Lionel Loueke
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A Beninese guitarist trained in Abidjan, Paris and Boston, Lionel Loueke has played for more than fifteen years alongside Herbie Hancock.
Lionel Loueke was born on 27 April 1973 in Benin. He was trained first at the National Higher Institute of Arts in Abidjan (1990) and then at the American School of Modern Music in Paris (1994-1998), before joining the Berklee College of Music in Boston (1999-2000) and the Thelonious Monk Institute (2001-2003), where Terence Blanchard set him up and hired him.
He was based in the United States and published his first albums at Blue Note — "Karibu" (2008), "Mwaliko" (2010), "Heritage" (2012), "Gaïa" (2015) — where his guitar sings in his language, the fon, as much as it improvises. For more than fifteen years, he was the guitarist of Herbert Hancock, on stage as on albums "Possibilities", "River: The Joni Letters" and "The Imagine Project".
At Edition Records, he signed "HH" (2020), "Lean In" with Gretchen Parlato (2023), named at the Grammy Awards 2024, and then "United" (2024), duet with double bass player Dave Holland. The duo toured North America and Europe in 2025 and 2026, from Seattle to Utrecht.