PhilPaine.com

Nue­va Fla­menco is a style of gui­tar music that incor­po­rates jazz, latin pop, and mid­dle-east­ern ele­ments into tra­di­tional fla­menco. Jesse Cook, born in France of Cana­dian par­ents, and now oper­at­ing out of Toron­to, has been a superb prac­titioner of this style for a decade. The only one of his sev­en albums I have is Nomad (2003), which fea­tures won­der­ful vocals by the Egypt­ian singer Maryem Tol­lar on the song “Qaduk­ka-l-Mayyas”, per­haps the best item. The album incor­po­rates so many world influ­ences, with guest con­tri­bu­tions from Hos­sam Ramzy, Flo­ra Purim, the Afro Celts, and even the BoDeans (!), that the fla­menco ele­ment is some­times near­ly invis­i­ble. Cook is such a fine gui­tarist that he feels no need to be a con­stant cen­ter of atten­tion –— in sev­eral of the tracks he pro­vides only a mod­est accom­pa­ni­ment while oth­er mem­bers of the large ensem­ble take the spot­light. But when he does move into the spot­light, his gui­tar work is stun­ning, and his vocals pleas­ant. http://www.jessecook.com