HERBIE HANCOCK PICKS

Best Jazz Guitarist

Jazz guitarist Lionel Loueke — from the tiny West African nation of Benin — has a new album out on Blue Note. "He's comfortable in any setting, whether it's straight-ahead jazz or avant-garde," says Hancock. "And in his hands, the guitar is no longer just this instrument that you pluck. He turns it into a percussion instrument — he sticks paper between the strings to give it kind of a marimba sound."