There are lots of different kinds of nylon-string players, and the most common misconception is that people envision flamenco as being classical, when in fact flamenco guitars are actually quite different from classical guitars.Ĭlassicals have a big, warm round tone, whereas flamenco guitars have a bit of a buzz to them. What nylon insights would you share with all the steel-stringers out there? I liked the sound of the steel-string, but it wasn’t my instrument. I developed a lot of fingerstyle facility, and playing with fingernails on a steel-string would shred them. My first lessons were in flamenco, but as I got better, my teachers steered me toward classical. I also studied at Berklee College of Music, and they didn’t want to teach me on nylon, so I got a Les Paul and learned to play jazz and rock music with a pick.īut at home I always wrote and played nylon-string, because you can say very different things on such a different instrument. I liked the sound of the steel-string, but it wasn’t my instrument Jesse Cook Toronto is a very multicultural city, and when I was a young musician there, I studied all sorts of drums and percussion from India, Brazil and West Africa. They were treating the guitar as a percussion instrument, and I remember just loving it. In addition to hearing them, I’d hear local kids in the street playing that way. In a weird twist of fate, when my father retired to the south of France, he wound up buying the house next door to Nicholas Reyes, the leader of the Gipsy Kings. The longer story is that my family bounced back and forth between Europe and Canada. Were you always drawn to the nylon-string? My music is a reflection of my life, which has been a little bit all over the place Jesse Cook My music is a reflection of my life, which has been a little bit all over the place. Since I’ve never been properly in any one genre, I’ve always been somewhat envious of players like Paco de Lucia or Vicente Amigo, who come from and then further a rich tradition, such as flamenco. Maybe this one resonates with a younger crowd because it’s infused with the kind of 808 trap beats heard in contemporary music, from reggaeton to K-pop. ![]() The first couple were rumba flamenco, and you could hear a lot of my influences, from the Gipsy Kings and Peter Gabriel to the Guitar Trio with John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia and Al Di Meola.Īfter that, I started trying different things, like recording with musicians in Cairo and Columbia, and in Lafayette, Louisiana, with Buckwheat Zydeco. So many people have said that, which is funny, because I try to make every record a departure. ![]() Libre grabbed our attention for being a departure.
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