Miller Theatre to Open Jazz Series with Lionel Loueke Trio, 10/18

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts

opens the 2014-15 Jazz series with the

LIONEL LOUEKE TRIO

featuring

Lionel Loueke, voice and guitar
Ferenc Nemeth, drums
Massimo Biolcati, bass

Saturday, October 18, 2014, 8:00 p.m.

Miller Theatre at Columbia University (2960 Broadway at 116th Street)
Tickets: $25-$35 • Students with valid ID: $15-$21 From Miller Theatre Executive Director Melissa Smey: "I am delighted to welcome back Lionel Loueke to share his tremendous talent and his joyful performance style once more, after his debut here in 2011. Loueke's voice is distinct and vital, celebrating the individuality and freedom of expression that is central to jazz. This concert is the perfect way to kick off this year's series."

JAZZ

In a city so heavily steeped in jazz music, Miller Theatre remains a pillar of the uptown jazz scene with a diverse lineup that embraces great jazz artists, each with their own unique style. In the 2014-2015 season, the theatre welcomes back four groups that previously enchanted Miller audiences with their dazzling improvisations and infectious energy. These artists draw inspiration from a variety of sources-gospel and bebop, West Africa and Harlem-to make this uniquely American art form their own. Jazz

Saturday, October 18, 2014, 8:00 p.m.

Lionel Loueke Trio

Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street)
Lionel Loueke enchanted audiences with his trio's exuberant Miller Theatre debut in 2011. Loueke grew up in Benin playing traditional West African music and went on to study jazz in Paris and the U.S., an eclectic background that can be clearly heard in his adventurous music, which blends traditional jazz styles with electric synthesizers, African kora and kalimba sounds, and percussion. "For me," Loueke explains, "the guitar is many instruments in one and has unlimited potential." WATCH: Tiny Desk Concert, NPR Music
LISTEN: Freedom Dance
LISTING: Ouidah

Lionel Loueke

www.lionelloueke.com Originally from the small West African nation of Benin, guitarist Lionel Loueke has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past several years. In 2008 and 2009, he was picked as top Rising Star guitarist in DownBeat magazine's annual Critics Poll. His sophomore release for Blue Note, Mwaliko, follows up 2007's acclaimed Karibu with a series of searching, innovative, intimate duets with Angelique Kidjo, Esperanza Spalding, Richard Bona and Marcus Gilmore. Loueke also includes three new tracks featuring his longtime trio with Massimo Biolcati on bass and Ferenc Nemeth on drums.

After his initial to exposure to jazz in Benin, Loueke 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. It was at Berklee that he first met Biolcati and Nemeth. Through jam sessions, the trio developed an immediate rapport, in part fueled by internationalism. Biolcati is of Italian decent, but grew up in Sweden, while Nemeth was born and raised in Hungary. Both had extensively studied African music and were drawn to Loueke who was just beginning to fuse a Jazz technique with his African roots.

Soon after him graduating from Berklee, accepting the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles, and spending time at the Monk Institute, Loueke began focusing exclusively on nylon-string acoustic guitar, an instrument on which he's developed a signature voice. "I feel more connected to the warmth of the nylon-string sound, even if the sound is not completely acoustic," he says. Indeed, as Loueke's sound grows more uniquely involved, not purely acoustic it still retains those qualities of immediacy, tenderness and passion that have made Loueke an influential force on the world stage, in jazz and beyond.

Ferenc Nemeth

ferencnemeth.com Ferenc Nemeth is an accomplished and versatile musician who continues to push the boundaries of jazz drumming and composition. Since the early days of his career, Nemeth has been one of the most sought after drummers both in his native Hungary as well as in the United States. From his early days at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the Thelonius Monk Insitute of Jazz in Los Angeles, Nemeth has learned from and worked with the world's finest jazz musicians and groups including Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Terence Blanchard, and many more. Relocating to New York in 2003, Nemeth's distinctive energy and drive saw his career continuing with many of the same musicians, and also expanding to include the likes of Christian McBride, John Patitucci, and Lionel Loueke. Beyond the extensive repertoire of performance and recording, Nemeth has also established his own label, Dreamer's Collective Records and released the albums Night Songs, Triumph, and Imaginary Realm.

Massimo Biolcati

www.massimobiolcati.com Born December 22, 1972 in Stockholm, Sweden, Massimo Biolcati grew up in Sweden and Italy. He began his musical career at age 16, and for five years he studied both classical and jazz bass while performing at area festivals and clubs. At age 21, Massimo returned to Sweden to study at the Royal Music Academy of Stockholm. Massimo received a scholarship to Berklee College of Music and later at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California where he received his Master's Degree in Music and got the chance to study and perform with Jazz giants such as Dave Holland, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, John Scofield, Christian McBride, Lewis Nash, Mark Turner and many others. He then moved to New York City, where he quickly joined the NY music scene and started to play with his peers, as well as established masters such as Terence Blanchard, Paquito D'Rivera, and Ravi Coltrane, among others.

Upcoming concerts in Miller Theatre's Jazz series

Single tickets: $20-$30 • All concerts begin at 8:00 PM

Cyrus Chestnut Trio
Saturday, November 1, 2014

Renee Rosnes Quartet
Saturday, January 24, 2015

Aaron Diehl Quartet
Saturday, March 7, 2015 Columbia University's Miller Theatre is located north of the Main Campus Gate
at 116th St. & Broadway on the ground floor of Dodge Hall.

Directions and information is available online at www.millertheatre.com
or via the Miller Theatre Box Office, at 212.854.7799.

For photos, please contact Charlotte Levitt at 212/854-2380 or CL2867@columbia.edu. For further information, press tickets, photos, and to arrange interviews,
please contact Aleba & Co. at 212/206-1450 or aleba@alebaco.com.
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