Exlusive Interview! Alex Wilson talks music, salsa and erm, buses…
You spend ages waiting for a bus then three come along at once. But this July, you won’t mind waiting, and waiting – in fact – heck, you’ll want to miss the bus. Get ready to be enthralled, entranced and transfixed as salsa dancers add some sexy Latino moves to the bus queue. Practise your shoulder shimmies on the number 36 and get on board: Destination? Salsa!
Havana is coming to Harrogate thanks to the Latin legend Alex Wilson – this year’s Artist-in-Residence at the Harrogate International Festival. Alex is something of a salsa phenomenon; he’s grooved out some serious rhythms and brought his deep salsa soul all over the world. And the salsa beat is definitely infectious.
But can the shy, retiring folk of Harrogate, a town known for its tea shops and flower borders really open itself up to the steamy, salsa scene?
“I’ve been everywhere – all over the UK and all over the world,” Alex said, speaking from his home in Switzerland, “and there’s always a salsa class wherever you go,” he laughed. “It’s an excuse, it’s almost like salsa gives you the permission to relax a bit and do partner dancing, which aside from very specialists areas has all but disappeared in England. So it’s a chance to dance with the opposite sex, have a bit of fun and enjoy some music and then go back to whatever you were doing before…you see the most unlikely people in salsa classes actually who are at times very good dancers, or who are there just purely enjoying themselves.”
He studied at York University but music has taken him around the globe via Sudan, Cuba, America, Istanbul, Lebanon and Jordan – in fact, over 50 countries. Alex has experienced the glamour – sipping champagne in the Ritz Carlton with Sting’s musicians in Germany – but he’s also experienced war-torn Sudan, witnessing how music really can break down barriers.
His work for the British Council has seen him deliver workshops across the UK and internationally. Why is he so committed to taking music around the world?
“It’s a two-way thing, I mean it’s a fantastic experience for me to go to another country and play, do a workshop, but also learn – I learn a lot – from the musicians that pop up at a gig or at workshops that are often steeped in their own traditions and I get to dip into all sorts of exciting music. But it’s also, it sounds a bit clichéd, but music does have a way of communicating or diffusing tension or letting people forget conflicts – at least temporarily.” Alex said. “I’ll give you an example, I went to Sudan for the British Council and as you know there are a lot of problems there with the civil war.”
Alex and his musicians held a workshop in north Sudan, but some southern Sudanese attended.
“We played in the ambassador’s garden and there was someone in the audience that was pointed out to me – a musician from northern Sudan – and he said he’d been fighting for jazz music for the last 20 years. You could see he was a serious musician, probably the only jazz musician in Sudan! Basically I invited him on the spur of the moment to come and sing with us and he did, and he did a duet with Cleveland Watkiss and it was fantastic. It was a great moment, and then I thought nothing of it. And then at the end some of the diplomats came up to us and said they couldn’t believe what we’d done because we’d got a northern Sudanese musician to perform on the same stage as a southern Sudanese, and in other parts of the country the two were at each others throats. So that’s just an example of the sort of thing that can happen.”
Alex is performing at several events during the Festival, including a world premiere of a piece for piano, kora and string commissioned especially for the Festival. Audiences will have a chance to watch him in an open rehearsal before he performs the piece at the majestic Royal Hall. What is the inspiration behind the piece
“It’s like the next chapter of my Mali Latino project,” Alex explained.
In 2009, Alex presented a new body of work Mali Latino; a project co-led by Malian virtuosi Madou Sidiki Diabaté on the kora and Ahmed Fofana on balafon. The music was then recorded at Peter Gabriel’s studios and mixed at Steve Winwood’s facilities.
“When the Festival approached me for ideas they expressed interest in the Malian music side of what I did, but I decided to just try and move a chapter on a bit. So the music I will write will be for string quartet, for kora, which is a West African harp, and it will be for piano. It will take the musical knowledge I learnt from playing with the Malians but perhaps just put it in a slightly less traditional Malian setting and mix it with Western classical elements and also my piano style – so I’m just sort of moving my Mali music concept on.”
As well as the World Premiere, Alex is delivering a very special salsa workshop with dancer Lee Knights who co-wrote the ‘salsa bible’ with Wilson: Find the Rhythm! The pair will explain the rhythms of music and salsa steps at 2.30pm in the Royal Hall on Friday 23 July, then that night you can put the theory into practice with Alex Wilson and his band, Salsatak.
“It explains for the non-musician the structure and make up of salsa and what actually goes on in a salsa band,” Alex explained. “So if people come along to that in the afternoon, then in the evening things will be a lot clearer, especially if they’re new to the music.”
It’s a fantastic chance for beginners to learn from the pros, and for impassioned salsa fans to experience a world-class Latin musician at work.
As a musician Alex is hard to categorise, classically trained, UK-born, he first became seduced by salsa after an exchange programme at the University of California. “We lived opposite some Latinos so there was salsa blaring out across the road quite a lot and that started to awaken me to that side of music. That was cemented when I moved down to London in ‘94, the salsa scene was quite strong then in London and there were quite a few big bands playing and first I went to go see them, then I ended up getting work with them and after that it sort of kicked off for me.”
His first experience of playing in Harrogate was when he participated in Yorkshire TV’s Young Jazz Player of the Year competition when he was still studying at York. So how does he feel about being back in Harrogate?
“I’m delighted to have been invited for this series of concerts in Harrogate – this is something special for me – it sort of marks in a way a new chapter in my career because I’ve had a few contracts like this recently where it’s more in a shape of a residency than a one off gig, so this series in Harrogate is very important to me and I’m thrilled to be invited”
It seems apt that Alex Wilson’s shows are being sponsored by TransDev who run the no 36 bus considering the importance of travel and transport in his life. How does he feel about potentially having his face on the back of a bus?
“Yeah sounds fantastic! I’ve made it!” Alex laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever had that before.”
He’s certainly spent enough time on trains, planes and automobiles.
But no matter how tied down you are to train or bus timetables, it’s always worth missing your routine, regular service now and then to try something new for a deeper experience in life. And salsa is certainly a way to plug into some sensational new rhythms. So what would he say to those people queuing at the bus stop to convince them to miss their bus and join in the salsa extravaganza in Harrogate this summer?
Alex laughed, “Well it’s such a punctual service I’m sure there’ll be another one along soon!”
Be transfixed by salsa this summer – book online at www.harrogate-festival.org.uk and keep an eye out online for more details of the salsa dancers, classes, DJs and after show parties that ensures Havana will truly be coming to Harrogate this summer…
To find out more about Alex, visit his website: http://www.alexwilson.ch/
For more about Alex Wilson’s Find the Rhythm book, go to: www.findtherhythm.com
To check out his documentary on the Mail Latino project visit: www.malilatino.com
