When you think of violin music, you generally don’t think of the jazz genre. That is until you hear Ken Ford. This Atlanta based electric violinist is making his mark in the smooth jazz and R&B world with his unique sound and electrifying performances. Smoothviews had the opportunity to chat with Ken and get to know his music a little better.

Smoothviews (SV): How would you describe your sound?
Ken Ford (KF): There’s not one word.  When I play, I give you a mixture of everything.  You can definitely hear my classical training background in my music, on top of whatever genre I’m doing; jazz, hip-hop, R&B, pop, and it’s all electrified.  There’s not one word, to be honest.  I cater to what the crowd wants.

SV: That’s the same word I used to describe your music, electrifying.  That’s what I thought after seeing you at Capital Jazz Fest last year.  You put on a really good show.  That was my first time seeing you perform.  I also saw you when you came out to Bowie, MD.
KF: You’ve seen me do what I do.

SV: I have.  And I’ve enjoyed it.  I bought the CD after that show, and the DVD a few weeks later.
KF: Oh wow!  I’m really impressed now.

SV: (Laugh) When I think about the sound of the violin, I think about country or classical.  I would imagine that it requires a bit of “out of the box” thinking for you to come up with what you do.  How did you get there?  How do you do that?
KF: When I was younger, of course I got teased, but what really helped me is this young man named Noah Corner.  He came out in the ‘70’s.  My Dad used to DJ.  He had a lot of jazz albums sitting around, and I just happened to see this guy’s picture on the album cover with a violin in his hand.  I wanted to know what that was all about.  Here I was, playing classical music on this violin, and I’m thinking, there’s got to be something else.  He was playing jazz on the violin.  That was one of the first things.  I didn’t know you could do that.  As I got older and I started to realize, I ran into a guy named David Robinson.  He had a youth orchestra, and still does.  He arranged music that you heard on the radio, but he made it fit for an orchestra to play.  He would take a Michael Jackson tune and arrange it for strings.  He made playing the violin fun.  That’s why I do workshops now, to make the violin fun.  These were the two people who influenced me the most.

SV: To come to that at an early age, I think, is interesting because you figure kids will gravitate towards the drums, or another instrument they perceive as being “cool.”
KF: Being an only child, you think about these kinds of things.  Maybe I was before my time, but my Dad used to always encourage me to keep playing and never quit.  [He said] one day you’re going to make a million dollars.  I’m still waiting on it Dad!  (Laugh) But you kind of believe those things.  I believed my parents.  That was all I had.  I just kept on with it.  It definitely was not easy.  There were so many times I wanted to quit.  It got to the point where I started discovering you can do other stuff with the violin.  I started enjoying it.  The kids started looking up to me because of it.  The tables turned, so to speak. 
SV: That leads to another question.  You said you had people that made you see how to play it in other ways, and made it interesting for you.  Do you do the same kind of thing; make the violin cool, fun, and interesting to kids? 
KF: Yes, I have a foundation that I’m launching this year; the Ken Ford Foundation, focusing and concentrating on music education, and keeping music in the schools.  I’m using my violin workshops.  One of them is called “Making the Violin Fun.”  I’m playing, I’m showing.  It’s a whole bunch of kids that play the violin, and kids that don’t play the violin.  I do shows in the park, so they see me. The kids are so mesmerized.  They had never seen anyone play the violin and actually make it cool; even when I do the college and high school shows.  They have a second thought.  They say, “I want to play the violin,” or, “I shouldn’t have quit,” or, “I think I want to take what I do and make it cool,” whether it’s the clarinet, because trust me, the violin wasn’t the only ‘not cool’ instrument. (Laugh)  Now the guy that’s playing the piano doesn’t feel so bad.  That’s what I want to do, to inspire young kids and say, hey, its okay.

SV: I have a nephew that plays trumpet.  He’s been playing for a couple of years now.  I’m not exactly sure whether he’s playing now because he wants to or because he has to.  I try to explain to him that there is more to the sound of the trumpet than what they teach in school.
KF: The thing with kids is that they have to see.  You can speak to them all day, but that doesn’t mean anything to them.  If they see someone else do it that speaks more volumes than anything.  That’s what happened with hip-hop.  That’s what happened with sports.  They see Michael Jordan and they want to be like Mike.  It’s about seeing.  That’s why I always encourage parents to get the DVD in addition to the CD.  Only seeing is believing for kids.  You can tell them about it, but until they see someone actually make it cool, it’s like, wow!  It’s cool. 

SV: I was reading your bio on your website.  You were an IT person before you became a professional musician.  To borrow a phrase from Oprah, what was your “aha!” moment?  What made you decide to leave the world of computer programming and become a pro?
KF: I didn’t sit down and say, what makes me the most happy?  I was paying bills.  I had to have a job.  My Mom said, “Always have a back-up.”  I ended up getting a degree in CIS [Computer Information Services.]  I actually enjoyed doing what I was doing.  I enjoyed programming and all of that stuff.  And, what’s cool about it is it played a part in me building my Ken Ford, Inc.  I didn’t have to hire anybody to do my IT work or my website. 

I was working with HP at the time.  I was going in at 7:00am and getting off at 4:00pm.  No matter what night it was, I would figure out where a jam session was going on.  I would go to the jam session and play.  I might have known only one or two songs, but I was there all night and I didn’t care.  I would still get to work the next morning.  I would always make time for what I loved to do. I eventually moved on from HP and started contracting.  I thought I was bad because now I’m more independent.   I’m contracting, I’ve got my own benefits, I’m making my own money, yeah!  But guess what?  My contract ran out.  My manager called me in his office.  He asked me if I wanted to renew.  I don’t know what made me say no.  Next thing you know, I’m driving home unemployed, but I’m not really stressing.  I was in a field that was very lucrative, meaning, it wasn’t hard to get a job in the IT field at that time.  I don’t know what the deal is now, but I wasn’t really stressing.  I get home.  I tell my wife, ‘Guess what?  I’m unemployed.’  She said, “Why aren’t you playing your violin fulltime?”  Actually, it was my wife who put that thought in my head and said, “Don’t worry about us.  We have more faith in you than you have in yourself to play your violin.”(She was talking about the kids.)  It was at that moment I decided I was going to be the best violinist I could be.

SV: That’s great.  That also leads to another question.  You have all this amazing support from your family, first, from your parents, and then, from your wife and children.  How do you think things would have been different without that support?
KF: We probably would not be together.  I’m the type of person, and she can tell you this, I’m going to do what I love.  I’m not going to sacrifice and say I won’t play the violin, that I’ll go ahead and be this programmer and be unhappy, but at least I’m taking care of the bills and everything.  But, I’m unhappy.  What’s funny is I thought that taking care of the bills would be the number one problem.  That’s what most people think when they’re about to branch out and do their own thing.  I surpassed my salary in two months doing what I love to do.  I had to hit myself in the head and ask myself what in the world was I waiting for to play the violin?  If you just let go of the small money and focus on what you love, and have a little bit of faith, just a little bit of the faith of a mustard seed, He’s going to take care of the rest. 

SV: That’s amazing.  And you’re right.  The number one thing people are concerned about whether they lose their job or change their job is money.  That’s what people stress over the most.  So, was this meant to be?
KF: Yes, it was all meant to be.  And yes, you do need that support.  That’s what it’s really all about.  You need someone supporting what you love, and you supporting what they love.  If not, you are going in two different directions very fast. 

SV: You have three CD’s out, plus a DVD out.  Right Now is the current release.  I’d like to talk a little bit about that.  I actually have it playing.  I’ve found that if I play the CD of the person while I’m interviewing them, it creates a better vibe for me.  We’re on track six right now.
KF: “My Number One.”

SV: Yes it is.  That was a test.  You pass. (Laugh)  When you played in Bowie, you told the audience that Butter was your nickname, and that’s why you named track seven “Butter.”
KF: Yes, I remember that show.  Why was I telling all my business?  (Laugh)  The way the song came about was, I was sitting on the sofa at my engineer’s house in the basement, where we actually cut the whole CD anyway; Joey Sommerville, producer and engineer.  We had been working on one song and we were taking a break, so it was one of those in between moments.  I still had my violin in my hand and I started playing [a melody.]   Joey said, “OMG!  Stop!  We need to record that right now.”  We weren’t even working on anything like that.  I was just being myself.  I was just being Butter. (Laugh)

SV: Does that happen a lot, where you’re just messing around and then a song comes out of that?
KF: I can tell you that there are a lot of songs we did like that.  Another one, track three, “When I Get Home,” is really interesting because we were trying to come up with a slow, [sexy] song.  We said we just need something that will make the woman want to take her clothes off.  We were just guys being guys.  We need that song. 

SV: Wait a minute.  I’m backing up to track three right now. (Laugh)
KF: So there you have it, the insight on one of the tracks.

SV: Well how about that? (Laugh)  That’s funny actually.  I’m not sure if I remember it correctly, but did you say “Yes We Can” was inspired by President Obama? 
KF: That was one of the last songs we recorded and it was right at the time that Obama was becoming President.  We wanted something to represent that time period, to capture that, because it was right now, at that time.  That’s how we came up with that.  Actually, if you listen to [the melody of that song] it actually says that, “yes, yes, yes, yes we can.”

SV: I’ll have to go back and listen for that…after I get through track three, of course.  (Laugh)
KF: Yes, you’ve got to get through track three first. (Laugh)

SV: And you close the CD with “Moments in Love.”  That’s your signature song, isn’t it?  That’s the one everyone wants to hear.  You can’t leave the stage without playing it.
KF: Exactly.  Everyone wants to hear that song.  I’ll get booed if I leave the stage without playing that song.  The reason I put that on there is because of the demand.  It’s on my previous CD, but it’s a regular recorded version of it.  People heard it and liked it, but they want the version we play in concert, so I decided I’m going to record it live on my next CD.  That was actually live in the studio with the whole band.  We played it with the same, original cast that I play it with when I’m at a show.  That’s what I did there.

SV: I have one more question and then we can wrap this up.  What’s coming up for you?  What’s in your future?
KF:  My foundation is my most important thing right now.  It’s the Ken Ford foundation, which I’m going to concentrate on music education and keeping music in the schools.  I’m going to do after school workshops and streaming workshops.  My long-term goal from that is to have a Ken Ford School of Music right here in Atlanta, similar to NY [Julliard] or Berklee.  I’m trying to do that same thing right here in Atlanta.  Besides that, I’m doing more shows and getting out of the country.  I’m going to South Africa in October and Brazil after that.  I’m getting more international.  I want to go to Japan and just spread the inspiration.  I’ve found my purpose and so it’s time for me to spread it to the world.  That’s where I am now.

SV: That’s a good way to wrap up this interview.  Thank you very much Ken Ford.
KF: Thank you, Mary.