Cook’s in the mood for the blues
Guitarist explores his softer side
Jesse Cook When: Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Where: Jubilee Auditorium Tickets: $72.15 to $80.15 through Ticketmaster
Colour him blue.
Jesse Cook, whose flamenco-like guitar style would normally have him in the red end of the spectrum, has turned to a cooler colour, one that has all kinds of resonance in music.
“It (the new CD The Blue Guitar Sessions released in Canada on Sept. 18) has been charting on the world chart, and in the past that is where my albums ought to be,” says Cook. “This one, I’m not sure what chart it should be on.
“For the last three records, I’ve wanted to do a ‘blue’ record, really. By that I just mean a moody album that you can kind of live in.”
That doesn’t mean the blues with a capital B.
This compilation is all about the feeling that exists in the aftermath of a breakup, or on a rainy day when everything seems a little “blue.”
Normally, Cook is engaged in playing loud and bombastic world music that people like to dance to. He sees himself as the Phil Spector of world music, providing a wall of sound.
He has typically liked to get seven or eight rumba guitars going, drums and bass, and says that’s not big enough.
“I’ve always been of the belief that more is more. The whole less-is-more kind of eluded me.”
But as a listener, many of his favourite records are introspective, such as Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, or even the work of Norah Jones.
“Can I do a record like that? I wasn’t sure.”
For this last record, he sketched out two versions, then chose the more subdued path after spending the bulk of a year listening to the softer side.
In the end he produced a softer, more subdued CD. “As Miles said, it’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.” Cook clearly knows how to fill in the gaps between the black squiggles on the page.
Initially the pieces on the record were arranged for two guitars, but true to form, the size of the band increased to a much larger group.
When he performs at the Jubilee on Tuesday, listeners will get a taste of the new album, but he will also draw from his growing playlist. After eight CDs, fans expect to hear their favourites. “If they don’t hear anything that they know they hate you,” he says, somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
He is travelling with his core band: the Cuban ex-pat Chendy Leon, who plays drums and percussion; Nicholas Hernandez on second guitar; Chris Church on violin, accordion, piano and other exotic instruments, such as the double-reed Armenian duduk (if it looks like a duduk ... it has a “ghostly” sound); Dennis Mohammed on bass, who brings a bit of Motown to the sound; and Emma-Lee, providing vocals to the mostly instrumental performance.
He points to his youth as one reason why he was drawn to the style of music he plays. He lived, from time to time, with his parents in southern France and northern Spain, where he picked up on the flamenco music that was in and around the household.
When he finally got his hands on a guitar and started to learn its intricacies, those influences shone through.
“If I’d grown up listening to Rush, maybe I’d be playing that kind of music,” he says.
After his Canadian tour ends just before Christmas, Cook will get ready for a massive tour of the U.S. He will play 70 dates south of the border, a tour built on the strength of a popular video that has appeared on more than 50 PBS stations since last spring.
Cook’s international stature includes some serious accolades — in 2008 he won the silver medal in Acoustic Guitar magazine’s prestigious Players’ Choice Awards, behind the legendary Paco de Lucia. He has sold a million albums worldwide, with two platinum and five gold albums in Canada. He is a Juno winner and three-time recipient of the Canadian Smooth Jazz Award for Guitarist of the Year.