Coaches 26/27
Jonathan Blake
Django Bates
Guillermo Klein
For Johnathan Blake, music has always been a family affair. The drummer and bandleader’s previous Blue Note album, Passage (2023), was an homage to his father and chief mentor, the late jazz violinist John Blake Jr. The album cover features a sepia-toned snapshot of father and son, taken by his godfather, Eugene Wood. On his label debut Homeward Bound (2021), Blake honored the memory of Ana Grace, daughter of his longtime friends, saxophonist Jimmy Greene and flautist Nelba Marquez-Greene, on the eponymous track, who succumbed during the Sandy Hook massacre. Now, with My Life Matters, Blake delivers what may be his most personal effort yet. For his third Blue Note album, Blake assembled a group comprising his frequent collaborators — saxophonist Dayna Stephens, pianist Fabian Almazan, and Dezron Douglas on upright and electric bass, with the burgeoning new voice of Houston-native Jalen Baker on vibraphone. Co-produced by acclaimed bassist and labelmate Derrick Hodge, My Life Matters also enlists the talents of DJ Jahi Sundance, the son of venerated multi-reedist Oliver Lake, and childhood friend, GRAMMY Award-winning vocalist Bilal, to bring his vision to life. In 2017, Blake was awarded a commission from The Jazz Gallery. As part of their annual Fellowship program, it offers mid-career artists financial support and a two-week residency at The Pocantico Center in Tarrytown, NY. “Right around that time when I was writing this music, it seemed like every other day I was watching or listening to the news, and it was another person of color — another Black and Brown person — being taken away from us at the hands of people that were supposed to serve and protect us,” says Blake. “I didn’t want to become numb to the things that were unfolding in front of me. I wanted to speak up through my music.” He also drew inspiration from the lessons his parents taught him. “When my sisters and I were growing up, my folks used to always say that if you see injustice happening and you do nothing, you are just as much the problem.” What resulted are fourteen original compositions, many of them aptly titled by Rio Sakairi, Artistic Director of The Jazz Gallery, who heard the music at its inception. “All of the interludes, and most of the album’s songs, she came up with those titles. I allowed her to sit with the music, and she just understood what I was trying to convey.” My Life Matters is a musical suite that often oscillates between two opposing forces: present and future, tragedy and hope, reality and conception. Known for pushing the boundaries musically, whether it is with groups like Robert Glasper Experiment or on numerous projects for film and television, Hodge’s hand in the production can be heard and felt throughout the album. For the opening track, “Broken Drum Circle For The Forsaken,” Sundance injects sounds of a radio dial tuning with Blake’s drumming before we hear a familiar refrain: “We got pulled over for a busted taillight.” These were the words uttered by Diamond Reynolds, who live-streamed the aftermath of Philando Castile’s fatal shooting by police during an unwarranted traffic stop in Minnesota. “Last Breath” is a nod to the late Eric Garner, who died after an officer placed him in an illegal chokehold. Baker’s command of the vibes is immediately apparent as he opens the track, before a tidal wave of contrasting sounds crashes in, notably the vigor of Stephens on EWI and Almazan’s piano. Much like Garner’s last words (“I can’t breathe”) helped define the Black Lives Matter movement, “Last Breath” reverberates that palpable rallying cry. That contrast is fully explored on the title track, as Douglas’ acoustic upright bass remains stalwart and steady, making a declarative statement that “My Life Matters,” amidst the vibrancy of electronica that charges through. Each interlude (“A Prelude To An Unnecessary Yet Tragically Banal Oratorio,” “In A Brown Study,” “Can You Hear Me? (The Talking Drums Have Not Stopped),” “That Which Kills Us Makes Us What?” and “Lullaby For An Eternal Rest”) respectively provide a solo moment for each bandmember, lending ample room for them to expound musically in a way they haven’t before. Perhaps the most vulnerable moments on My Life Matters are the two tracks “We’ll Never Know (They Didn’t Even Get To Try),” which features Blake’s son, Johna, who currently studies bass with Douglas, and “I Still Have A Dream,” a poem recited by his daughter Muna accompanied by Douglas on upright bass. Over a decade prior, Muna listed the names of those slain at the hands of police brutality on trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire’s Blue Note album, the imagined savior is far easier to paint. While Blake never set out to make a protest album in the vein of Max Roach’s We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, he will gladly take up the charge established by his predecessors as part of this music’s continuum. “Those musicians set the bar very high for us to follow. If we’re not following their lead, then we are doing them a disservice.”
Django Bates is a pianist, Eb horn player, and composer who credits the variety of musical influences in his work to his childhood. His father is a collector of Jazz, and Romanian and African folk music. Django was a founder member of Loose Tubes, the legendary British Big Band that was at the forefront of the 1980's European Jazz renaissance. This early involvement with large ensembles inspired Django to create his own orchestras Delightful Precipice 1991–1997 and stoRMChaser 2005–2010. These groups toured extensively throughout Europe to critical acclaim. The Dutch Metropole Orchestra, Brodsky Quartet, Joanna MacGregor, Absolute Ensemble, Britten Sinfonia, and Duisburg Philharmonic are amongst the bands that have commissioned new works from Django. As performer he has appeared alongside Sidsel Endresen, Michael Brecker, Dudu Pukwana, Bill Bruford, Wynton Marsalis, and Ronnie Scott. In 1997 Django was awarded the prestigious Danish Jazzpar prize, dubbed the Nobel Prize of Jazz. Django was the inaugural artistic director of FuseLeeds04, a new festival celebrating the wealth and diversity of today's vibrant music scene, for which he commissioned Radiohead¹s Jonny Greenwood to write a new work for two Ondes Martenots and the London Sinfonietta. In honour of saxophonist Evan Parker’s 60th birthday, Django commissioned sixty composers including Gavin Bryars, Sir Patrick Moore, Manfred Eicher, and John Zorn, to write one bar each, and then he quilted these into the piece Premature Celebration which was performed by The Sinfonietta with Evan Parker and Paul Lytton. Django's theatre music work includes Baby Doll, (Birmingham Rep, RNT, Albery Theatre), The Postman Always Rings Twice (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Whitehall Theatre), Tonight at 8:30 (Chichester Festival Theatre), Titus Andronicus and Timon of Athens (Shakespeare's Globe). As You Like It and Julius Caesar (RSC), House of Games (The Almeida), and Campbell Graham's Out There! In 2005 Django Bates became the first Professor of Rhythmic Music in Denmark, at the RMC in Copenhagen. Here he created stoRMChaser whose weekly rehearsals allowed for the experimentation and development that resulted in his album Spring is Here (Shall We Dance?) – LM003. Since 1979 Django has run a smaller band, Human Chain which toured five continents and forms the core of many of Django's larger projects. This November a Swiss version humanCHain with nine students and alumni of HKB, will perform new material at Sarajevo Jazz Festival’s 20th anniversary. In 2010 Django released Belovèd Bird – LM004: a celebration of his childhood hero Charlie Parker. For this he invited Petter Eldh and Peter Bruun to form his first piano trio, the classic constellation so beloved of jazz listeners and players everywhere. Django later expanded his Parker arrangements to present this music with Norrbotten Big band at The Royal Albert Hall and with Monash Ensemble in Australia. Django is currently writing for the Big Band of Hessischer Rundfunk, arranging the entire Beatles album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. Django Bates is currently a professor of jazz at University of the Arts, Bern, Switzerland.
The craft of composition has been a part of Guillermo Klein's life since his childhood in Argentina. Klein's father presented him with a piano when he turned 11 years old and, inspired by the legendary Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla, he promptly began his experimentation with writing songs. Klein left Argentina to attend Berklee College of Music after hearing a moving speech by the former dean Gary Burton about his relationship working with Piazzolla. Klein intended to study classical music on his arrival but found himself among peers that were passionate about jazz. The music of Wayne Shorter provided the bridge from classical to jazz studies. Being a fan of unique harmonic expression, Klein was easily drawn to the work of this master composer who is deemed to be one of the most intriguing harmonic architects in jazz. Klein was also able to develop a talented network of musical friends, many of which came to Berklee from South America. This group of colleagues provided the framework for what would eventually become Klein's main musical voice, the Big Van large ensemble that would later become Los Guachos. After graduating from Berklee, Klein moved to New York City like many of his fellow graduates. He settled into Greenwich Village and quickly became associated with a jazz club called Smalls where he established a weekly engagement with his 17-piece Big Van band that incorporated musicians living in New York as well as commuters from Boston. Smalls was critical in fostering a community of young artists that would ultimately be some of the most influential voices of modern jazz. Klein later scaled the band down to a more streamlined 11 piece unit that began to be known as Los Guachos (roughly translated, the bastards). The band continued to develop with the help of residences at Smalls and, later, the Jazz Standard. After recording an album that was ultimately shelved, Klein was able to find a home with Sunnyside Records where he as been ever since. The label soon released two CDs by Los Guachos: Los Guachos II (1999) and Los Guachos III (2002). Klein moved back to Argentina in the early fall of 2000 with his wife. While in Argentina, Klein made a recording alongside local musicians, Una Nave (Sunnyside, 2005). Since then he has released a series of critically-acclaimed CDs with Los Guachos including: Live in Barcelona (Sunnyside, 2005), Filtros (Sunnyside, 2008) and his latest, Carrera (Sunnyside, 2012). Other important recordings include his work as a composer and/or arranger on " Solar Return Suite (with the MIT Wind Ensemble), Domador de Huellas (Sunnyside, 2010), Bienestan (Sunnyside 2011) with Aaron Goldberg and Miguel Zenon's Grammy-nominated, Alma Aldentro. In addition to teaching composition in Buenos Aires, Klein has given master classes and seminars throughout Europe, including the Jazz Institut Berlin, Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Jazz Schule Basel, and Le Mirail in Toulouse.
Kris Davis
Mary Halvorson
Wolfgang Muthspiel
Artistic Director
Pianist-composer Kris Davis was named 2017 Rising Star Pianist/2018 Rising Star Artist in Downbeat magazine and dubbed one of the music?s top up-and-comers in a 2012 New York Times article titled "New Pilots at the Keyboard", with the newspaper saying: "One method for deciding where to hear jazz on a given night has been to track down the pianist Kris Davis." krisdavis.net To date, Davis has released twelve recordings as leader. Her 2016 release, Duopoly, made The New York Times, Pop Matters, NPR, LA Times, and Jazz Times best albums of 2016. Davis works as a collaborator and side person with artists such as John Zorn, Terri Lyne Carrington, Craig Taborn, Tyshawn Sorey, Eric Revis, Michael Formanek, Tony Malaby, Ingrid Laubrock, Julian Lage, Mary Halvorson and Tom Rainey. Davis received a Doris Duke Impact award in 2015 and multiple commissions to compose new works from The Shifting Foundation, The Jazz Gallery/Jerome Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. She is the Associate Program Director of Creative Development for the Insitute Jazz and Gender Justice at Berklee College of Music.
Mary Halvorson is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer and recording artist for Nonesuch Records. Her distinctive sound and innovative approach to her instrument have earned her widespread recognition over the past two decades, including numerous best-of-the-year lists, a 2019 MacArthur Foundation fellowship and Guitarist of the Year honors in the DownBeat Critics Poll for the past nine years. When not leading her own award-winning bands, she can be heard in a wide variety of creative partnerships and on more than 70 releases as a co-leader or sidewoman. Her 2025 performance schedule has included notable duo concerts with Ambrose Akinmusire, Peter Evans, Bill Frisell and Nicole Mitchell as well as international tour dates with such longstanding ensembles as the Tomeka Reid Quartet and her duo with Sylvie Courvosier, which released its critically acclaimed third recording, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic Records), in March. She also headlined the fourth night of this summer's Vision Festival with her newest group, Canis Major, featuring Dave Adewumi, Henry Fraser and Tomas Fujiwara. This June she released About Ghosts, her 16th recording as a bandleader and the latest from her flagship sextet, Amaryllis, the current Group of the Year in the latest DownBeat Critics Poll. A handful of tracks include special guests Brian Settles and Immanuel Wilkins augmenting the core ensemble of Fujiwara, Adam O'Farrill, Jacob Garchik, Patrician Brennan, and Nick Dunston. Amaryllis kicked off its live support of the record at the North Sea Jazz Festival in July and will be touring the Eastern U.S. and Europe through September and October. In addition to claiming the top spot on North American College & Community Radio's jazz chart, About Ghosts has been heralded as "nothing short of spectacular" (Chris Ingalls, PopMatters), "an unbelievable statement from one of my favorite artists" (Nate Chinen, NPR) and "more proof that Halvorson's Amaryllis is among the most inventive, articulate, and creatively forward-thinking ensembles playing jazz right now" (Thom Jurek, AllMusic). "Mary Halvorson is the jazz guitarist of the moment," declares Fred Kaplan in his review for TrackingAngle.com. "It is beyond time to herald [her] as a true and brilliant original. About Ghosts is a terrific album in every way." Mary Halvorson plays a Flip Scipio guitar, and uses Apollo picks and D'Addario strings.
In the Fall of 2016 Wolfgang Muthspiel releases an album of Quintet music for the ECM label. "Rising Grace" features Wolfgang's current trio with Larry Grenadier and Brian Blade as well as the pianist Brad Mehldau and the trumpet player Ambrose Akinmusire. wolfgang.muthspiel@facebook As internationally acclaimed guitarist / composer, Wolfgang Muthspiel is commanding attention worldwide as an artist of deep integrity, intelligence and daring musicality. A contrast of quiet charisma and elegance with dazzling technique and risk-taking musicality distinguishes a Muthspiel performance. His highly personal musical language embraces openness with a compositional structure beyond derivatives. The record label material records – which publishes both Muthspiel´s own projects and the works of other artists in jazz and classical genres – released its 29th album in spring 2010 “Life at the Jazz Standard” a Duo with his former teacher Mick Goodrick. In addition to his jazz projects, Muthspiel is active composing for contemporary classical ensembles. He received commissions from the Ensemble for New Music/Zürich, the Austrian Ministry of Arts, Klangforum Wien, the Boston-based ensemble Marimolin, violinist Beni Schmid and most recently the Austrian Esterházy foundation (Haydn Year 2009). Thanks of this wide range of activities Wolfgang Muthspiel was named Jazz Musician of the Year in Austria, 1997 and awarded the "European Jazzprize“ in 2003. Among his current projects is the Duo „Friendly Travelers“ with drummer Brian Blade, the Wolfgang Muthspiel 4tet (with the Swiss piano player Jean-Paul Brodbeck), MGT “From a Deam” with Slava Grigoryan and Ralph Towner, the „drumfree trio“ (with Larry Grenadier and Chris Cheek) as well as an ever-changing Solo Performance incorporating many different guitars and loops. The son of an amateur choirmaster, Wolfgang Muthspiel was born in the small town of Judenburg, Austria in 1965. He began studying the violin at age six, then switched to guitar at age 15. Muthspiel studied both classical and jazz guitar at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Graz, Austria. He won various national competitions for classical music as well as the International Guitar Competition in Mettmann, Germany. Muthspiel developed an interest in improvisation early on. In 1986 Muthspiel left Austria and emigrated to the United States, first settling in Boston to study at New England Conservatory with Mick Goodrick and David Leisner. Later he attended Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship, graduating "Magna Cum Laude" in 1989. At Berklee he met Gary Burton, who invited him to fill the guitar chair in the Gary Burton Quintet, left vacant since the departure of Pat Metheny 12 years earlier. From 1995 until 2002 Muthspiel lived in New York where he co-operated in a huge variety of musical projects with Rebekka Bakken, Trilok Gurtu, Brian Blade, Dhafer Youssef, Youssou N’Dour, Maria Joao, Dave Liebman, Peter Erskine, Paul Motian, Marc Johnson, Bob Berg, Gary Peacock, Don Alias, Larry Grenadier, John Patitucci, Dieter Ilg. The albums with Rebekka Bakken and his brother Christian Muthspiel were the first ones to be released on Muthspiel´s own label material records, founded in 2000. Since 2005 he is a guest professor at JazzCampus Basel, Switzerland.
Miguel Zenón
Linda May Han Oh
Lionel Loueke
Multiple Grammy Nominee and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenón represents a select group of musicians who have masterfully balanced and blended the often contradictory poles of innovation and tradition. Widely considered as one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists of his generation, he has also developed a unique voice as a composer and as a conceptualist, concentrating his efforts on perfecting a fine mix between Latin American Folkloric Music and Jazz. miguelzenon.com Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zenón has released ten recordings as a leader, including the Grammy Nominated Típico (2017) and Identitites Are Changeable (2014). As a sideman he has worked with jazz luminaries such as The SFJAZZ Collective, Charlie Haden, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, David Sánchez, Danilo Perez, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, Guillermo Klein & Los Guachos, The Jeff Ballard Trio, Antonio Sanchez, David Gilmore, Paoli Mejias, Brian Lynch, Jason Lindner, Miles Okazaki, Ray Barreto, Andy Montañez, Jerry Gonzalez & The Fort Apache Band, The Mingus Big Band, Bobby Hutcherson and Steve Coleman. Zenón has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and The Chicago Tribune as well as gracing the cover of Downbeat Magazine on two occasions (2010 and 2014). In addition, he topped both the Jazz Artist of the Year and Alto Saxophonist categories on the 2014 Jazz Times Critics Poll and was selected as 2015 Alto Saxophonist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association. As a composer he has been commissioned by SFJAZZ, The New York State Council for the Arts, Chamber Music America, Logan Center for The Arts, The Hyde Park Jazz Festival, The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, MIT, Jazz Reach, Peak Performances, PRISM Quartet and many of his peers. Zenón has given hundreds of lectures and master classes at institutions all over the world, and is a permanent faculty member at New England Conservatory of Music. In 2011 he founded Caravana Cultural, a program which presents free-of-charge Jazz concerts in rural areas of Puerto Rico. In April 2008 Zenón received a fellowship from the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Later that year he was one of 25 distinguished individuals chosen to receive the coveted MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the “Genius Grant”.
Born in Malaysia, raised in, Perth, Western Australia, Linda began playing piano, bassoon and at fifteen dabbled on electric bass playing jazz in high school bands while playing a lot of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Linda studied at the W.A Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) where she graduated with first-class honors. lindamayhanoh.com She was a James Morrison Scholarship Finalist in 2003 and in 2004 was an IAJE Sister in Jazz and received the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer’s award in 2008. She also received an honorary mention at the 2009 Thelonious Monk Bass Competition and received the 2010 Bell Award for Young Australian Artist of the Year. In 2010 she was nominated for the Jazz Journalist’s Awards for Up and Coming Artist of the Year, and received the award of No. 1 Acoustic Bass Rising Star in the Downbeat Critic’s Poll. This same year she received 2nd place at the BASS2010 Competition in Berlin. Linda completed her Masters at the Manhattan School of Music in 2008 studying with Jay Anderson, John Riley, Phil Markowitz, Dave Liebman and Rodney Jones. She now teaches the precollege division there and is involved in jazz videoconference master-classes for high-schools around the US. As an active teacher she was also involved in creating a series of lessons for the up and coming BassGuru app for iPad and iPhone. Linda has performed with the musicians such as Joe Lovano, Steve Wilson, Vijay Iyer, Dave Douglas, Kenny Barron, Geri Allen, Fabian Almazan, and Terri Lyne Carrington. She is currently the bassist with guitarist, Pat Metheny. Linda is an active double bassist, electric bassist and composer, composing music for various ensembles and short films, also participating in the BMI Film Composers Workshop and Sundance Labs at Skywalker Ranch. Linda composed for Sabrina McCormick’s short film “A Good Egg” which was featured in the New York Shorts Festival. In 2009 her self-released debut trio album “Entry” with Obed Calvaire and Ambrose Akinmusire was listed in Artforum magazine as one of Vijay Iyer’s top ten of 2009. Her second album “Initial Here” released on Greenleaf Records in 2012 features a quartet with Dayna Stephens on tenor sax, Fabian Almazan on piano and Rudy Royston on drums with special guest Jen Shyu on vocals. This album was mentioned several times for album of the year in various jazz polls. “Sun Pictures” is her third release – a quartet album recorded live at WKCR studios featuring Ben Wendel on tenor saxophone, James Muller on guitar and Ted Poor on drums. Her latest release in 2017 "Walk Against Wind" on Biophilia Records, received critical acclaim and was featured on the 2017 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll. This album features Ben Wendel on tenor sax, Matthew Stevens on guitar, Justin Brown on drums featuring special guests - Fabian Almazan on piano and keys as well as Minji Park on Korean percussion. She will be performing this music for the first time at the distinguished Village Vanguard in New York City. Linda is currently working on her second trumpet trio album and an eight-piece group featuring a string quartet Aventurine– with music that was commissioned by the Jazz Gallery in 2012. She was a recent recipient of the Jerome Foundation Fellowship and is now a member of Pat Metheny’s most recent quartet project which has recently recorded. Stay tuned for the new release.
Originally from the small West African nation of Benin, guitarist Lionel Loueke has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past ten years. Starting out on vocals and percussion, Lionel Loueke picked up the guitar late, at age 17. After his initial to exposure to jazz in Benin, he left to attend the National Institute of Art in nearby Ivory Coast. In 1994 he left Africa to pursue jazz studies at the American School of Modern Music in Paris, then came to the U.S. on a scholarship to Berklee College of Music. From there, Loueke gained acceptance to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, where he encountered his Gilfema bandmates Biolcati, Nemeth, Parlato and other musicians with whom he would form lasting creative relationships. In 2008 and 2009, Lionel Loueke was picked as top Rising Star guitarist in Down Beat magazine's annual Critics Poll. www.lionelloueke.com Praised by his mentor Herbie Hancock as "a musical painter," Lionel Loueke combines harmonic sophistication, soaring melody, a deep knowledge of African music, and conventional and extended guitar techniques to create a warm and evocative sound of his own. JazzTimes wrote "Loueke's lines are smartly formed and deftly executed. His ear-friendly melodicism draws both from traditional African sources and a lifetime of closely studying the likes of Jim Hall and George Benson, and his rhythmic shifts come quickly and packed with surprises." After graduating from Berklee College of Music, Lionel Loueke was accepted to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles where he had the opportunity to study his greatest mentors: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Terence Blanchard. Soon after his time at the Monk Institute, Lionel Loueke began focusing exclusively on nylon-string acoustic guitar, an instrument on which he's developed a signature voice. Lionel Loueke released his first album In a Trance (2005) on Space Time Label, then three albums on Obliqsound Label as a leader (Virgin Forest - 2006) and with Gilfema (Gilfema - 2005, Gilfema + 2 - 2008) His first release on Blue Note Label Karibu (2008), featuring the trio with Hancock and Wayne Shorter as special guests, won widespread critical praise. His sophomore release for Blue Note, Mwaliko (2010), follows up acclaimed Karibu offered a series of searching, innovative, intimate duets with Angelique Kidjo, Esperanza Spalding, Richard Bona and Marcus Gilmore - artists and allies who continue to have a profound impact on Loueke's vision as a bandleader. Hailed as a "gentle virtuoso" by Jon Pareles of The New York Times, guitarist/vocalist Lionel Loueke follows up with Heritage (released in August 2012) , co-produced by piano great and Blue Note label mate Robert Glasper. Lionel Loueke, long known for his nylon-string acoustic guitar, releases here a more electric album. In 2015, Loueke chose to record Gaía, his remarkable rock-infused fourth Blue Note album, live in the studio with an intimate audience in attendance. Loueke has appeared on numerous standout recordings such as Terence Blanchard’s Grammy-nominated Flow (2005) and Hancock’s Grammy-winning River: The Joni Letters (2008). Lionel appeared on recordings by such legends as Jack DeJohnette (Sound Travels), Charlie Haden (Land of the Sun), Kenny Barron (The Traveler) and Gonzalo Rubalcaba (XXI Century). He has also appeared on recordings by Esperanza Spalding, Joe Lovano, Gretchen Parlato, Avishai Cohen, Kendrick Scott and other leading peers. He has also toured the world as a member of Hancock’s band for more than ten years and will start touring with Chick Corea this year after recording on his last album to be released. Lionel Loueke is also a member of Blue Note’s 75th anniversary all-star band with Robert Glasper, Derrick Hodge, Kendrick Scott, Ambrose Akinmusire and Marcus Strickland. These experiences all inform Loueke's extraordinary work as a leader.