A Second Home: Arizona has supported Cook since the beginning

click to enlarge A Second Home: Arizona has supported Cook since the beginning
(Jesse Cook/Submitted)
Jesse Cook performs at the Fox Tucson Theatre on Thursday, Jan. 30.

Canadian guitarist Jesse Cook said he feels helpless. The California wildfires are devastating, he said, and playing there last week seemed trite.

“I’m just watching the news hourly in shock,” Cook said calling from Toronto. “It’s Armageddon. I feel weird talking about a tour when this is going on. My heart goes out to those people.” 

Cook, who plays the Fox Tucson Theatre on Thursday, Jan. 30, considers Arizona a sort of second home as his breakout shows were in LA, San Diego and Phoenix.

“Those were the three main cities where I could perform,” he said. “In the rest of the United States, we were knocking on the doors trying to get a gig. It feels like home, not just a foreign city.”

During Cook’s 30-year career, he has garnered multiple accolades, including Acoustic Guitar Magazine Player’s Choice Silver Award, 11 Juno Award nominations, a Gemini Award and 10 platinum and gold studio albums. He has produced five PBS TV specials and five live CDs.

Cook said he never planned on making music for the public. He released his first album when he was 30 — an age considered “late” in the music business. 

Cook is touring with a five-piece band with musicians from around the world. They include Fethi Nadjem, violin and mandole; Matt Sellick on rhythm/accompanist guitar; Dan Minchom, bass; and Matais Recharte or Marito Marques, drums, cajon and percussion.

“I have a young guitarist who joined the band,” he said about Sellick. “He became a guitarist because his mother, when he was 7, bought one of my albums.

“His mother got guitar lessons for him and he won all these competitions. He reached out as a teen and showed me his video. When he was about 17 or 18, I told him I was passing through his town, come out to the show and we met that day, soundchecking.”

Cook invited Sellick to join him on stage. Fast forward, six years ago, Cook asked him to join the band.

“It was wild,” he said. “He said joining the band was a lifelong dream for me. I didn’t feel old until he joined the band. I was 30 when I made my first record. It’s a bit of an adjustment. He knows my entire discography. I’m convinced he’s Canada’s, legitimately, best flamenco guitarist. It’s a weird full-circle 360-degree moment in both of our lives.”

Cook is keeping busy when he’s not on tour. He’s going to release a video for “Boom” off his album “Libre.”

“I always make my own videos myself,” he said. “My mom and dad were filmmakers. I’ve been making my own videos. I’ve done two PBS specials and I’m editing my last one. This last album (‘Libre’), I made a music video for every track. It’s exciting. I will admit, it’s not a full-blown production. It’s just to have some sort of visual to go with the music.”

click to enlarge A Second Home: Arizona has supported Cook since the beginning
(Jesse Cook/Submitted)
Jesse Cook performs at the Fox Tucson Theatre on Thursday, Jan. 30.

Film and music meld to create Cook’s lifetime loves.

“Music is my lifelong companion,” he said. “My mom said I had a guitar when I was 2 and I would pretend to strum it. I don’t remember that. But I started taking lessons at 6 and I got pretty serious pretty quickly.

“I still practice a lot, every day. I just turned 60 this year. I’m thinking, oh my God. I will feel like I have so much more to do with the guitar and music. The clock is ticking and I thought I’d get better before the end. Life is a    crazy thing.” 

Jesse Cook
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30
WHERE: Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress Street, Tucson
COST: Tickets start at $20
INFO: foxtucson.com