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Stories   >   Jesse Cook conjures modern day Constantinople on 'One World' / JazzCorner.com

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Jesse Cook conjures modern day Constantinople on 'One World' / JazzCorner.com

Posted: August 28, 2015

Constantinople, the ancient melting pot mecca intersecting Europe, India, Middle East and Africa, serves as the inspiration for the adventurous sonic explorations of "One World," the ninth studio album from world music guitarist Jesse Cook. Joining primal instrumentation from all over the globe with rhythmic loops, textured audioscapes and technological experimentation, Cook's eOne Music release, which debuted at No. 1 on the jazz and world music charts in the Canadian's homeland, will receive it's official U.S. release on October 2 tied to the launch of the first leg of the American "One World" concert tour, scheduled to play 18 cities this fall beginning October 7 in Tucson, Arizona. Riding off to radio stations early next month is the exotic call-and-response frolic "Taxi Brazil." 

Juno Award winner and 11-time nominee Cook composed and produced "One World," an aural journey showcasing the Paris-born, Toronto-reared artist's cultured cornucopia of rumba, flamenco, jazz, gypsy, pop and classical guitar parlance, rife with runs and riffs demonstrating dazzlingly dexterity. Strumming and plucking mystic melodies, evocative harmonies and contemplative meditations, Cook places his guitar on "One World" amidst carefully-crafted instrumental beds that just may be the most experimental of his career. He incorporated more modern technology to create interesting beats and inventive sounds, placing them side by side with traditional instruments that have been around for centuries. 

"One could imagine musicians from all over the world meeting in a marketplace in Constantinople and the mad, beautiful music that would have ensued. What would that have sounded like?" Cook pondered. "I didn't want my crossroads to be limited to only traditional instruments; I wanted music from different time periods represented as well. Now you have ancient instruments like the Armenian duduk or the Arabic oud (the ancestor to the guitar), meeting record scratching, industrial textures, sample and loop technology. That is the world I wanted my guitar to venture through. I've always been interested in music technology, but on this record I gave it a wider scope."   READ THE FULL JazzCorner ARTICLE