HH

HH

This remarkable solo guitar tribute to Herbie Hancock comes in the same year as Three, Loueke’s reunion album with the Gilfema trio. It also follows on the heels of Hope, the fine duo album with pianist Kevin Hays from 2019. In a multi-faceted solo mode that brings to mind his 2005 release, In a Trance, Loueke devotes HH to Hancock’s compositions across many periods and stylistic shifts, creating a stirring portrait of a piano genius, a synthesizer innovator, and a towering influence in acoustic and electric jazz as well as pop and dance music. A Hancock band member for more than 15 years, Loueke finds his own clear path through these classic and widely varied tunes. The Benin native draws on early hard-bop from Hancock’s 1962 debut, Takin’ Off; mid-’60s modernism from Maiden Voyage, Empyrean Isles, and Speak Like a Child; the lush later ’60s orchestrations of Fat Albert Rotunda; the funk-fusion breakthrough of Head Hunters, Man-Child, and Thrust; the dreamy late-’70s soul of Sunlight; and, of course, the 1983 break-dance anthem “Rockit.” Playing mainly nylon-string guitar (steel-string on “Cantaloupe Island”), Loueke also adds wah-wah and other electric timbres, not to mention funky vocal percussion and plenty of the warm, expressive singing he’s featured on his own music over the years.

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