- Jesse Cook, Orpheum Theatre, Sunday, Dec. 16, 8 p.m.
WHEN he was a little boy, Juno Award winning flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook would often try to emulate the sounds of guitarist Manitas de Plata on a toy guitar.
As he grew older Cook remained involved with music but had serious thoughts about a different career path altogether.
"At the time I was actually thinking of going to art school," he says. "I have an uncle who is an artist and I just always imagined that would be where I would go."
Instead a girlfriend convinced him to stay with music.
"I took it to heart and I took a year off after high school and really focused on music for a while," he says. "I decided that was really what I wanted to do."
Cook was born in Paris, France but moved to Toronto with his mother and sister after his parents divorced.
Since opting for music Cook has attended a variety of music schools across North America including the Eli Kassner Guitar Academy and York University in Toronto. He also graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston.
In his early 20's Cook began composing for other musicians and writing scores. He says that while he enjoyed the work he had bigger dreams.
"I was mainly a behind-the-scenes guy," Cook says. "I wrote scores for dance companies, theatre companies and television shows and whatever other work I could get."
In 1995 Cook independently released his first album, Tempest. A month after releasing Tempest he signed with a record company in the United States.
"It completely changed my life," Cook says. "My life made this huge 90 degree turn."
"Since the release of Tempest, Cook has gone on to release seven studio albums and a live recording. In September, he released his latest disc The Blue Guitar Sessions.
"On this record I am trying to take the guitar playing that I do and put it into an almost Miles Davis context."
He says the Blue Guitar Sessions has no rumba sounds or any influence of flamenco because he wanted to create something different.
"For a long time I've wanted to do a blue album," he says. "There are the kind of records where you put them on and every track is enveloped in this mood that permeates through the whole disc."
"In previous records I'd do a fast song, and an upbeat song and a slow song and the mood sort of moves around, but that means if you just want to live in that mood you have to switch tracks," he adds.
The album features Toronto vocalist Emma-Lee, who Cook discovered online.
"Emma-Lee was fantastic," he says. "Her voice is so effortless. It's powerful and subtle. She's great."
Cook's sound has been described as world music fusion, jazz, and Latin. "I am trying to make something I haven't heard before so it is probably quite right that it doesn't fit neatly in a box," Cook explains.
"For me an artist's job is to try and create something new," he adds. "That's something I've always tried to do with my music."
Cook explains that incorporating traditional sounds with new sounds is done through trial and error.
"I always think of music as being in a sandbox," he says. "You just sort of play with whatever is there. I try to put myself in situations where I try to work with people that I wouldn't otherwise get to collaborate with."
When Cook began working on 2003's Nomad he travelled to Egypt to record with musicians there and mixed what he was doing with what they were doing.
"I know there are some people who really believe in being true to a tradition and playing according to the rules of the tradition. I am the kind of person who feels like once you learn the rules your first order of business should be to break them," Cook says.
When Cook lived in Arles, France with his father he was exposed to the sounds of flamenco.
"Being in the gypsy part of town in Arles in the South of France, where you see other kids playing that style of guitar was very exciting for me as a teenager and had an influence on me and how I played the guitar."
He also happened to be neighbours with the lead singer of the Gypsy Kings.
"At that time they weren't the world famous Gypsy Kings, they were just a local band," Cook says.
According to Cook, a handful of publications have inaccurately stated that he grew up in Arles, France and studied under the Gypsy Kings.
"There was one night where I was invited to a jam session and that was it," Cook says.
In 2001 Cook received a Juno Award for his album Free Fall. Although Cook was honoured to win Canada's top music prize he has mixed feelings about awards for music.
"When you win them you feel great, it's the recognition of your peers. It's a nice feeling but when you lose them you feel terrible," Cook says. "Music is not a race, there is no clear winner or loser."
"Can you say definitively that Bob Dylan is better than Miles Davis? Music is music and it affects everybody differently. It's a completely subjective thing. As an artist I think you should strive to make the most honest music you can. To try and assign winners and losers seems beyond the point," Cook adds.
"I didn't ever expect this to become my life," he says. "Music has allowed me to see parts of the world that I would have never have gotten to see. I never thought I would go to China and certainly not the other parts of Asia that I have been to."
"Music has been one of my closest friends, maybe my best friend." @npescod
