Widely considered one of the most influential figures in "nuevo flamenco" music today, Jesse Cook incorporates elements of flamenco, rumba, jazz and many forms of world music into his work.

Jesse Cook 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.

Born to photographer and filmmaker John Cook and television director and producer Heather Cook and nephew to artist Arnaud Maggs, Jesse Cook spent the first few years of his life moving between Paris, Southern France and Barcelona.

After his parents separated, Cook and his sister accompanied his mother to her birth country, Canada, where he took lessons at Toronto's Eli Kassner Guitar Academy and eventually studied under Kassner. While Cook was still a teenager, his father retired to the French city of Arles in the Camargue where his neighbor was Nicolas Reyes, lead singer of the flamenco group the Gipsy Kings. During frequent visits to Arles, Jesse Cook became increasingly fascinated by the "Camargue sound,” the rhythmic, flamenco-rumba approach that could be heard on many corners and cafés.

Back at home, he continued his studies in 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 Romani music.

After the independent 1995 release in Canada of his debut albu, 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 flamenco.

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 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."

Jesse Cook

DATE: Friday, Jan. 10, 8 pm

Cook has traveled the globe looking for sounds that resonate with him. Known for his intoxicating fusion of world music, the Juno Award winner’s songs transport you – to Cairo, Brazil, Spain and beyond.