Arts
www.SanTanSun.com
May 3 – 16, 2014
59
Flamenco guitarist to make debut at CCA BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI
Flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook admits he’s no Katy Perry. Millions of mainstream music fans can’t hum along with his songs, but among his fanbase he’s a certified star. “To be honest, when you play weird, esoteric instrumental music like I do, it’s not like I’m Katy Perry and everybody knows all my songs” he says ending midthought. “Within my fanbase, they are hits.” When Cook makes his Chandler Center for the Arts debut on Friday, May 9, fans can expect to hear a career-spanning set including songs like “Mario Takes a Walk” and “Café Mocha.” “When you do a show, it is incumbent on you to perform songs from all CDs,” Cook says during a recent phone interview. Fans may only have one or two CDs and would be disappointed if they didn’t hear songs from those particular collections. “I do try to play music from all of the CDs,” he says. “I don’t sit down and make a list. I do try and play material from old and new. The other thing, too, is having toured most of these places many times, I try not to play too many of the same songs. It’s a fun difficult balance.” The setlists vary each night so as not to bore fans who see multiple shows. They’re also different in each country. “There’s an album that wasn’t a big hit, ‘Montreal,’ a live concert CD,” says the
Paris-born Toronto resident. “But it topped the charts in Poland and people want to hear all the songs from that concert. I was doing a press conference and someone called it ‘Your greatest CD to date.’ Does anybody listen to that record?” In Saudi Arabia, one of his albums charted at No. 3 on the pop charts— between Madonna and Linkin Park. “It was weird to have a hit in Saudi Arabia,” he says. At the time of the interview, Cook was “theoretically” working on a new record, due out in spring 2015. “But I’m a notoriously slow record producer,” says Cook, who’s completely hands on during the recording process. “I don’t know what the issue is. I write the material myself. I do the arrangements myself. Unfortunately, I love producing. I love being in the studio and recording. “I’ve always made the records myself. It’s fun. It’s a labor of love but it takes a long time. I’m hoping it’ll come out on time next year. The other thing is we’re touring a lot. We’ll be heading off next week on the first leg of this American tour. I don’t know when we get a long stop after that so I can roll up my sleeves and get to work.” Cook admits he’s a perfectionist. “What did Picasso say? ‘A painting is never finished. It’s abandoned.’ I feel that way about music. They have to pull
COMING TO TOWN: Flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook makes his debut at the Chandler Center for the Arts on Friday, May 9. Submitted photo
it out of my hands, my clutching hands, and take it off to the mastering (plant) to finally press it on the CD. I would sit there polishing the songs for way too long.” His formula works though. He won one Juno Award, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys, but was nominated 11 times. Numerous ice skaters have performed to his music in the Winter Olympics. “I tend to see them after the fact because I’m doing whatever on tour and suddenly my phone is ringing off the hook,” he says. “I don’t know what it is about skaters that make them want to use my music. I think my music has been used every Olympic games since I started.” One time, his music earned a skater a bronze medal. “They didn’t send me the award,” he says in jest. “I didn’t get the medal. For me,
I consider it the greatest form of flattery, when other people take your music and do something artistic with it, another artist covers it, or somebody skates to it. Artists will write on Facebook that they paint to my music. The music is going off and having a life of its own and becoming a part of someone else’s creative process. It’s amazing.” Jesse Cook performs 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 9, at the Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave., Chandler. Tickets are $36 to $48. For more information, call (480) 782-2680 or visit www.chandlercenter.org. Christina Fuoco-Karasinski is the executive editor of the SanTan Sun News. She can be reached at christina@santansun. com.