Happy 57th Birthday to Jesse Arnaud Cook who was born on this day in 1964, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
He is a virtuoso guitarist who blends elements from several genres, Flamenco being the most prevalent (his music is also referred to as smooth jazz, which I don’t get at all, but since he seems to have won awards in that category, I guess I’m wrong! I get the additional ‘folk’ and ‘world’ labels – some lovely exotic instruments). He’s the first to admit that what he does would not be called Flamenco, by any stretch of the imagination, by anyone in Spain, however, despite that, in 2009 he was Acoustic Guitar's Player's Choice Award silver winner in the Flamenco category while the gold went to Paco de Lucia, so there’s definitely something there! And losing only to Paco de Lucia is not exactly disheartening, I’d say.
I had never heard of him before today which is a bit of an oversight - so much music, so little time! Anyway - I listened to his Juno award winning Free Fall and most enjoyable it was too. There’s a joie de vivre and passion about gypsy music that really is infectious, IMHO, and I like the sounds of the more modern Rumba Flamenco.
The title track from Free Fall - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ARxEzrxh58
And another fab one – “On Walks The Night” … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s117YZsHWTA
I think this might be the only video from the album – made by himself -
Aaand - there’s new album just around the corner which I’m going to look out for now – Libre … nice live acoustic clip of the title track … (album version here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JviPNc5XYhk) …
And yet another cool video, for fun … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9srZFMhCZU
He is a virtuoso guitarist who blends elements from several genres, Flamenco being the most prevalent (his music is also referred to as smooth jazz, which I don’t get at all, but since he seems to have won awards in that category, I guess I’m wrong! I get the additional ‘folk’ and ‘world’ labels – some lovely exotic instruments). He’s the first to admit that what he does would not be called Flamenco, by any stretch of the imagination, by anyone in Spain, however, despite that, in 2009 he was Acoustic Guitar's Player's Choice Award silver winner in the Flamenco category while the gold went to Paco de Lucia, so there’s definitely something there! And losing only to Paco de Lucia is not exactly disheartening, I’d say.
I had never heard of him before today which is a bit of an oversight - so much music, so little time! Anyway - I listened to his Juno award winning Free Fall and most enjoyable it was too. There’s a joie de vivre and passion about gypsy music that really is infectious, IMHO, and I like the sounds of the more modern Rumba Flamenco.
The title track from Free Fall - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ARxEzrxh58
And another fab one – “On Walks The Night” … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s117YZsHWTA
I think this might be the only video from the album – made by himself -
Aaand - there’s new album just around the corner which I’m going to look out for now – Libre … nice live acoustic clip of the title track … (album version here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JviPNc5XYhk) …
And yet another cool video, for fun … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9srZFMhCZU
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson