Cameron Wilson & The Wahs Play Cream

The Wahs play Cream 

Cameron Wilson in his living room


In my 77 years music has surrounded me in one way or another. As a little boy in Buenos Aires my mother and I would hop on tram 35 to go downtown to my grandmother’s flat. Waiting for us would be my Uncle Tony (a fine tenor) and my Aunt Dolly (a not very good violinist). My mother would sit on the piano and begin with Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. They would then take out 40s American song music sheets and they would sing. My grandmother had a beautiful coloratura voice.

I was raised listening to Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Grieg and Rachmaninoff. By the late 50 I became interested in jazz when I discovered Miles Davis and the Dave Brubeck Quartet. By 1962 I was crazy for bossa nova after I heard Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd’s Jazz Samba.

But something else happened to me which fundamentally changed my musical tastes and made them more eclectic but also broadened my horizons.

I read about composer and French hornist Gunther Schuller who in the late 50s introduced the idea that he called Third Stream Music. I was blown away by a piece, from their 1960 recording Third Stream Music from the Modern Jazz Quartet with guests and the Beaux Arts String Quartet. The piece called Sketch is one that I put on my stereo with frequency and listen to it loud.

I am not a musician. In high school I was an efficient alto sax player in the school band. I sort of learned to read music. And that was that.

It has been in Vancouver where after having discovered baroque music played in old Mexico City churches in the early 60s and 20^th century music, at the same time, at the University of Mexico, that I realized the varied musical institutions of what some call (dead wrong) “No Fun Vancouver”. Thanks to the Early Music Vancouver, the Turning Point Ensemble, and the New Music Festivals sponsored by the Vancouver Symphony I do not have to listen to Beethoven all the time. Even Vancouver Opera has had the odd strange but wonderful opera samplings including a Mozart opera, the Magic Flute with Native Canadian costumes and sets.

All the above is but a preview for the real reason for this blog. This is to mention my friend, violinist Cameron Wilson who refuses to sit on the glory of what he has done and manages to surprise me and excite me all the time. He has been a high point for these weeks of Vancouver lockdown.

Quite a few years ago he composed (people forget Wilson is a composer) a work for the Vancouver Philharmonic inspired and based on a Pablo Neruda poem. I hope we will be able to hear it again. I was present at its only performance.

Many of the musicians who play for Turning Point Ensemble play for other orchestras including the Vancouver Symphony. But I believe they get bored with the conventional and accepted programming that is mostly works from the 19^th century. But this is not only the case for that century. I know of many musicians of the baroque who have played more Messiahs and Vivaldi Four Seasons that they want to remember. That is why Early Music Vancouver has been parading concerts featuring 17^th century, pre Bach composers. Some have never been played in Vancouver and they end up being old “new” music.

Cameron Wilson and pianist Allen Stiles have twice in the last few years produced, and played with many musical guests, a wonderful interpretation of the Beatles White Album. Their Joe Trio plays often in homes and the programs might feature Piazzolla, rock and odd pieces by 19^th century composers.

With this lockdown, Wilson has been performing from his living room, solo violin interpretations of music that is definitely not to be heard at the opera or a concert hall.

But this latest example has made me smile and then laugh with glee. We are lucky in Vancouver to have the likes of Cameron Wilson – violinist.

The Wahs play Cream 

Cameron Wilson in his living room