One of the New Year’s most-anticipated music collaborations, Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra team up with Benin-born artist Lionel Loueke to present big band arrangements of select works from the celebrated guitarist’s catalogue. Loueke has been widely praised for his fusion of traditional West African music with modern jazz harmonies, unique vocal inflections, and complex time signatures. Arturo O’Farrill notes, “Lionel is a tour de force. His performances are incredibly powerful and he plays the music of the cosmos. The sounds he gets from his guitar, how he sings, and what he does with his presentation, it’s not to be believed. We are extremely excited to be working with him.”

Lionel Loueke made his major-label debut in 2008 when Blue Note Records released his album Karibu, featuring guest appearances by Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. Loueke’s latest release, Mwaliko (2010), is a collection of duo and trio performances with fellow Benin native Angelique Kidjo, Cameroonian bassist and singer Richard Bona, bassist Esperanza Spalding, and drummer Marcus Gilmore, doing a version of Shorter’s classic composition “Nefertiti.” Following his acceptance into the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz (University of Southern California; 2001-2003), Loueke has performed alongside a laundry list of today’s greatest jazz stars (i.e. Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, Kenny Garrett, Roy Hargrove, Sting, etc).

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