That Eric Alper

What do you do when you’re a world-renowned guitarist who’s sold more than 2 million records, won an entire mantel’s worth of awards, and toured relentlessly since the pandemic lockdowns were lifted? You add more dates, of course.

Nuevo Flamenco sensation Jesse Cook has just announced the spring 2025 leg of his “Jesse Cook in Concert” world tour, adding 15 shows that will take him to five Canadian provinces between February and April. The extension is the clerest testament yet to the unprecedented success of the tour, which started in 2024 and has been bringing the already wildly in-demand Cook to new markets and bigger venues than ever before. The freshly added dates are as follows:

Feb. 27 – Empire Theatre, Belleville, ON
Feb. 28 – Massey Hall, Toronto, ON
March 1 – Centre in the Square, Kitchener, ON
March 2 – National Arts Centre, Ottawa, ON
April 12 – The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts, Vancouver, BC
April 13 – Chilliwack Cultural Centre, Chilliwack, BC
April 14 – Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre, Vernon, BC
April 15 – Kelowna Community Theatre, Kelowna, BC
April 16 – Capitol Theatre, Nelson, BC
April 17 – Key City Theatre, Cranbrook, BC
April 19 – Red Deer Memorial Centre, Red Deer, AB
April 21 – Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton, AB
April 22 – Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, Calgary, AB
April 23 – Casino Regina, Regina, SK
April 24 – Burton Cummings Theatre, Winnipeg, MB

With sold out concerts in London, Munich Vienna, as well as a tour of Poland already under his belt and trips to France, the UK, and the United States on the immediate horizon, Cook will be firing on all cylinders by the time the 2025 Canadian shows roll around.

But he’s hardly kept his hand off the throttle since he resumed his post-covid live activity in 2022. His “Tempest” tour gave over 80 performances that year, selling more than 100,000 tickets and racking up an attendance rate of 80 percent—well above the industry standard. A five-page article in Guitar Player Magazine documented the phenomenon of posterity. The next year, his “Libre” tour visited 85 markets for 105 shows, with highlights including an invitation to participate in Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival of renowned guitarists in September 2023.

Over the past three decades, Cook has played thousands of concerts in dozens of countries. Some diehard fans have seen 20 or more shows. His 2004 live album, Montreal, was a huge hit in Poland—one of the more overt signs of his international reach. (Others have included hearing his music used to score the nightly news in Iraq and having another of his songs plagiarized for a major Bollywood movie. Then again, being a musical global citizen comes naturally to the Paris-born Cook, who’s lived everywhere from Barcelona to Toronto and whose hybrid music colors the traditional sounds of flamenco with classical, jazz, Zydeco, blues, and Brazilian samba.

“I’ve just always made the music that I love,” he says. “But if music can come from around the world and interconnect so beautifully to create this beautiful tapestry, maybe there’s something that music can teach us.”

He’s just as much of a phenomenon on record, with a discography of 14 releases that numbers 10 platinum and gold studio albums, many of which have reached the Top 10 of the U.S. Billboard Charts. A new album will be released in the beginning of 2025, previewed by a series of singles in fall 2024—bringing the anticipation for the spring 2025 Canadian shows to a fever pitch.

Over the course of his highly storied career, Cook has released five concert DVDs and live discs and appeared in five PBS specials. His music has been streamed online 750 million times, and his YouTube library comprises over 300 videos, including installments of a series called “Love in the Time of Covid” that he created from home during the pandemic. He uploaded one music video a week, with himself often playing all the instruments. The 31 videos in the series have amassed over 35 million views to date.

And it isn’t only the public that thinks Cook is tops: He’s earned the highest praise from his musical peers and industry tastemakers as well. He has a JUNO Award win and 11 nominations to his name, as well as three Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards, a Gemini Award and a Player’s Choice Silver Award from Acoustic Guitar Magazine.

It’s all been an unexpected ride for this almost-accidental guitar giant, who had no intention beyond working as a composer when he completed his musical education at the Royal Conservatory, York University and Berklee College. Then an Ontario cable TV company aired his music on their listings channel. “Their switchboard got flooded with calls,” he recalls. “People even got my number somehow and started phoning me at home and asking for a CD. And I was saying, ‘I don’t have a CD. I’m a background composer guy. I don’t make records.’

Now he sets them. His self-produced and -released debut, 1995’s Tempest, launched him to worldwide acclaim—a process that was only speeded by a breakthrough gig at the Catalina Jazz Festival, where his set netted him a 10-minute standing ovation and sparked mob scenes. “It was like being The Beatles,” he marvels.

Watch for similarly rapturous responses when the “Jesse Cook in Concert” tour sets its sights on Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba in 2025. Just don’t expect Cook to spoil the experience by giving it a name, because categorization isn’t how he rolls.

“What do I call my music? I never know how to answer that question,” he says. “Mostly I don’t care, as long as it touches people’s hearts.”