Jesse Cook — the multi-Platinum/Gold award-winning and internationally acclaimed producer, composer, and guitarist — has announced this 11th studio album, Libre.
The 10-track Libre combines Cook’s iconic Spanish guitar flair with Algerian multi-instrumentalist Fethi Nadjem, modern trap rhythms and 808 beats. “I wrote and recorded Libre during the pandemic when, like most people, I was longing for freedom,” Cook shares of the new project. “My music was my escape from the four walls that surrounded me, and the storm that was swirling outside.”
Autor: Jarek Pępkowski
Autor: Jarek Pępkowski
The inspiration for Libre came from a long summer-day drive with his 14-year old, Cook reveals. “My daughter entertained me with her favorite playlists, much of which were trap and 808-inspired. I loved them too, and a question was planted in my mind: ‘what would my music sound like mixed with those sounds?’”
He wasn’t short on material to draw from; it’s been more than 25 years since the internationally-lauded virtuoso first stepped onto the scene with his now-iconic release, Tempest. In the time since, he’s come to hold ten Gold and Platinum studio albums with a combined sales of 2+ Million copies, five concert DVDs and live discs, five PBS specials, and multiple awards — a JUNO win, 11 nominations, three Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards, a Gemini, and an Acoustic Guitar Magazine Player’s Choice Silver Award.
The digital convergence of the past several years has also resulted in Cook’s music streamed in rather impressive numbers across a series of platforms; by September 2021, his Spotify stats had surpassed 55+ Million, and plays on Pandora soaring beyond the 300+ Million milestone. YouTube’s universally visual appeal has also grown steadily for Cook’s connection with audiences, with his channel accumulating upwards of 25+ Million views since 2010.
It was this ready-set relationship online with his legions of fans worldwide that inspired Cook through the unexpected over the course of the past 18 months. With gear cases locked and loaded, about to set off on a national 25-date tour marking Tempest’s monumental anniversary just as COVID-19 shuttered stages, and beyond, Cook made use of the time since through a series of creative experiments — including re-visiting hits like “Wednesday Night at Etric’s, “Tempest,” and more — unveiling them in relative real-time across his social profiles.
But while it may sound like a new style for both long-time fans and those newly gathered across Cook’s thousands of concerts and millions of livestream views the world-over, reconnecting with an 808 sound takes Cooks all the way back to his beginnings.
“I was in Grade 10 when the Roland TR808 drum machine was first released,” Cook says. “I remember pooling my money together with friends in order to rent one for our mad basement recording sessions. We were spellbound; all of its drum sounds were made by an on-board analogue synthesizer, which gave it this other-worldly quality.”
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