Virtuoso guitarist Jesse Cook plays in Beaver Creek on Wednesday

Jesse Cook studied classical and jazz guitar at the Royal Conservatory of Music at York University in Canada and Berklee College of Music, but it was a trip to Spain that ultimately defined his signature fusion of world music.
“Anytime you go deep into a school of music … people think, ‘This is the only — this is the best — genre, and we love it. The perception in music school is that the answer to being a great musician is learning all the things — music theory (etc.),” Cook said.
He delved deep into that world, but then he learned much more when he traveled to Spain with his dad and met famous and not-so-famous musicians, including the legendary American guitarist and historian Donn Pohren. Known for his three major texts about flamenco, Pohren is the only non-Spaniard to earn the title of flamencologist by the Catedra de Flamencologia.
“They would start at midnight and play deep into the night, weeping and singing. There was none of that going on at Berklee — there was no weeping. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, how did I lose touch with that?'” he said. “Through music, we can profoundly express these feelings that you can’t put into words. There’s something magical about this; it’s intangible.”
Being a virtuosic guitarist himself, Cook realized that virtuosity had always been a part of flamenco and the musical culture surrounding it.

Support Local Journalism
“The fast guitar playing and dance — there’s a kind of euphoria that comes when you play so fast it feels like the wheels are going to come off … I didn’t know what was happening,” he said, as a way of explaining how music takes over as the musician surrenders to it. “You have to keep asking: ‘How do these things make you feel.’ That’s the important thing.”
While he continues to practice the breakneck speed technique, and, in fact, said he practices it more now, as he turns 60 this year, than he did in his 30s, he recognizes that it’s something to be lightly sprinkled into his show.
“It’s like pepper: You want a certain amount, but you have to temper it with soulfulness or air — you have to give it space … for the magic to happen,” he said. “I have a strict balance. I bring all these elements together. That’s your job as an artist.”
He blends flamenco with world and jazz, resulting in his unique brand of rhythm and rhumba.
“Jesse Cook’s sound is exotic, exhilarating and impressively global, pulling aspects of rumba, flamenco, Brazilian samba, Persian music and jazz together, all written by the Canadian flamenco guitar wizard who was a childhood neighbor of Nicholas Reyes of The Gypsy Kings for a time,” said Owen Hutchinson, artistic director of the Vilar Performing Arts Center.
Cook originally began his music career as a composer and producer in his 20s. Then, he released his first album, “Tempest,” in 1995. It immediately hit No. 14 on the Billboard charts.
“It was a pipe dream, to get it out of my system. I didn’t think it would go anywhere, but it took off beyond my control,” he said. “I hadn’t made plans that far ahead. I had to give up my job and start touring. I was thrilled to be a composer for film, TV and dance, but the music is secondary to the other art form. Now, it’s just about you and the music and what you want to say musically.”
“Tempest” and the following year’s release, “Gravity” — the latter of which Hutchinson calls “the album that you keep coming back to for dinner parties, a night on the deck with friends, and occasions when you want to let the good times roll, in a sophisticated way,” — reflected his early musical influences. By his fourth album, he felt he had said it all, but with each following recording, he discovered new ground.
“Each new album became more of an exploration,” he said.
That included Egyptian, Brazilian, Cuban and Columbian music, as he mixed rhumba and flamenco with these other forms, which share a connection with the rhumba side of music.
He has said that if he played his music in Spain, they wouldn’t recognize it as flamenco, because it’s not. It’s a hybrid of world music. And that hybrid has resulted in a Juno Award for Best Male Artist, three wins of the Canadian Smooth Jazz award for Guitarist of the Year and plenty of other accolades.
His shows are always spirited, like a communal dance party, so bring your dance shoes, he said.
“They’ll be some quiet moments, too,” he said, “but by the end, we’d like to have a rhumba dance party.”
- Who: Jesse Cook
- When: 7 p.m. Feb. 5
- Where: Vilar Performing Arts Center
- Tickets: $44.64-$67.24; show is also part of the Pick 3/5/8 Ticket Package
- More info: VilarPAC.org