Kevin Sylvester (a/k/a Kev Marcus) has fond memories of James Miles, the orchestra teacher at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale. Sylvester attended the school with his friend, Wilner Baptiste, also known as Wil b.

“He is the one who got it in my head that we could do something different,” Sylvester said of Miles. “We were classically trained, and playing classical stuff. He didn’t push us to go outside of that, but he did push us to be better.’’  

Miles talked Sylvester’s conservative, West Indian mother (she’s from Dominica) into allowing him to attend school at Dillard, “in the middle of the hood,” because he believed the young musician had a shot at a college scholarship.

Sylvester and Baptiste, the two friends from Miramar, got their full music scholarships. Sylvester attended Florida International University; Baptiste headed to Florida State University.

Today, they are the dynamic duo that calls itself Black Violin, smoothly combining classical music and hip hop for audiences around the world.

On Monday, Jan. 21, Black Violin will perform at Miami Gardens’ Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Celebration.

They will share the stage with Tom Joyner, host of the Tom Joyner Morning Show, and Grammy-nominated recording artist Mario.

The group has also shared the stage with some of the hottest hip-hop, R&B and pop acts in the business, including Alicia Keys, Kanye West, 50 Cent, Nas and Fabolous, rock acts like Arrowsmith and The Eagles, and new school acts like The Roots and Linkin Park lead singer Mike Shinoda, with whom they recently toured.

The Black Violin artists, are remarkably grounded for young men barely out of college who have already been around the world – to Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Germany, England, Australia, New Zealand and France, with upcoming shows in South Africa in April.

Wherever they play, the group, with their DJ, TK, surprises its audiences (often full of hip-hop kids) with sets that are equal parts sublime and raw.

“You wouldn’t expect the crowd to be so hyped’’ about two guys with violins, says Wil. “But it’s like, before we even play everything, the crowd is getting with it. The image has a lot to do with it.’’

The music has a lot to do with it, too – a potent mix of what Wil calls “hard core, crunk hip-hop with violins on top.’’

The young mens’ success is grounded in education. They both earned bachelor’s degrees in music performance.

After college, they came back together to form a music production company. They shared a vision of combining their classical training with their love of hip hop.

Initially, the idea was to weave the music of Beethoven and Bach into the background of other artists’ music.

“When we came back together after college, we started a production company and started working with artists,’’ says Wil, who also plays piano, trumpet, drums, guitar, bass guitar and viola. “We were playing on stage [with the artists] and audiences were captivated, so we started producing five-minute loops of what we were doing and playing them in clubs.’’

It soon became clear that Wil, 26, and Kev, 25, belonged on center stage.

In October 2004, the two had formed Black Violin – named for the last record produced by swing-era jazz violinist Stuff Smith.

They took on the notoriously brutal Amateur Night at the Apollo in New York’s Harlem – a venue that has chewed up artists with far more experience.

Instead of being booed, they won three straight rounds, taking home a $20,000 prize and the title of 2005 Apollo Legends in May of that year.

Wil says the win could have changed their lives very quickly. But, he said, they’re glad it didn’t make their careers take off immediately.

“It didn’t happen right away,’’ Wil says, “but I’m glad because we weren’t ready yet.’’

Now, he says, Black Violin is ready to tackle the world. Their current album is titled Black
Violin. It is available at www.blackviolin.net.

As much as their image mirrors the hip-hop aesthetic, the two are also conscious of the image they’re portraying to young people.

“We’re trying to change the perception of black people, the perception of music,’’ says Kev, who is also a young husband and father of two children, who are 2 and a half and 7 months. “We want to see the world, and see our people progress. We’re trying to change the world.”

Source:
Broward Times