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Alex played a concert in Antwerp, Belgium, with some of the best Belgian musicians as a backing band; Mauro Pawlowski on guitar, Pascal Deweze on bass and Karel Debacker on drums. They had never played together before, and just spent a couple of hours, the day of the concert, rehearsing and reading the charts Alex had written for each instrument on each song. This was an experience Alex had been talking about for quite a while; instead of flying a band from the States, which was complicated , expensive, and sometimes boring after a few days of being constantly together, he thought it would be interesting playing with different musicians every night, local people who could play and read his music. His purpose was not, like some old rockn'rollers, to pick up the cheapest local guys in order to take all the money, but to have the opportunity to male a different concert every night, and discover as many talented people as possible. Of course, it was risky ; you never know until you are on stage if it is going to work. But is is also exciting and stimulating, especially when, after just a couple of hours, the band sounds like if they had been playing together fo years. This is what happened on January 30th.Alex was so pleased and had so much fun playing with these great Belgian musicians, that he decided it should be an album, his first real live album . A bootleg live album had been released from a London concert in 1982 which he always despised. On this Belgian night, he was at his best, paying tribute to his favourite soul music artits, Ernie K does, Wilson Pickett, Frederic Knight, Johnny Guitar Watson among others, and revisiting his own classics, "Bangkok" and "In the streets". He does not just cover songs he likes ; he re-invents them with his unique guitar playing, his relaxed but powerful singing. He is one of the few still active rock artists who have this unique gift which puts them above the rest: class. Enjoy.  |
