Jesse Cook to Play Smothers Theatre Next Month

Nuevo flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook brings his signature sound to Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre on Tuesday, January 27 at 8 p.m.

Tickets, priced starting at $20 for the public and $10 for full-time Pepperdine students, are available now by calling (310) 506-4522 or online at http://arts.pepperdine.edu/. More information: http://www.jessecook.com/.

Canadian guitarist, composer, and producer Jesse Cook is widely considered one of the most influential figures in "nuevo flamenco" music, incorporating elements of flamenco rumba, jazz, and many forms of world music into his work. His accolades include a Juno Award, Acoustic Guitar's Player's Choice Silver Award, and the Canadian Smooth Jazz Award for Guitarist of the Year three times.

At a young age, Jesse Cook studied at the Eli Kassner Guitar Academy in Canada. While still a teenager, he frequently visited his father in Arles, France, where Cook became increasingly fascinated by the rhythmic, flamenco-rumba approach to guitar known as "Camargue sound" that could be heard on many street corners in town.

Cook continued to study at Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music, York University, and Berklee College of Music. The 1995 Catalina Jazz Festival was a turning point in his career. Her performances in the little bar downstairs from the main stage was so appreciated that he was invited to perform on the main stage itself, where he received a ten-minute standing ovation before the audience would allow him to play. Shortly afterwards, his debut album Tempest entered the American Billboard charts at #14.

Cook has recorded eight studio albums, three live DVDs and has traveled the world exploring musical traditions that he has blended into his style of rumba flamenco. In addition to headlining concerts and festivals, he has opened for such legends as B.B. King, Ray Charles and Diana Krall. He has performed with Welsh soprano Charlotte Church on The Tonight Show, toured with legendary Irish band, The Chieftains, and performed or recorded with dozens of exemplary artists from around the world. His music has been featured on several episodes of Sex and The City and several Olympic Games. His concert television specials Jesse Cook, Live in Concert (2012) and Jesse Cook, Live at Bathurst Street Theatre (2013) were on PBS and Public Television Networks in the United States.

Cook's live shows feature his five-piece band of multi-instrumentalists, and the night usually ends with the audience dancing. Cook says of his musical mission: "I like people to go on a journey, to get lost in the music. This music is not for everyone, but for the people who do get it, I hope they feel enriched by it."

This performance is sponsored by the Flamminio Family.

The Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts at Pepperdine University provides high-quality activities for over 50,000 people from 664 zip codes annually through performances, rehearsals, museum exhibitions, and master classes. Located on Pepperdine's breathtaking Malibu campus overlooking the Pacific, the center serves as a hub for the arts, uniquely linking professional guest artists with Pepperdine students as well as patrons from surrounding Southern California communities. Facilities include the 450-seat Smothers Theatre, the 118-seat Raitt Recital Hall, the "black box" Helen E. Lindhurst Theatre, and the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art

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