New guitar album of the week: Lionel Loueke's Mwaliko

One of the features I look for in guitar players is their originality. Not just the ability to sound unique, but their ability to do it tastefully (of course, music is subjective so I'm talking about my own preferences here).

From that perspective, it's really uncommon to find guitar players like Lionel Loueke. Originally from Benin, he eventually made it to the U.S. and continued his musical education at the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz and the Berklee College of Music.  

I am familiar with two of his recordings: Virgin Forest and Karibu and I'm looking forward to hearing his latest release, hitting the stores on February 9th: Mwaliko.

If you're not familiar with his music, take a look at the video below. It is very representative of his guitar and music style. I really like the way he blends African sounds with jazz. His acoustic guitar playing really catches my attention as well as the rhythm in his music.

I hope you find his music intesting. For more on Lionel Loueke at TopOfGuitar.com, click here.