Black Violin fuses hip-hop, classical at Chandler Center for the Arts

The musical duo known as Black Violin didn’t become genre-busting hip-hop artists in spite of their classical training, but because of it.

Or, more specifically, because of one teacher.

Violinist Kevin “Kev Marcus” Sylvester, who formed the group with his high-school friend Wilner “Wil B” Baptiste in 2004, explains that the turning point in their musical career was his first day of college at Florida International University.

“I’m a scholarship student, 17, first day of college, I’m ready to kind of show what I got,” Sylvester recalls. “And I go into my lesson and I’m ready to perform for my teacher, and he says, ‘Just put that away.’ And he gave me a tape — this is 1999, so he gave me a tape — and he told me to go home and listen to this tape. So I’m a little disappointed. I go home and listen to this tape, and it was like a violin on fire. I never heard a violin like this.”

The tape was of the 1965 recording “Black Violin” by jazzman Stuff Smith.

“It’s a perfect name for us, and that album just changed everything, the way we thought about violin, the way we approached it,” Sylvester says.

And the professor? That was viola player Chauncey Patterson, formerly of the Miami String Quartet.

“Even though he was like the best violist I’d ever heard, he came from a place like I came from,” Sylvester says. “And that’s why I studied with him.

“I was one of the few minority students he had. I doubt he gives (the Stuff Smith tape) to everyone, but he’s the kind of teacher that finds what you need and caters to you.”

Fusing the classical music they studied at a Florida performing-arts high school with the hip-hop that they would groove to in the halls, Black Violin made a splash early. They played with Alicia Keyes at the 2004 Billboard Music Awards and with the rap-rocking Fort Minor — a side project by Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda — on a world tour. They performed at two inaugural balls for President Obama and even gave their own TED Talk.

Their latest album, “Stereotypes,” was released in September, and they will perform Friday, Jan. 15, at the Chandler Center for the Arts.

Sylvester says the idea of bringing classical music and hip-hop together was never forced or contrived.

“When I’m done with this phone call, I’m probably going to listen to some hip-hop music. I really like the new Kendrick (Lamar) album, I love the new Game album. But then tonight, I’m going to be teaching Bach partitas. And I love both of them equally.

"It’s not like I’m trying to push these two worlds together, it’s just that we grew up in a space and an environment that allowed this to grow. We just love what hip-hop and pop music have to offer, and we love how we can play with it using instruments and sounds that have been around for hundreds of years.”

Reach the reporter at kerry.lengel@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4896. Follow him: Twitter.com/KerryLengel and Facebook.com/LengelonTheater.

Black Violin

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 15.

Where: Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave.

Admission: $24-$38.

Details: 480-782-2680, chandlercenter.org.