1 album as leader and 8 as sideman (1991–2017), each listed chronologically.
2016 · Fairgrounds
Lionel Loueke, a guitarist from Benin who was still relatively unknown, played on Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters (2007). The album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2008, a rare triumph for a jazz record over mainstream pop and rock competition.
2017 · Afro-Caribbean Mixtape
Elvin Jones' 1992 album Youngblood was stocked almost entirely with then-unknown young players. One of them, 19-year-old trumpeter Nicholas Payton, would go on to lead his own Gumbo Nouveau and become one of the defining voices of New Orleans jazz — the veteran drummer's record turned out to be the start of someone else's career, not a victory lap.
Lionel Loueke
Nicholas Payton