Jesse Cook

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title: "Jesse Cook" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1964-births", "living-people", "flamenco-guitarists", "juno-award-for-instrumental-album-of-the-year-winners", "berklee-college-of-music-alumni", "canadian-jazz-guitarists", "canadian-male-guitarists", "narada-productions-artists", "waldorf-school-alumni", "guitarists-from-toronto", "canadian-world-music-musicians", "canadian-male-jazz-musicians"] description: "Canadian guitarist" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Cook" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Canadian guitarist ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist "]

Field	Value
name	Jesse Cook
image	Practicing in Prince George.jpg
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth_name	Jesse Arnaud Cook
birth_place	Paris, France
birth_date
origin	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
genre	New flamenco, world music, ethno jazz
occupation	Musician, composer
instrument	Classical guitar
years_active	1995–present
label	Narada, EMI, E1
website
::

| name = Jesse Cook | image = Practicing in Prince George.jpg | background = non_vocal_instrumentalist | birth_name = Jesse Arnaud Cook | birth_place = Paris, France | birth_date = | origin = Toronto, Ontario, Canada | genre = New flamenco, world music, ethno jazz | occupation = Musician, composer | instrument = Classical guitar | years_active = 1995–present | label = Narada, EMI, E1 | website =

Jesse Arnaud Cook (born November 28, 1964) is a Canadian guitarist. He is a Juno Award winner, Acoustic Guitar Player's Choice Award silver winner in the Flamenco Category, and a three-time winner of the Canadian Smooth Jazz award for Guitarist of the Year. He has recorded on the EMI, E1 Music and Narada labels and has sold over 1.5 million records worldwide.

Life and career

Cook was born November 28, 1964, in Paris, France, to Canadian photographer and filmmaker John Cook and Canadian television director and producer Heather Cook. He was raised in Toronto, Canada.

Cook studied classical and jazz guitar at Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music, York University, and Berklee College of Music in the United States. He has often quipped that he later attempted to unlearn it all while immersing himself in the oral traditions of Roma music.

After the independent 1995 release in Canada of his debut album, Tempest, he played at the 1995 Catalina Jazz Festival; shortly afterwards, Tempest entered the American Billboard charts at No. 14.

Cook has recorded ten studio albums, five live DVDs and has traveled the world exploring musical traditions that he has blended into his style of rumba flamenca.

In 1998, Cook was nominated for a Juno Award as Instrumental Artist of the Year. In 2001, he received a Juno Nomination for Best Male Artist. In 2001, Cook won a Juno Award in the Best Instrumental Album category for Free Fall. In 2009, he was Acoustic Guitar's Player's Choice Award silver winner in the Flamenco category (gold went to Paco de Lucia). He is a three-time winner of the Canadian Smooth Jazz award for Guitarist of the Year and has received numerous other awards.

In 2011, Cook began filming, directing, and editing his own music videos with the release of Virtue. He has since directed, filmed, and edited eight music videos , 16 episodes of Friday Night Music , and produced, edited, and mixed the PBS Concert Special Jesse Cook, Beyond Borders.

Cook has said of his music: "If you go to Spain and you play [my] music, they’ll say, what is this? They don’t recognize it as Flamenco because it’s not; it’s a hybrid. I love Flamenco, but I also love world music: jazz, pop, Brazilian Samba, and Persian music."

Discography

• Tempest (Narada Equinox, 1995)
• Gravity (Narada Equinox, 1996)
• Vertigo (Narada World, 1998)
• Free Fall (Narada World, 2000)
• Nomad (Narada World, 2003)
• Montréal (Narada, 2005)
• Frontiers (Koch, 2007)
• The Rumba Foundation (Koch, 2009)
• The Blue Guitar Sessions (eOne, 2012)
• One World (eOne, 2015)
• Beyond Borders (eOne, 2017)
• Libre (One World, 2021)
• Love in the Time of COVID (One World, 2023)

Video albums

::data[format=table]

Concert Specials / DVDs Title	Album details	Certifications	Nominations/Awards
One Night at the Metropolis	2007 DVD – EMI	title=Artist Summary Jesse Cook	url=https://musiccanada.com/gold-platinum/?fwp_gp_search=jesse%20cook
The Rumba Foundation	2009 DVD – EMI
Jesse Cook: Live in Concert	2012 DVD - Coach House Films
Jesse Cook: Live at the Bathurst Street Theatre	2013 DVD - Coach House Films
Jesse Cook: Beyond Borders	2019 DVD - Coach House Films
::

Other appearances

• Enchantment (2001) Charlotte Church
• Camino Latino (2002) Liona Boyd
• Seed (2003) Afro Celt Sound System

References

References

1. "Montalvo Arts Center Jesse Cook". Montalvo Arts Center.
2. (26 January 2015). "Groove to Jesse Cook's Upbeat Flamenco Tunes".
3. (25 May 2015). "Conversation with Jesse Cook".
4. "Jesse Cook Boulder Theater". Boulder Theater.
5. "Archived copy".
6. (n.d.). "Cook, Jesse".
7. (April 11, 2023). "For Jesse Cook, Every Day Is a Gift: 'Enjoy That Audience.'".
8. (March 11, 2022). ""My Music is a Reflection of My Life, Which Has Been a Little Bit All Over the Place": Jesse Cook Talks Diverse New Album 'Libre'".
9. "Artist Summary Jesse Cook". The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
10. (March 8, 2011). "Jesse Cook | Virtue (Official Music Video)".
11. (March 1, 2019). "Beyond Borders PBS Special".
12. (17 September 2019). "Music Award-Winning World Musician Jesse Cook Shares Life on the Road".
13. "One Night at the Metropolis". Allmusic.
14. "Artist Summary Jesse Cook". Music Canada.
15. "Rumba Foundation". Allmusic.

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