I guess you know you’ve done it when you get an entry on Wikipedia. Ed Alleyne Johnson, violin busker and writer, now has his page, though not many people apart from violin enthusiasts know much about him. Here is a brief profile of who he is and why I consider him an “important” violinist. Why important? Because any artist who is original and trendsetter can be considered someone different and therefore special.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson hails from Liverpool but studied Fine Art at Oxford University, where he also played bass in a college band. He made his own electric violin, apparently carving it with a knife, on the kitchen table. He doesn’t stop there though, as he also modified an amp to run on rechargeable batteries and put together an effects pedal board that included a digital Loop Station. The result was that he was able to busk with a high level of professionalism wherever his fancy took him. However, calling Ed Alleyne-Johnson a busker is like calling a Stradivarius just a violin; it is, of course, but it is also much more. Selling albums while playing on street corners was part of the “act” and the Purple Electric Violin Concerto he wrote in 1982 has sold over 800,00 copies. If you do the maths for this, even at £10.00 a copy, you’d think he could stop busking and move on to a new way of showing off his skills.
The fact is that Ed Alleyne-Johnson loves busking and as such has played almost every major city in Europe, North America and Canada. This is his niche in music and he has uniquely built a true army of fans.
Between street tours, Ed has released a slew of albums. These are:
Purple Electric Violin Concerto 1992
Ultraviolet 1994 (my own personal favorite)
Fly before Dawn 1995 (written with his wife)
Purple Electric Violin Concerto 2 2001
Echoes 2005
Reflections 2006
Arpeggio 2011
To me, the reason this artist is special is because he has spawned a lot of copycat street musicians trying to copy his formula for success. Because he uses a very sophisticated loop station, he allows you to lay down layer after layer of violin “riffs” and build a song right in front of your audience of high street shoppers and passers-by. There may be better players on the streets now, but he was one of the first, if not the first, and this marks him as an innovator.
Apart from the above; Ed Alleyne-Johnson has toured with the Tube-Way Army and appeared on the popular TV show “Later” with Jools Holland. Let’s hope he continues to tour as seeing him perform live is a great experience.