Canadian guitarist Jesse Cook blends flamenco, rumba and jazz
Canadian guitarist Jesse Cook blends flamenco, rumba and jazz
It’s Day 2 on tour, and Jesse Cook is happy to be on the road. The Canadian guitarist is on his “Follow the Road” tour, which makes a stop at the KiMo Theatre on Thursday, Nov. 7.
On the tour, Cook will perform about 80 shows between now and May.
“I’ve realized that the show is going to be evolving,” he says. “By the time we get to Albuquerque, it will be slightly different from our second stop. The audience changes the dynamic as well. It’s amazing how that happens.”
Cook is known for his blend of rumba and flamenco along with jazz elements on the guitar.
Since the release of his debut album, “Tempest,” in 1995, Cook has carved out a place for himself in flamenco music.
He will celebrate the 25th anniversary of that album in 2020.
“It’s been a wonderful career,” he says. “I’ve put out 10 albums and done a lot of PBS specials. I never imagined any of this coming true.”
With 10 albums under his belt, he often finds it difficult to prepare a set list. His most recent album is 2017’s “Beyond Borders,” which had a PBS special attached to it.
“I’m trying to pick the songs that people want to hear,” he says. “There’s the song like ‘Mario Takes a Walk,’ which was used in several Olympic games and then turned into one of the biggest Bollywood series. At this point, I’ve played this sound thousands of times. It doesn’t get old for me. It gives the audience something to look forward to.”
Over the course of his career, Cook has relied on word-of-mouth promotion.
His songs aren’t generally played on the radio.
“It’s such different music,” he says. “It’s never had a format to support it. It never really fit anywhere. It’s only existed because people tell others to listen to it. The internet has really made that grow.”
Cook tries to keep up with all the changes on the business side of music. And he tries not to repeat himself.
“When ‘Tempest’ came out, it was my first album and felt like I had a lifetime to put it together,” he says .”Then my life went from zero to 60 when the album debuted at No. 14. Suddenly I’m touring, and I had to catch up with what was going on. These days, I’m looking for the elements that make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, something that thrills me. It’s about moving forward.”