Passion player Jesse Cook

By EMILY WATT

Flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook inspires acts of passion. His steamy flamenco music, described by one reviewer as "make-out music", is the stuff of wild affairs and saucy seductions.

Such is its impact that some people can't resist telling him about it. "People will often come up to you after shows and tell you all sorts of personal things about their sex lives or whatever, which I really don't want to know," he says.

"I try to tell people, 'Please, that's your personal information. Thank you, but you don't need to share'. Maybe it has that effect - that's great, but that's their business."

His gentle laugh and amiable Canadian inflection are a far cry from the wild passions of Spain, but tomorrow night he will show Aucklanders that his nimble-fingered flamenco is enough to set pulses racing.

This is Cook's first time in New Zealand, although he is no fledgling musician. He has recorded four albums with such peppy titles as Tempest, Vertigo, Gravity, and Free Fall, which have sold about a million copies around the world.

"I feel like I'm a little late in this - you know, this is my fifth CD and I'm coming to Australia and New Zealand for the first time. It's kind of crazy but you know, better late than never."

Although he's never been here, his legend has reached our shores and he receives fan mail from Kiwis in awe of his flying fingers.

He even has some Aotearoa art hanging on his wall from a young aspiring McCahon who sent a portrait of Cook playing the guitar in a field with a butterfly.

There's another connection - he recorded a rumba-style cover of the Crowded House ballad Fall At Your Feet for his last album, which propelled him to the top-20 in Canada's pop charts for three months. He's a Finn brothers fan.

"There's something about those guys - they know how to write terrific songs, and they arrange them in a simple way that cuts right through. It's a beautiful song, it's undeniable. It has that enduring quality that great music has."

His trip here is part of a world tour, which will take in the US, Canada, Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong to promote his fifth album, Nomad.

It makes sense to be touring the world with this album. On what was described as an "epic musical odyssey", Cook travelled the world with air miles and a laptop computer recording guest artists in places as diverse as Cairo, Madrid, London, and across the US.

The result is a jambalaya of sounds, but the thread that weaves it all together is Cook's impressive digitary pyrotechnics, a style of playing described loosely as rumba flamenco.

Cook began classical guitar lessons in his native Toronto at age 6, but when he discovered improvisational music he was hooked.

He attended the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada and later Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music, practising for up to 10 hours a day. He still aims for four to five hours' daily practice, but his touring and recording schedule makes it difficult to fit in the time.

"A big part of practising is trying to make sure you keep evolving as a player - it's quite easy to end up just going over the same material and plateauing. I think music is kind of infinite in that sense. You never feel like, 'Oh, I've arrived, that's it. I know all there is to know'. It keeps you humble."

Whether it's continually striving to improve or a natural modesty, Cook is self-effacing. While his long, flowing locks and chisel-jawed good looks have earned him legions of fans whose enthusiasm can get "a little strange at times", he says he doesn't expect to reach super-star status.

"My music is a little off the beaten path. It's never sort of 'hip' music. It's not like the Backstreet Boys or something like that. I have to be realistic. I'm a rumba flamenco guitarist, it's always going to be slightly esoteric."

Esoteric or not, his show promises to be impassioned. "There's nothing really subtle about flamenco - there's no kind of grey, cooled-down flamenco. It's all black and white. It really digs in and grabs you by the heart right away. What draws me to flamenco is that it's just so passionate."

He hopes the audience will get up and dance. "Usually, we just encourage people to have a rumba party with us." Just don't tell him about your bedroom antics afterwards.

Performance

* Who: Jesse Cook

* When: tomorrow night

* Where: Sky City Theatre