Canadian rhumba flamenco artist Jesse Cook has blended the exotic Spanish music form with elements of new age, jazz, and easy listening on his releases for Narada Records.
Signed to the label in , he produced his debut, Tempest , one year later. Gravity , released in , hit the Top Ten on the new age charts. Vertigo was released two years later, and Free Fall appeared in mid Though it was started conceptually in , Cook didn't issue his next studio album, Frontiers , which marked a return to his initial simpler production style, until The Rumba Foundation followed in Cook varied the routine a bit with his next release, 's The Blue Guitar Sessions , adding ballads and vocals on some tracks by singer Emma-Lee for a more expansive and jazzy midstream pop sound.
The guest artist-studded and aptly named One World , which drew inspiration from music of the Middle East, South America, Spain, and beyond, was issued in May Continuing to explore a more diverse sonic palette, Cook returned in with Beyond Borders.
Cook and his group — percussionist and drummer Rosendo "Chendy" Leon, born in Havana; violinist, pianist and accordion player Chris Church, from Halifax, Nova Scotia; bassist Dennis Mohammed; and Nicolas Hernandez on second guitar — will perform a masterful fusion of world music styles at p. Wednesday, Feb. Central Ave. Bartlett St. But I wanted 'Borders' to be pan-global, not focused on any one area.
So there's Persian sounds in there, Arab sounds, Spanish guitar is always central, there's electronic, Latin percussion and the Armenia duduk. Duduk is a wind instrument that can be heard on the album's second track, "Hembra," playing back and forth with Cook's flamenco guitar.
It has an incredibly haunting sound. The first time I heard it, I thought it sounded like a ghost. For awhile, Cook worked remotely with musician Djivan Gasparyan, sending recorded files back and forth between Canada and Armenia.
About a year later, Church learned to play the Armenian double-reed woodwind instrument. He's also learned surdo, a Brazilian percussion instrument, and gaita, a Columbian bagpipe.
It's a lifelong thing. You never think that you're finished. It's more like I have a bit of an idea of a style, of what they're doing from my perspective. Musicians arent a big part of his demographic. The housewives love him though. He'd do great on QVC. In flamenco circles in particular, he is heavily frowned upon.
If you're looking for real quality in the "world nylon guitar" arena, checkout "Strunz and Farah" Those guys are real players,with great chops, and make realy good, meaningful music. Jesse is really a watered down "gypsy kings" meets "strunz and farah". All the worn out spanish cliche's, with no substance or originality. Not to mention, horrible guitar tone. His big talent is marketing himself.
At that, he's a genius. He's a decent player, although I'll admit in recent years he's gone for a much more "commercial" style, just like Ottmar Liebert. I don't really care much for either Jesse's or Ottmar's recent stuff. He plays a variety of stuff and seems to be pretty well respected by the classical community.
You can find several, what I call pseudo-flamenco, albums with a mix of artists.
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