The celebrated duo that melds hip hop, classical music, jazz and funk will join the Grand Rapids Symphony next week. The Local Spins interview with violist Wilner Baptiste.
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As a groundbreaking duo, Black Violin has attracted attention from lots of different quarters, sparking collaborations with stars such as Alicia Keys, Tom Petty, Kanye West and Aerosmith.
Classically trained string musicians and Floridians Kevin Sylvester (Kev Marcus) and Wilner Baptiste (Wil B) have brilliantly fused hip hop with classical music, jazz and funk on their way to recording studio albums, performing hundreds of shows a year and launching the Black Violin Foundation which offers free performances and works with low-income students and youth symphonies.
The duo joins the Grand Rapids Symphony for a concert at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 1. Tickets, $70, are available online here.
Baptiste recently chatted with Local Spins writer Enrique Olmos about the duo, its music and his current passions.
Wilner Baptiste of Black Violin is enjoying plantains and hummus when I catch him on a call. The Caribbean snack, fried, golden and smashed flat, is popular Haita, an island Baptiste has roots to and has visited.
He’s also tinkering with an OP-1 synthesizer, an instrument that was a gift from his son.
“I’ve really been diving into this instrument. I don’t have a whole lot of gear, you know what I’m saying. I’m the kind of artist who likes to move my hands,” he says.
“So turning on the laptop and trying to work isn’t creative for me. I like the process of manipulating samples, recording finger snaps or claps or whatever. I like the idea of having very minimal things around me.”
As a musician, Baptiste has traveled the world with a viola in his hand as a founding member of Black Violin, the hip hop-infused string collective that blends classical instrumentation with modern styles of jazz and R&B.
The duo, which includes violinist Kevin Sylvester, is preparing for its final show of the summer, performing in Grand Rapids with the Grand Rapids Symphony on Thursday (Aug. 1).
The viola “opened a lot of doors” for Baptiste and Black Violin. Having performed alongside superstars like Alicia Keys and opened for hip hop heavyweights like Wu-Tang-Clan and Lil Wayne, the duo’s soaring arrangements are in high demand among performers in the music industry.
Lately, Baptiste and Sylvester have chipped away at the next Black Violin record — the follow-up to 2020’s “Give Thanks” — with hopes to release it by early 2025.
Meanwhile, Baptiste also is steadily composing his own solo record. But at the end of the day, for Baptiste, it’s all about maintaining a sense of creative curiosity.
“It just makes me feel like a kid again. You know day after day to make things. I can’t see myself ever stopping because, to me, breathing and creating goes hand in hand,” Baptiste says.
“That’s where my energy comes from. So that’s why I can’t stop.”
VIDEO: Black Violin, “One Step” (Live)
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