On Friday, Dec. 11, 2015, Canadian guitar virtuoso Jesse Cook will grace the stage at the River Run Center in front of a sold-out audience. I had a chance to speak with the Juno-award winner ahead of his show about his tour schedule, early influences, and his rigorous practice schedule. His band is currently on the road, playing over 40 shows between now and the end of April 2016.
“That’s the way we do it; the album [comes] out and you gotta go out there and tour. Since September we’ve been going almost straight. For now, we’re going until April. Then, at some point, I need to start thinking about the next record,” said Cook.
Cook has released nine studio albums, six of which were nominated for Juno awards in both the World Music and Instrumental categories (including one win). As a five-time Gold and one-time Platinum album artist, Cook knows a thing or two about spending life on the road around the world as a musician.
Alexander Harris: Do you have a favourite continent you’ve played on?
Jesse Cook: You know, I feel like when you’re a kid, and you have a favourite colour, you’ve got it all sorted out. And then the older you get you start thinking ‘I like them all.’ I feel that way about touring—I actually love the variety. I love touring in Canada, but I love playing in New York City, I loved playing in Poland, I loved playing Lebanon. Singapore was great—it’s the variety that is really fantastic.
Cook is often considered to be a guitar virtuoso and can move lightning-fast around the fretboard of his flamenco-style, nylon string guitar.
A.H.: I’d say you can shred better than most of the metal guys that I’ve met in my time. How did you get into the style of flamenco guitar?
J.C.: That’s the $64 million question—I don’t really know. When I was a kid I was born in France, and my parents had these Manitas de Plata records that people in France were listening to at that time. He was a gypsy guitarist that played flamenco. When we moved to Canada (I was about six) my first guitar teacher was a flamenco teacher. That sound just kept coming through my life and every time it did I just loved it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Beatles, too, and Led Zeppelin, [and] the Police. They were all great. But somehow the one that ended up really sticking with me was the flamenco sound. And I’ve been doing it ever since.
A.H.: Have you ever tried playing other genres? Or ever just felt like smashing some power chords?
J.C.: I went to Berkeley and they wouldn’t let me play on a nylon string guitar; I had to play on an electric. When I was in high school I was in a band, playing at the school dance and all that. I used to love playing the solo to “Stairway to Heaven” or “Hotel California,” or one of those great classic rock anthems. You can’t really sustain [a note] on a nylon string guitar. It just goes ‘PLINK!’ and that’s it. There’s no whammy bar for nylon—it wouldn’t make any sense. [Laughs]
A.H.: Do you still practice guitar? Or is it just second nature at this point?
J.C.: All through university I really had no life, I just played and played, went to classes and played. When we’re not touring I have to practice a lot to keep my chops up but also because I want to keep growing. I don’t want to keep playing the same things I was playing when I was 19. But I do find for those things that I learn now at 51, I need to keep working at it because if I don’t do it for a while, it goes away. You lose that built-in muscle memory that you get when you start young.”
A.H.: Do you and your band incorporate any improvisation into your live show?
J.C.: There’s a ton of improvisation. What I’m playing is not strictly flamenco music per se. I’m borrowing more from other types of world music and a lot of jazz. In jazz you play the head and then you improvise over the form, and we often do that. The violinist in my band has been with me [for] 16 years and the rhythm guitarist for 12 years. For us, that’s the part that’s fun every night, when you don’t know what the other guy’s going to play. You have to react to it.