JFB 2024: Gretchen Parlato a Lionel Loueke

Gretchen Parlato and Lionel Loueke met in 2001 while studying at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of California, Los Angeles. "We started playing together more and more. It was clear to me that we were connected," says Loueke. They have been touring consistently since 2003, and two years later they captured at least a hint of their chemistry on Gretchen's debut solo album.
Mutual guesting was then repeated several more times, only last year's album Lean In, on which they were accompanied by top professionals, bassist Burniss Travis and drummer (and Gretchen's husband) Mark Guiliana, fully shows the possibilities of the duo as well as the richness of its repertoire, which combines classic pop and jazz with Latin, R'n'B and Afrobeat, as well as English, Portuguese and Benin's indigenous Fon dialect. The duo will perform at Cabaret des Péchés on April 18.