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Interview with Joe Davids - The Latin Collective |
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Written by JoJo
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Tuesday, 12 June 2007 |
How, why and when did you get into salsa?
I was never a big drinker after two of my uncles died of drink related illnesses. So the whole English “going down the pub” thing passed me by, but I loved Jazz music and I loved dancing. On my 25th birthday my friends took me along to the re-launch party of Salsa Palladium in London’s Leicester Sq. It had just been taken over by Salsoteca and I arrived just in time to start dancing. I hadn’t a clue what to do, but I have always been quick to learn steps so I did something resembling salsa and merengue through most of the night.
I was totally taken aback that very quickly I was being asked to dance by a number of different women without there being any sexual politics involved. It was excellent fun and I was hooked.
Who first taught you to dance salsa?
A friend called Roberto who I met at Uni about a year after my 25th birthday.
Did you have any dance training prior to salsa?
I had done a few lessons to learn the social dances like Waltz, Quickstep, Foxtrot etc in order to dance with my widowed mother and older sisters at family parties (they didn’t have any partners). But I picked it up very quickly and they wanted me to take things forward and think about competing, but I didn’t have the time.
Tell me a little about The Latin Collective/Latin8. When, why and how did you set it up?
Okay, honest answer, I had always been involved in DJing and club promotion since I was about 16 and through my friendship with a Mauritian family I had been involved in running New Years Eve events attended by some 3000-5000 people.
I had seen how things could be organised relatively well and then suddenly, when I got into the Latin Scene I saw what could only be called “car-crash” events. Poor sound, poor venues, poor line-ups, overpricing and a sheer disregard for the punters.
The last straw was when I went out to a concert with Nelson Batista who I had befriended at the time. We were both complaining and then he said the usual line “if you think you can do better then why don’t you”.
SO I DID! I formed LATIN8 Productions back in 1998 within about 7 months of starting to dance and within another 3 months we had already made some impact on the scene.
The main aim was always to create a dance and music scene filled with events that I would enjoy myself if I was a punter, and I believe that if you are true to yourself then this honesty and clarity of vision can only be rewarded. What promoters like Robert White and myself did around the same time was to apply a more professional approach to the running of salsa events. It doesn’t seem anything special nowadays, but you should have seen some of the mickey mouse things that were going on back then.
I guess the first thing that really got us noticed above the crowd was back in 1999 when we received a call from Sir Harvey Goldsmith, yes him off the telly and only THE WORLD’s MOST FAMOUS PROMOTER – LIVE AID etc. He wanted some help with promoting both Los Van Van and the legendary dancers of Club Tropicana and we came on board to choose the venue and the line-up. The Los Van Van concert was not the biggest one run in the scene up to that point, after all it was only 1200 people, but it was the first that really was run by dancers for dancers.
I still have the posters and copies of our Time Out ads. After that we knew that we had started out the way that we wanted to continue.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
The people who I see out dancing and enjoying themselves every night without getting totally sloshed or wanting to beat anyone up and, of course, the amazing variety of amazing music that our scene just keeps pumping out year on year.
Who do you admire?
In the scene, Eddie Torres for his amazing ability and his very generous and warm nature as a teacher and his ability to impart his knowledge to others. Julian “the Duke” for his ability to put up with a lot of crap that has happened to him over the years in this scene and still come out of it smiling.
Outside the scene, plenty of people who do really important and worthy things in life that we often ignore or are too busy to think about.
What’s your favourite track at the moment?
Two tracks actually – Alabanciosa by Conjunto Libre and Dance City on the album of the same name arranged by Eddie Torres and “his orchestra”.
What are your all time favourite tracks?
Too many great tracks to name, but I like Malaguena Salerosa by Eddie Palmieri and Rumba Caliente by Tipica 73. Another great fave is Chupa El Purili by Frankie Dante, it’s one of those tracks that makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.
What are your favourite albums?
You know, I have loads of fave tracks, but a lot of albums can be a waste of time.
What was the last CD you bought?
I get given loads of CD's for free as samplers. I guess the last one I bought Salsa wise was Across 110th St – SHO. Two days later I got 3 samples of that album in the post.
Mostly I buy plenty of legal downloads on-line. It saves on carriage costs, means that I can burn it to the format that I want and I am only going to store the originals away when I get them anyway.
What music is in your car/cd player/tape player at the moment?
I make my own compilations up from the music that I buy and I play a lot of mix tapes when it comes to Salsa. But I actually really like listening to progressive Jazz and Jazz Fusion. I have revisited a whole lot of stuff at the moment.
Right at this moment I have two CD's that I am switching between – the Nuyorican Soul album and The James Bond theme tune anthology - Shirley Bassey and Goldfinger belting out at 80mph sounds pretty damn good.
Who are your favourite artists?
Dancewise - Eddie Torres, Juan Matos & Fogarate, Hacha Y Machete and my good friend Orville Small (one of the most creative and straight forward guys you can meet).
Musicwise, I love loads of artists - Eddie Palmieri, Jose Alberto, Ruben Blades, SHO, Javier Vasquez, Jimmy Sabater – too many to name them all.
If I like them they get played a lot and the great thing with these guys (and girls like La India) is they have such an amazing catalogue of music.
If you were not a successful Promoter/Teacher/DJ, what would you be doing instead? Or if you also have a full-time job, what do you do?
After choosing not to progress with a training for the priesthood, I was on a path towards being a missionary worker, but this fell to the wayside due to financial pressures and instead I pursued my PhD in Medical chemistry.
After becoming disillusioned with the whole thing I spent 12 years running my own, very successful freelance computer consultancy firm and I only stopped this because of ill health and stress.
I am now in the best health I have been in and the most contented for years doing what I do now.
Tell me something most people wouldn’t know about you?
Okay, back when ‘O’ levels existed, I was one of the last students (literally) to do them. I was talented at art as well as generally academically, but my family and my school put pressure on me (along with about 4 other students) to take straight academic subjects so that the “poor” urban school I went to would be able to post up some good grades. But my art teacher threw a strop and said that I must take at least the art ‘O’ Level. My headmaster relented, especially when he was told that he might be presented with yet another high grade.
So, he said yes, but only if I only took the exam as I had no more time in my schedule and they had already removed PE from my timetable to allow me to fit in other subjects. I felt like a bit of a guinea pig, but they jiggled the exam schedule for me and a friend, and we just basically came in and did our artwork pieces (still life, life drawing, creative expression etc).
In the end, we both scored highly, but I actually got the highest “score” of anyone in the entire London exam board and I ended up with eight ‘A’ grades and three ‘B’ grades across my exams – which made them all happy.
What’s your all time favourite salsa club/event that you have played/taught/danced?
Our own SCALA nights take a lot of beating even if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, my work ethic/business policy and upbringing as host mean that I am not allowed to dance at my own events until everyone else is paid, the bills are paid and everyone seems happy. But then I often end up having to DJ the rest of the night and so I don’t often get to dance at my own events. So I like venues where I am not having to work or at least I have time to DJ afterwards.
For a feel good factor some of the venues that I have been to abroad like in Riga there is a great crowd for learning – really attentive and studious.
In Ireland the crowd attending Salsa School is up for some serious craic, similarly with the crowd in Belfast, and one of the friendliest crowds I have ever encountered was in Gothenburg. (Isn’t it sad that I only seem to get invited to cold places).
What has been your most memorable moment?
In salsa, spending 10 days driving Eddie Torres around the UK for his tour. That was great and it was a real privilege to get to know him so well and to learn so much from him, and about him.
Have you had any embarrassing/nightmare-ish moments in salsa?
Loads of pretty bad moments in Salsa (mostly involving politics and the other bullshit involved), but I don’t get embarrassed easily by anything. You just have to take everything in your stride, get your head down, do the graft/work hard and get on with things to the best of your ability.
Oh, actually, there is one moment to think of it. Back in 2003 I was pretty ill, I had just undergone surgery on my stomach back in 2002 and had put on a lot of weight and a few inches on my waist) as I was not able to exercise like I usually do. I was helping out a Pontins in Pakefield and was doing the music for Rohan Brown during one of his 3-some merengue classes. Rohan asked me to demonstrate a particularly risqué move with Cressida and another girl (basically I squatted on the floor whilst they leaned backwards and rested on my knees).
I did this and suddenly heard a tear as my shorts split. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I wasn’t going commando at the time. I quickly pulled my t-shirt off, wrapped it around my waist, made some lame excuse and ran to my chalet to change. I guess that that could have actually have been a lot more embarrassing.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Yes, I am currently single --- no, not really, I mean I am single, but you don’t need to add that.
www.latincollectiveuk.com
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