Having two reference marks is mandatory for anyone, and if
such references have influenced an overabundant number of musicians, then it
becomes practically inevitable. So, we may as well take references by wits,
understanding the innovations, the techniques, un-framing them and taking them
as our own, to achieve an evolution that is the personal goal of a growth we can
aim to, if we have the talent and the will to improve and to confront. And an
incredible young talent such as Alex
Milella, doesn't
surely lack all of this. Being able to play practically anything on his guitar,
he has released a first album 
(Light Shades) that, in a straightforward
and sincere way, shows a tribute to his myths, who are Scott Henderson and Allan
Holdsworth, leaving anyway a wide space to his "guitarism" and to his
compositive vein still thick with a very effective originality. Listening to him
play his very smooth licks, gives to us a good hope that we are dealing with a
musician who can aspire with ease to his prestigious personal
goal.
A.A.: Alex, how did
you decide to become a guitarist?
A.M.: at the age of four I used
to strum on the organ I had at home, playing the songs I knew from the
commercials. My parents, noticing my natural bent for the music decided to make
me study the piano. Unfortunately then, a bad teaching made me hate the piano
and so at the age of ten I decided to quit studying. Two years later, thanks to
my cousin, I started to listen and enjoy bands like Dire Straits and Pink Floyd,
being amazed by what and instrument like guitar could create in that context.
And so I started studying guitar.
A.A.: Scott Henderson, Allan Holdsworth, but also Robben Ford
and John Scofield… your hands touch the guitar inspired by such guitarists.
Which was your teaching route, and when did you meet the styles of these great
guitarists?
A.M.:
everything began when, after
having an indigestion from rock, I read in a musical magazine bad reviews about
guitarists like Malmsteen, and acclaims to musicians like Allan
Holdsworth (who was a perfect stranger to me by then); the funny thing
is that the author of these judgements was one of my favourite guitarists of
that time: Gary Moore. And it's not all, I hear good words about Allan
Holdsworth also by Umberto Fiorentino who impressed me so much and that I
had just met at the mid eighties (still now I have a deep esteem for him and I
think he's one of the best international musicians). So I decided to buy my
first Allan Holdsworth record, and… it was a shock. Still some times before I
felt the need to deepen my knowledge, but after hearing Mr. Holdsworth this
impulse became a learning frenzy. From that day, I started listening to
musicians from John Coltrane to Michael
Brecker, from Charlie Parker to Miles Davis, from
Bill Evans to Chick
Corea, from Wes Montgomery to John Scofield and Scott
Henderson, always more and more, but not just listening, also tabbing down
everything I could… when I was a student there weren't such things as
educational videos or sheet music with transcriptions… and forget the Internet!
Everything was written down by myself and all of that helped me mostly to train
my ear! Since a couple of years now I enjoy also playing tunes by Robben Ford
and Steve Ray Vaughan… what guys they are!
A.A.: are there any musicians that you dream to play together
with?
A.M.: sincerely I would have loved to play with
John Coltrane; being part of Miles Davis' line-up from the
"Bitches Brew" time going on. Today I would really love to play with Gary
Willis, Chad Wackerman, Marcus Miller… I would also like to play
somehow with Steve Kahn, maybe a duet…
A.A.: you've been reviewed very well also on the American All
About Jazz…
A.M.:
I'm really very flattered about
the way my record is having positive replies mostly on international level; I'm
very happy about the way John Kelman appreciated my record "Light Shades"
reviewing it on All About Jazz USA; then John W. Patterson included my record in
the playlist of his on-line radio Eer-music.com; also Len Davis from Australia,
who has been involved with Fusion since twenty-five years, included me into the
playlist of his radio www.bitches-brew.com; there are news even from Jakarta,
Germany and Japan.
A.A.: have you ever thought of America? Do you think that it's
important today trying to be listened to in America?
A.M.: it is not indispensable being listened to in America, but it is
indispensable being listened to in many parts of the world. It is obvious that
in America the market is so wide that it can give some space even to those
minorities that here in Italy, for a matter of numbers, would die, or would
hardly exist; but it is interesting also addressing to some parts of the world
that haven't been "colonized" yet… do they still exist? Anyway, even Americans
paradoxically dream to come here to Europe, just the way we dream to play in
America.
A.A.: what line-up do you prefer
A.M.: it depends on what do I want to play: if I fancy to play in a more
powerful way, I choose a more complete line-up at the sound level like the
quintet (drums, bass, synth, sax and guitar), if on the other side I fancy to be
more introspective I prefer a quieter band (drums, bass, guitar, and maybe I add
just one wind instrument).
A.A.: you also sing, which is not easy while you play a guitar
solo. Some masters are George Benson, Robben Ford, the lamented Stevie Ray
Vaughan, obviously Jimi Hendrix… Are you planning to use the voice in a next
project?
A.M.:
using the voice while you play and
improvise it's a more aware way to express oneself; many musicians use the voice
not really like a proper instrument but as a mean through which they can connect
mind heart and hands to express better their musical concept; while other, since
they are more tuneful, 
take advantage of their voice like a second
instrument. In other words all the greatest improvisers play their phrases
simultaneously with their voice and with their instrument; those who cannot sing
just utter some sounds, while the tuneful ones literally double the same notes
played by the instrument… as if they were playing two of them! Sometimes even I
use the voice like a second instrument because I always used to sing since I was
a kid, but officially I am a guitarist and so I don't think I will use the voice
in my next record as a "main" instrument, but I would like to bring it close to
the guitar and… time discloses all things.
A.A.: have you ever thought of "betraying" your
instrument?
A.M.:
No, never. I am a convinced
monogamist because my idea is that it's quite hard living an intense path with
your own instrument; in fact for me it's difficult staying far from the guitar
for more than two days. Only when I compose I use the piano and the
computer.
A.A.: is there "energy" among your pupils? I mean, do you see
new lymph, a right approach, devotion, will to study and making
it?
A.M.: it's very hard today, in a world that is full
of inputs that are all but artistic and based only on the way you look, for a
boy to be involved with music in such a deep way as it happened to me. By saying
this I don't mean that there aren't motivated boys, but the study of an
instrument and of music it's a serious matter and demands a lot of sacrifice and
devotion, that is why there are very few of those who are willing to do it;
among the many pupils I've had in these years I've been able to find out only in
very few of them the same real interest that I had, when I was a teenager, in
the study of the instrument.
A.A.: what excites you more when you listen to a
guitarist?
A.M.:
his feeling, his timing, and his
harmonic-melodic approach; I like those who are less mannerist and more
experimentalist.
A.A.: the last innovator of the guitar as an
instrument…
A.M.:
Allan Holdsworth for sure
in these last thirty years… I also like Wayne Krantz very much and Kurt
Rosenwinkel as a composer.
A.A.: three records to save from the end of the
world…
A.M.: "Giant
Steps" by John Coltrane because he really invented something,
that "Coltrane Change" of his, also called the "Magic Triangle", has really set
the path to the future. "Bitches Brew" by
Miles Davis because it was the record of the break-up of the border
between rock and jazz, who gave life to the first real fusion between
sound/energy and harmony/improvisation, which later would have been called
"Fusion". The last record that I would save is "Secrets", first because it was
the Allan Holdsworth record that electrified me, and then because it has so much
teaching material inside that any musician, and much more a guitarist, should
desire it… but honestly I would save much more records.
A.A.: three books…
A.M.: I
would surely save Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" because throughout the great
travel, Inferno, Purgatory, and Heaven, the human and the divine meet themselves
in an apotheosis so unique and unrepeated in the universal literature. "Madame
Bovary" by Flaubert because it's the first novel where romanticism melts with
realism in the way of the "scientific method"; it's a work of the XIX Century
but it was a novel of great breaking with the past. The third book I would save
is "The Lord of the Rings" by Tolkien; the lands, the characters and the
atmospheres are all immersed in a timeless world where the fight between good
and evil is certainly current, making this masterpiece absolutely
modern.
A.A.: which are your upcoming projects?
A.M.: to consolidate this record and to experiment and to innovate with the
next one.
A.A.: do you have any regrets?
A.M.: I would say I don't.
A.A.: who would you like to thank?
A.M.: first of all my mate who always sustained and supported me… having
someone who believes in you and never hinders you, and creates the right mood of
calmness and tranquillity it's really vital for me. The musicians who made my
project alive: Giuseppe Berlen, Pierluigi
Balducci, Luca Cacucciolo, Michele Carrabba, Davide
Santorsola, Beppe Sequestro and Roberta Carrieri. Mimmo
Campanale, my godfather, the one who made possible the contact with
Lino Nicolosi of the NbM label. Lino Nicolosi for his professionalism.
The Losavio brothers for their continuous support by opening for me the
path to this beautiful moment. Ernesto for my first beautiful review and
Marco for helping me so much and including me in what I really regard as
the first Italian portal of jazz reference: jazzitalia.net. Steve
Khan, a very good musician, a very good teacher, and exquisite
person because he was able to give me the good advices. Alceste Ayroldi for the
mutual esteem. Rino Liuzzi and the guys of "Jazz, Fusion e Dintorni" for
the hospitality and kindness. Fabrizio Dadò, Maurizio Parri and
Gianluca Russo of the "mythic" guitar magazine "AXE" that for years
has been educating and helping the path of so many Italian guitarists… if not
all of them. John Kelmar for the beautiful words written on "All About
Jazz USA". Rossella Favia for the beautiful pictures and the website
along with Alessandro Turi. Guido Di
Leone and the music school "Il Pentagramma". And finally I thank all
those who believe in me, because without them all of this would have never been
accomplished.
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Publishing Date: 30/06/2005
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