INTERVIEW Lionel Loueke & Angelique Kidjo: Global Villagers

Tuesday April 27, 2010

From JazzTimes
By Jeff Tamarkin

At roughly 43,500 square miles, slightly smaller than Pennsylvania, the West African nation of Benin is one of the smallest on the continent. But in the singer Angélique Kidjo and, more recently, the guitarist Lionel Loueke, Benin—tucked between Togo to the west and Nigeria on the east—has produced two of Africa’s more oversized talents. Kidjo’s presence on the international scene precedes Loueke’s by some two decades, but their paths have crossed often: Kidjo knew of Lionel (pronounced Lee-onel) when he was a boy, long before he touched a guitar for the first time, and they have followed a similar trajectory in their lives, each leaving Benin for Paris, completing their formal education, piling on musical knowledge and experience, and ultimately settling in America.

Both Kidjo, 49, and Loueke, 36, exhibit a deep respect for the traditions of their homeland. But an insatiable thirst for the music of other cultures—American music in particular—has resulted in both artists creating idiosyncratic hybrids that are global in scope yet indisputably African at the same time. Kidjo’s recordings integrate a panoply of elements ranging from R&B to jazz, rock, dance, Latin and numerous indigenous African strains. Her latest, Õÿö (Razor & Tie), includes compositions by Sidney Bechet, Otis Redding, James Brown and Carlos Santana, in addition to a Bollywood tune, Kidjo’s take on the South African standard “Mbube” (better known in America as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”) and originals co-written with her French husband and co-producer, Jean Hebrail.

Loueke has also absorbed all that has come his way, and although he tends to lean more firmly in a solid jazz direction—he has spent time in both Terence Blanchard*’s and *Herbie Hancock*’s bands—he too has developed a playing style that proudly displays an undeniable African component. On Mwaliko, his second as a leader for Blue Note, Loueke is accompanied by his regular sidemen, bassist *Massimo Biolcati and drummer Ferenc Nemeth, with both Esperanza Spalding and Richard Bona guesting on bass on two tracks each, and Marcus Gilmore sitting in on drums for a track.

Kidjo’s and Loueke’s shared roots and mutual admiration have led them to contribute to each other’s newest recordings as well. Õÿö features Loueke on guitar and as co-arranger, and she returns the favor on Mwaliko, contributing vocals to two tracks, including the traditional Beninese number “Vi Ma Yon.” Their collaborations, said Kidjo as she and Loueke sat together for a roundtable chat in a conference room at Blue Note’s Manhattan offices, “come easy because we speak the same language. I was home, he was home, and it was perfect.”

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