Bounce. I had never really heard anything like it. I had obviously heard many African musicians and varying styles of African music. But never in the context that this cat was introducing. Randy Weston pioneered the movement of taking Jazz to Africa in the 60s, and making a purposeful commitment to making the connections blatantly clear in astonishingly beautiful ways. 40 years later, Loueke has boomeranged it back to the States straight from Benin, Africa...and it is KILLIN'.

Loueke previously released a trio of albums on indie labels. You should check them all out - my particular fav is Virgin Forest. I won't say that all have "led up to" per se, but Loueke has certainly been put on the map in a major way with his latest CD for the Blue Note label. It's called Karibu, which means "Welcome" in Swahili. It features Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter (no...seriously) and Lionel's long-time killer trio of Massimo Biolcati and Ferenc Nemeth. It should be noted that Lionel has been working hard building a name for himself long before being signed to the reputable Blue Note Records. He had been in Terence Blanchard's band for 5+ years, and has been touring and recording with Mr. Hancock for about 3 years give or take. Needless to say, he's got the hot hand, and anyone with (or without for that matter) any jazz sensibilities knows that he's definitely one to watch.

We had the honor of hosting and broadcasting Lionel's "CD release" at J&R Music World last week. If you made it out, you know that it was really something. Lionel played tunes from the new CD, and for a special treat, a sweet version of "Body & Soul" in 7/4. He opened the set with the title track, which has a completely infectious Afro-groove. Throughout the set he brought that thing that I have felt is sometimes missing from the scene - fire! Loueke is definitely part of the vibrant jazz movement that is not afraid, conforming, or overly nostalgic.
He's one of those unpredictable and inspiring artists that just has you coming back again and again...that's how it should be.

And by the way, if you missed it...not to worry. Check it out here.

Let us know what you think!

Fred Hersch has been a friend of WBGO for at least twenty years. He was in Jane Ira Bloom's group when we recorded her at Citicorp Center for a series called Jazz at the Market (host was the Rev. John Garcia Gensel of St. Peter's Church). I remember that Fred and Jane had brought a piano tuner, but the Center didn't want their tuner to touch the piano. I was disappointed, and learning on the job. Fred was .. well, if not incensed, he was at least insulted.

Fred was part of a concert at Town Hall with MC Steve Allen (the TV personality, dating all the way back to the first Tonight Show). As Steve Allen was telling stories and getting into it, he turned to Fred and asked for "a little something underneath this;" on demand, Fred played the perfect "patter" music.

But Fred wasn't born for that role. From his earliest time in New York, he belonged in top groups. He was a sideman for leaders a generation or more his senior, such as Joe Henderson - from Ohio, like Fred.

At the Iowa City Jazz Festival in the 1990s, I remember Fred getting onstage and talking about funding cuts coming to the National Endowment for the Arts. He wanted me to do that with him, and I didn't. His political passion took me by surprise.

Fred studied with Sophia Rosoff (as did Barry Harris, a revered teacher in New York, who shows pianists how to produce sound through the keys by relaxing. Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus was one of Fred's many many students.

The 1986 group must have been one of his first. Dick Oatts was on sax, Randy Brecker on trumpet, although they stepped aside for the ballad "Con Alma."
-Becca Pulliam

Listen to the Fred Hersch Trio play "Con Alma," from the WBGO Archives.