Alan began in the state of Oaxaca collaborating with the traditional Wind/Brass Bands, which gave him an important and unique experience of community artistic values, of cohesion with the environment, of commitment not only with an art, but with a geography.
He is a human being with an incessant desire to find his place in the world through his saxophone, an artist who is in constant search of his own expressiveness and through it, to make visible his culture, his roots, his identity, highlighting the importance of the coexistence of languages from different backgrounds and from two different countries (Mexico and the United States) that come together through music.
The character of the compositions and arrangements that were worked on in the final stage of his studies were very interesting and original, as Alan is an energetic saxophonist when improvising, who is not afraid to navigate structures, rhythms and harmonies, who is very attentive to the interplay of his colleagues and who reacts in different ways (some expected and others unexpected) but which lead to unlimited creativity and provoke the novelty, giving birth to a new path.
Thus, in the artistic project he made an effort to bring his own personality to the surface, an active, energetic, daring personality, impregnated with the colors of jazz, but also with his early experience with the sounds of the traditional Oaxacan tradition of the southeast of Mexico, which he sought and took genuine care to represent. The result was a well organized concert, unique, with many colors, faithful to the language of Jazz but also faithful to its identity, which made him get the highest passing grade.
Alan Villanueva is undoubtedly one of Mexico's brightest new saxophone talents, and he is transmitting abroad a great desire to know those places where historically the great Jazz movements have been born, not only to learn, but also to share, to expose and upon his return, to enrich the music in Mexico through the saxophone and Jazz.
HONORS/AWARDS
2023 Grammy for Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano) for the album “Un canto por Mexico – El Musical” by Natalia Lafourcade, in which I recorded saxophones.
2022 1st place in the Latin American Saxophone Competition SER, in the Jazz category "Melissa Aldana.”
2020 1st place in the National Jazz Competition, Saxophone (Mexico).
2018 1st place in the X Pan-American Saxophone Jazz Competition held within the framework of the XVII International University Saxophone Meeting (Mexico).
2017 2nd place in the IX Pan-American Saxophone Jazz Competition held within the framework of the XVI International University Saxophone Encounter. (Mexico).
