Transcendent, gorgeous music, with inspiration found throughout the world, Jesse Cook and company gave a fabulous performance last night at Rockport’s Shalin Liu. Often described as new flamenco, Jesse’s music blends rhumba rhythms, jazz, Arabic music, traditional flamenco, and much, much more.

Currently touring with Jesse are Fethi Nadjem on violin, Matt Sellick on guitar, Matias Recharte on drums, and Dan Minchom on bass.

We met BJ in the lobby during intermission. He operated the cameras for the concert film that chronicles the “Beyond Borders” tour, currently playing on PBS. I asked BJ what was the filmmaking process. He shares that nine cameras were set up nightly during the 31 day coast to coast tour of Canada. In addition, he used a hand held camera to maneuver around the stage. A different song was recorded each night in each different city. By the end of the tour, they had generated 50 TBs of footage. Jesse edited the film and it is beyond beautiful!

It would be tremendous if when Jesse returns to Cape Ann, he can play several nights. The concert at the Shalin Liu quickly sold out and it would be great if more people, especially young people, had the opportunity to hear his music.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Marcy and Christopher Plante, who were sitting next to us with their friends. Chris Plante built the Shalin Liu and Marcy’s friend was wearing a pair of butterfly earrings 🙂