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John Beaudin - Hi Ken Thanks for taking the time to do the interview.

Ken Navarro - You're welcome. Congratulations on the website. It looks great. Do you do all the graphics on the site as well?

John - Yes.

Ken - Wow. It really looks great.

John - Thanks. Every six months or so there's a huge learning curve that comes with learning a new program or going deeper with Photoshop or Dreamweaver and now I'm learning Flash but its fun I like it. It's like painting. Let's start with technology. Chuck Loeb and I talked about this a lot, how learning a program is just another extension of being a musician. I know you have your own studio as well. Do you use ProTools?

Ken - I use Digital Performer. It suits me a little bit better than ProTools just because it's an open ended system. It's funny that you should mention learning curves because right now I'm going though an upgrade. I'm bringing the studio to the Mac world up to 10.3, they call it Panther. So now I have the latest version of Digital Performer and I've been upgrading a lot and I just hate this part of it because for two weeks I just don't even think about music. I just think about everything working so I know what you mean concerning something new taking a lot of time.

John - When I was talking to Chuck Loeb we were talking about his famous garage studio.

Ken - Oh Yeah.

John - He said similar things to what you just mentioned that and he quick to remind me that it's always about the guitar. That comes first and I hear that.

Ken - Yeah I agree with that. I don't know how people did it before. I know I used to do it and I remember what it costs to go into a studio. I think the nicest thing from a creative stand point its great if it's at your disposal 24 hours a day. The tendency to make decisions based on the dollars adding up vanishes when you have your own studio. The only fear is that you don't get too comfortable and just put things off too much.

John - Has it made you a better artist?

Ken - Yes. It's allowed me to go down some roads that I know I wouldn't have gone down if I was paying someone 10 or 100 dollars an hour. You know what else? When someone else is watching you work as opposed to being able to do some interesting things and experiment and know that if it completely falls on its face it won't matter because it's just you in there. I do get a little frustrated sometimes with the cross compatibility that happen and that's what's nice about ProTools because that's a closed system and you turn it on and it works (laughing). I'm the kind of guys that might want 51 channels instead of the allocated 24 and Performer lets me do that. As long as I can make it hold together (laughing).

John - By open system you mean no limits of the tracks available right?

Ken - Digital Performer's basic structure is that the more powerful the processor and the computer, the more ram, the faster the hard drive the more you can do. The more tracks you can have, the more automation and the more plug-ins you can use and in that sense it's an open system. It has a lot to do with the user understanding how to conserve all those things. With ProTools you buy hardware and software that is a computer within itself so to speak. You buy lets say 24 channels and you can count on it working you wont have something happen like not having enough processor power because your doing one too many reverbs. The other side of it is if you want 25 channels then Digital Performer is great.

John - I was talking to a musician a little while ago who was having problems with a software which I wasn't familiar with and I asked him why he didn't go to ProTools and he just said he's invested too much time with this software to turn back (laughing).

Ken - (laughing) Yeah exactly. These days even a writing program has more stuff in it that you can ever possibly use.

John - There is an aspect of learning and conquering a new program that I like. I certainly have not conquered Photoshop or Dreamweaver and any expert of those programs could certainly tell that by looking at the site but my brain certainly doesn't work as efficiently as it did in my twenties so it's a good feeling when I can at least know my way around at least 30% of a program.

Ken - Absolutely and that's exactly what I've been feeling like the last few weeks (laughing). Like you said though when you get past that certain point it's a real feeling of accomplishment. For me as long as I can avoid that cold sweat feeling that sometimes happens when you get knee deep in and your not sure how you're going to get out (laughing).

John - (laughing) You know I feel that it keeps me young though.

Ken - Absolutely. I was thinking that just today to keep those brain cells firing (laughing).They've been firing a lot for me the last 48 hours (laughing).

John - You're preaching to the choir.

Ken - Well you know not everyone is oriented like that. Chuck (Loeb) certainly is but I know many musician who just don't want to go down that road.

John - Where were you living when the digital age started for you?

Ken - When this stuff first started to happen I lived in L.A. This was in the eighties when the computer started being a part of the recording studio. I think it happened there before it happened anywhere else. I was working with Nell Carter back then and when we worked with musician in New York I remember they had no clue of digital recording. This was 1986 - 1987.

John - I was talking to your wife Kristin just before we got on the phone, she's a nice lady
congratulations on being married 30 years.

Ken - You know we've known each other so long. There are always elements disagreements in any marriage I think but we've found a real comfortable way to do what we do. I just count my lucky stars that somebody like her puts up with me and what I do and what I've had to do to get to where I am. I look around and I know that doesn't happen to a lot of people so I feel really lucky that way.

John - As well as the Breeze here in Calgary I also host a "Lovesongs" show in Vancouver which I really enjoy but half of all the calls that come in are from people who want to loose their partners.

Ken - (laughing) You know sometimes it seems like the first four or five years of a marriage are the
hardest ones. We got married so young. We were 19 so there was some stress I suppose from being so young and being poor. The point that we're at is just very committed and I can't imagine what could happen that would change that. I guess you just get beyond certain things.

John - How did you meet Kristin?

Ken - Well we actually met when we were in eight grade (laughing).

John - You met her in eight grade?

Ken - Yeah I've known her for a long long time. I have a picture of us in front of a Christmas tree in ninth grade (laughing).She lived in France in the early part of her life and I grew up in the Washington D.C. area in what used to be a small place called Bethesda Maryland. It's where the naval hospital is and where the president goes when he gets his checkup. So she moved there and I didn't talk to her for about a year and a half but I remember when she walked in to my eight grade geography class (laughing). I noticed her right away. We had an on and off relationship for the first five years. About half way through college we were out at two different schools, I was in the Midwest in Wisconsin and she was on the east coast in Boston and we just said that if we were going to do this we should at least live in the same place. So we got married and I dragged her back to Wisconsin with me. She didn't get the better end of that deal (laughing).We have lived through a lot of different changes and many of them initiated because of the music. Certainly I wouldn't have moved to L.A. if it wasn't for the music and I wouldn't have started a record company and she's gone down those roads and in many cases has been actively involved, especially with the record company.

John - Who came up with the name of your record company Positive Music?

Ken - You know I can't really remember. I'd like to say that it was me but I think it was
Kristin and I and the person who was the initial art director or maybe a couple of friends. (laughing) Actually I think I came up with it. I like the idea of positive being seen as not only Positive music i.e. music that you felt good about but also just being positive about something. We started the label in the late eighties and New Age music was very much part of things, so we were a little concerned. We didn't want people to think that's what we were doing because it certainly wasn't.

John - I can understand because everyone was jumping on the New Age bandwagon in the late eighties. But the name does insinuate that whole theme.

Ken - Yeah and it kind of fit in with that general fell for the way the music we call Smooth Jazz was all those years ago.

John - Do you think your music back then reflected the Pre-Smooth Jazz format? Was it more laid back?

Ken - It definitely did and it also reflected that I was also figuring out and finding out not so much my musical personality but I was learning the production part of it and the arranging and the composing. So my musical personality was intact since by the time I started recording albums under my own name I was 36 and had been playing for twenty years at that time and had been through the whole L.A. experience for nine years. I hear a lot of growth in the first four or five albums. Sometimes at my shows people will come up to me and say they want all the earlier albums and from an artists point of view that's just great but at the same time there's a part of me thinking, oh you don't want to hear those. (Laughing).I guess I hear them differently with the experience now and invariable I just wish I could have done it better (laughing).

John - (laughing) Who in life though wouldn't want to take back at least a few things.

Ken - Yeah and it's all part of that process and I killed myself on those early records. I worked just as hard as I do now and they definitely represent the best I could do at that time. I think that quality comes through. I gave from the heart and at 100%.

John - When did that feeling of feeling really satisfies or more satisfied come about with the older albums?

Ken - For some reason it was the fifth record which is where I hear a quality and a consistency that hasn't left me fortunately. With the first four there's sort of an in and out feeling.

John - I'm curious when you recorded "River Flows" your first album in 1990 what was going through your mind? Were you confident, cocky, scared or naive?

Ken - Naive would be the best word. The one thing that makes that record different is with the exception of a few guest performers that record is all me. I did everything. The radio format was not a formula at all then of course the Wave in L.A. was a big station at the time but it was slowly catching on and my thought was here's a station playing exactly what I do. I wasn't trying to do anything (laughing) I was swimming in these calm warm waters that I'd discovered so the music reflects that. It had a lot of different styles on it but also being a session player in L.A. I was hired to do just that play different things. One day I'd be doing a rock session for a TV show, the next day I'd be playing Classical guitar for a film score and the next day I'd be playing country guitar in a country band at night. So I was aware of the versatility factor of it. I'd heard a lot of albums that seemed to be more of a calling card rather than making a musical, personal statement.

John - And I guess in L.A. especially.

Ken - Yeah because there's a lot of talent in L.A. but not necessary a lot of artists and I don't say that as a putdown necessarily. Being a great player for other people is not the same thing as having something to say.

John - Did you have stars in your eyes at all when you moved to L.A.?

Ken - Not really. I was kind of practical and I had gone through that phase in my twenties when I was playing with all these bands. I don't think one looses that but when I went to L.A. I went there to be a session musician and I really prided myself on being a professional musician who could do what ever was necessary to get the job done.

John - Why did you leave?

Ken - Well after seven or eight years of that and having the opportunity do most of the things that I wanted to do out there I really wanted to get back to my own music. It's very easy when your doing other peoples vision and make other peoples vision happen to lose yours. I didn't write anything for almost eight years so it came to a point where I had to ask myself where it all was going. It was a little hard to leave it and start a label on the other side of the country.

John - How did you meet Eric Darius and get to produce his album?

Ken - He's very young, he's only 23. He was 21 when I met him and he's from Tampa Florida. He approached me. He opened a show that David Benoit and I did together at a theatre in Tampa. He was very interested in having me listen to the first record that he had recorded. He was very impressive, he just played to tracks and he was really good. Anytime you see someone who's twenty one playing like that is truly amazing. Listened to the album about two months later and I was surprised on how good it was. A couple of the guys from Richard Elliot's road band had produced it and that explained why it was a much better record than most people his age usually make. He sounded great on it and we stayed in touch.

John - How did you producing the album come about?

Ken - Well last spring he approached me and said he wanted to do the second one and wanted me to be the producer. So we talked and worked out the financial arrangements and then we did it. I used all the regular people I use here and did the whole album. Eric came up for two weeks to do his stuff and he let me do what I do most of the time which is the way I like to work. I was so happy that he was signed by Higher Octave and I guess Narada has either bought them out or joined forces with them and the record is coming out in June. I really think it's great for him, he deserves it. Eric is a great guy, a fabulous player. When he was here recording he stayed with us. During the day he was hanging out with all the guys and even though everyone here was twenty years older than him he was cutting it musically. At night he'd be up in our guestroom playing video games with candy all over the bed (laughing). My daughter said "You know Dad he's just really a big kid" (laughing). She's thirteen and to her he looks like one of my peers during the day but at night she can see that he's up there just being like her.

John - Well he obviously felt comfortable at your house.

Ken - (laughing) Oh yeah.

John - And a lot of musicians are big kids.

Ken - (laughing) that's very true.

John - You know it doesn't always mean their immature of course it could mean they just know how to play.

Ken - Sure and it's a trait that a lot of adults lose. I guess we all lose it but at what degree? I know that when people come to see me play they really don't want to see me work. Do you know what I mean?

John - They want to see you play.

Ken - Yeah they want to see me play. When I go see the dentist though I don't want to see him play (laughing).

John - (laughing) Unless you're a masochist? Here's my take on this If the performer is uncomfortable the audience will be uncomfortable. For instance I hate listening to an announcer when their voice is ratched from a cold or a singer when they can't.

Ken - Yeah that's right exactly. Even people who feel they don't know that much about music they can sense those elements that you're talking about.

John - The great artists never underestimate the audience.

Ken - You're right absolutely and I think that's the same reason that people will buy a whole bunch of records they're not suppose to buy because they catch that spirit. A good spirit in that case and they don't really care if it's cool or hip. The important thing is they just get it so I think it works in both ways.

John - ken are there things that you're not suppose to like? Do you listen to anything in the top 40?

Ken - Oh Yeah. I have an eighteen year old son so..(laughing)

John - This is Eric right?

Ken - Yeah, thank you so a lot of it comes in the house. I've heard him go through all kinds of different phases. Things that I might find musically very interesting but lyrically so black, so dark. I tend to lean towards new music that's R&B oriented music that has more of a groove. I'm really into rhythm. It's the thing that gets me without anything intellectual ingredient and there's a lot of that stuff out there.

John - How about Rock?

Ken - I like some alternative Rock

John - Do you listen to any Smooth Jazz? A lot of the artist in the genre that I talk to don't listen to it that much.

Ken - Oh Really? Well I probably listen to Smooth Jazz even less than anything because I'm around it so much. Having been through so much with the record company and listening a lot because its work I enjoy it but there's so much music out there.

John - You mentioned Rhythm, the first single from your latest album "All The Way" called "Bringing Down The House" now that's a rhythm song.

Ken - Yeah it really is. That was an interesting one to work on because I worked on it with someone I'd never met until months after the record was done, David Mann.

John - Oh yeah, he's featured a lot on the new Special EFX album "Party."

Ken - Yeah, he's done a lot of things for a lot of different people. He's had a lot of number one songs on Smooth Jazz Radio. It was the record company's idea to hook me up with him. It turned out to be a great thing, David is a multi-talented guy. Yeah, the interesting part was I never met him during this recording process and we barely talked on the phone. (laughing) He sent me some music via email. It was a track for a song. You have to understand I'm somebody who's always been self sufficient in the studio. I don't co-write, I don't co-produce and here I am doing that but from a distance of all things. (laughing) So he sent the track and I added different guitar parts on it. I think I wrote a bridge to it and changed the chorus around. Then I emailed it back to him. Then he tweaked it some more, sent it back to me and I changed a few things and boom we have a written song. (laughing) We did the same thing in the way that it was recorded. He did a bunch of tracks and sent them to me so we did the whole thing that way. So what you hear on the record is a true collaboration from start to finish without any face to face meeting.

John - So you did finally meet him.

Ken - Yes. It was a couple of months after the record came out at a festival in California and I think he was playing with Chieli Minucci and that's how we finally met. I came up to him and said, "David this is what you look like!" (laughing) David is great I'd love to work with him again. That song is very rhythm driven and I love playing guitar to stuff like that. I think I would have been a drummer if my parents would have given the set to me instead of my brother.

John - "It's Up To You" from your new one is a great tune. I wish radio would play that one.

Ken - Oh boy it's funny that you should mention that because we just released a new single (In the Sky Today) but that's the one I wanted released. To me it's just so obvious and I know it might not be as up to date with the current sound on Smooth Jazz radio but my feeling is a strong song as long as it's in the ballpark is always going to be better that something that isn't in the four walls. The record company said no and that they weren't even considering that one. I think the word they used was that it was dated.

John - One of my complaints on the current Smooth Jazz radio sound is the lacking of those kinds of songs. I'm not saying play one after the other but where have these great inspiration tunes gone.

Ken - I'm glad you liked that one. You know sometimes you write something and you can't wait to record it and realize it in its full form. It grew slowly and it just became what it is. I didn't always know it was going to be my favorite song on the album. Of course it was placed as the first song so that says a lot. In the fairness to the record company though they agreed that it should open the record. I think record companies have an impossibly tough job to try to figure out what radio will bite on.

John - It is a tough job and some people in the industry are looking for that holy grail of a sound to keep the format fresh.

Ken - Back when we started my label Positive music, the P.D.'s (Program Directors) were way more likely to have ears like you have John. They played what they wanted to play and they had books (rating) like you never see now. I think people can hear the difference. I think they can tell when someone's charged up and they can tell when a programmer is charged up about it.

John - Yeah.

Ken - John I must have read seven or eight interviews on your website but I have to tell you the very first I read was with John Klemmer which I just found fascinating. After I read it I pulled out my old LP of his album "Touch." I was amazed to see that it was recorded in 1976.

John - Isn't it amazing on how "Touch" still sounds great today.

Ken - I sensed that it might have been not exactly an easy interview.

John - It was very easy. It was an email interview. I hardly do those anymore but his people just emailed me one day saying they liked the site.

Ken - Well regardless you pulled out some fascinating things from him.

John - Thanks.

Ken - John Klemmer is sort of an enigma in some ways because as well as that album is known and the other albums of his there really isn't that much on him. He seems like an interesting man.

John - I think "in the know" people follow him. He was such a great player. I listened to him and enjoyed the albums in High School. I worked for a cable TV station in Miramichi, New Brunswick and they had "Touch" in their library. That's how I discovered it. He really is a great player.

Ken - He really is and talk about having vision. You have to go back and look for what else was going on in 1976. I've listening to that record a lot in the last month or so and I actually downloaded it on I-Tunes so I'd have an updated version. It's incredible how it holds up on every level.

John - I know you've worked with Eric Marienthal. That guy looks like a million bucks. (laughing) I was joking with him asking if those pics on his album were airbrushed or he really does look that great.

Ken - (laughing) Well, he really does have a youthful look. We did a tour together that lasted about a month and a half and on tour you get to see someone pretty beat up but he's very smart he keeps himself in good shape. He's a great swimmer and when we did those long drives he'd want to get out and throw a frisbee for a half an hour and he'd run every morning so yes he keeps pretty good care of himself. Eric is obviously blessed with good looks (laughing) and a youthful face. The first time I met Eric was in L.A. and I think he was no more than 21 years old. He was playing pretty much like he plays now. He was always a phenomenal player, he's grown into a very warm deep player that no one is at 21 but Eric always had a great ear and chops. Everyone in L.A. knew about him and was talking about him long before all those great things happened to him.

John - He was young when he started playing with Chick Corea.

Ken - He's great. I've used him on four or five albums. He is such a nice person. You know all the things that he's done and all the things he's accomplished, well he knows he's a good player but the ego is just not there. When you play with somebody you really find these kinds of things out and he's a very giving player. He's there to make the music sound better whether it's your music or what ever, he's really a team player. When you play with people their insecurities really come out and frankly they don't care how you sound, they just want to make sure they sound good. (laughing) Eric is confident, generous and kind and one thing is you can't hide that it comes out.

John - I'm glad you said that about Eric I found him so easy to talk to plus I try to encourage artists to talk about each other.

Ken - Chieli is another guy like that. We actually played together last year and we're going to do it again this year. Chieli is just a phenomenal player.

John - I'm talking to everyone about Joni Mitchell these days and I know you're a big fan of hers.

Ken - Oh yeah.

John - Do you remember the first Joni album you bought?

Ken - Well, I bought a whole bunch of them at once but I think the first was 'For The Roses.' I think I got that and 'Blue' at the same time. They are timeless because you put it on and you have to look at the date too because there's a freshness to it that hasn't left at all. Of course she was paralleling a lot of the musical things that I was interested in and she had (Pat) Metheny on there, Jaco Pastorius and Michael Brecker. I saw her playing with all those guys in concert I think it would have been 1978. I have to admit I kind of lost touch with some of the more recent things she's done but that's my own fault, I'm sure the quality level has not changed at all. Her music just hits you in the heart because there's so much spirit to it but also on a musical level she is totally unique. On one level it's obvious with all her tunings but she's one of those people that respond on a gut level to things and she's blessed because she's right all the time. (laughing) Of course lyrically she's just amazing. She's got it all. (laughing)

John - I heard that you favorite Contemporary Jazz musicians are Bob James and David Sanborn but where are the guitarists in there?

Ken - Well, again I tend to think more from a sense of writing. I always see things from a compositional standpoint. With Sanborn there was just something there that drew me into this type of music

John - You and a lot of people with Sanborn.

Ken - Oh man! That sound and that approach and that energy level was so great and then Bob James had such wonderful writing and playing. I got to play with him a couple of years ago after 9/11. It was me, Bob James, Kirk Whalum, Jeff Lorber and Alexander Zonjic. It was a benefit in Detroit and I got to play with Bob James all night. I couldn't believe it. (laughing) I have all these pictures he probably thought I was more of a fan than a co-musician.

John - But how can you pass up a chance like that?

Ken - I know I couldn't. I remember I was playing a festival in Detroit a few years before and Earl Klugh came over and put his arm around me and said, 'Hey, lets do a picture" and I said, "Oh, I can't do a picture with you" and he said, "What are you talking about?" I just looked at him and said, "You're Earl Klugh. (laughing)

John - I haven't talked to him yet. Is he a good guy?

Ken - He was great. He's very relaxed and enjoys life. I believe right now as hard as it is to believe he doesn't have a record contract.

John - And he doesn't have a Website.

Ken - I can't find information about him. The only way that I know about him is through Alexander Zonjic who has been friends with him for many years. That's how I found out he didn't have a record deal Alexander says "he doesn't care." I guess he really doesn't want one right now he doesn't like the state of things. Earl got involved with Smooth Jazz even before it was even an idea and back then they were paying people a lot of money to do records and I think he did quite well and I don't think he's hurting. I think he surveys this whole scene and says what do I need that for? (laughing) You know some of the tensions with radio and so on.

John - I've heard some of those things. Some musicians have said when the tape recorded is off that they're not that happy with the format but for the most part most musicians don't say that.

Ken - I don't know maybe it comes with age but nothing is perfect and personally I would feel odd restricting myself to only a diet of listening to Smooth Jazz. I don't have those kinds of negative feelings really. It's something that I always really liked and it was a natural blend of things I grew up with musically and stylistically and it's a meeting ground for a lot of different stuff. Even socially here in the States I don't know of any other audience that shows up and is equally men and woman or equally black and white. It's really unique that way it feels so great like this is the way things are suppose to be. It's a music that uniquely draws people together. For me as a musician it's been a place where I can bring together my love of songs which really pure Jazz is not that interested in with my love of improvising and group interplay especially live which is what Jazz is all about. It's just been a real comfortable blend for me and the nature of it becoming a big business is ultimately a good thing because I'm still doing it fourteen years later.

John - So what's the deal with you being called the Bruce Springsteen of Smooth Jazz? What's going on there?

Ken - Well, my live shows tend to be a little bit different than the records in fact I think most audiences like it but I've actually had people say, "I thought you were going to play real relaxing stuff." (laughing) The live shows owe something to the fact that I grew up playing rock music and I really loved the energy of that. Even when I'm playing the nylon string guitar it's hopefully energized in a different way than watching someone play gently. That's not what it's about. There was a promoter that I did a bunch of shows for in Florida in 1997 and he came up to me and said, "You know what I like about you, you're like the Bruce Springsteen of Smooth Jazz." (laughing) I told him that's a super compliment. I'm not a huge Bruce Springsteen fan but everything live that he does I'm the first guy to go out and buy it. I love that almost revival feel. I think a lot of artists in Smooth Jazz are like that especially when you go out and see them. That's probably the one bad rap that they get and they are kind of criticized for being low key and uninspired and not able to connect.

John - Or homogenized which a lot of people have said.

Ken - And that's just not true. A lot of the people we have talked about tonight and we could have talked about Dave Koz and Norman Brown. They are huge names in the format and they are the same deal they're really engaged when they perform. We've been talking about Chuck Loeb and Chieli Minucci these people are monster players. They are going to bury most other people. They're phenomenal and then you add into the fact that they communicate so strongly from the heart and they have so much to say beyond the musical ability that they have.

John - I know you're a big Seinfeld fan are you excited about season one coming out on DVD?

Ken - Is that right? You're the first person to tell me that!

John - Right now they are having problems with Julie, Jason and the rest of the supporting cast over residuals. They feel it's not fair if they just get a token amount to record the behind the scenes interviews.

Ken - Wow, I'm thrilled. Just before you called I was watching the episode where Mel Torme sings to Krammer because he's had dental work and they mistake him for a challenged person. I was falling on the floor and my wife said the best part about this is watching me. (laughing)

John - I know you've worked with Kim Waters who's doing really well these days. One of the interesting things I found about talking to Kim and I wasn't warned about this is he's got to be the most laid back guy you could ever talk to or interview.

Ken - (laughing) Well, that's Kim. He's a very nice guy and easy going is not really the way to say it. He played on a few songs on my first Shanachie record and working with him in the studio and I've never had that kind of experience. Even with great players there's a certain tension in the air because the tapes running. I've worked with Eric (Marienthal) many times and Brandon Fields, some of the best saxophonists and there's a charge in the air and Kim couldn't be more relaxed and comfortable with himself and with me and the room he was in. I've recorded guys who no one has heard of who are very good players but they can't get comfortable with anything in the studio. The headphones, the carpet on the floor, the amount of reverb in the headphones, everything bothers them and I feel like saying to them Eric Marienthal comes in here and he just plays. (laughing) Kim took that to a whole other level.
Kim couldn't be more relaxed and comfortable with himself and with me and the room he was in.

John - I noticed that he's very straight to the point.

Ken - The thing about Kim is he's very straight forward, he's a no B.S. guy. He doesn't spin anything. I did a short tour with him a couple of years ago and God you can imagine what it's like to travel with someone like that with all the little upsets that happen with other people, well nothing phases Kim. It gets worked out. I tend to be more of a type 'A' personality and it's made me realize that you end up in the same place at the end it's better to do it like Kim and keep your blood pressure low. (laughing)

John - Was it in 2002 that you went to Italy with your dad?

Ken - Yeah.

John - Was that a long time in the planning.

Ken - Yeah, it was only in the sense that we were going to do it earlier and then 9/11 happened and we got a little spooked about flying over there. He had mentioned it and thought it would be nice to do together. To be honest I was kind of a dope I thought I'm so busy and I'm really busy that time of the year but I'm so glad we went and it was great spending the time with him and it was great to go to Italy where I kind of felt like I was home in a weird way. I enjoyed more than anything just walking down the street of a small and just smelling everything, hearing people speak with that beautiful lilt. There's something about Italian when it's spoken by Italians. There was a part of me that thought maybe I'd like to live there sometime. (laughing) I still think about it and I know I want to get back and bring Kristin because she's never been there.

John - Have you and your dad always been close?

Ken - Yeah, we have and it's funny I'm sure you've gone through a similar thing that boys and their fathers go through when you were in your teens but he really had no understanding of what it was that I wanted to do and how it worked. He's really always been very supportive in both terms of being encouraging and when things got tough he was still there. When a lot of parents see their kids go into something like music there natural instinct is sometimes to discourage it and the minute things aren't going well to say, "See I told you so." Well I never had that happen with my Dad and I still talk to him on a regular basis and I ask advice of him on all kinds of things. He's seventy six now and I feel lucky that he's in great health and he's still there for me when I'm trying to figure something out.

John - Good for you that says a lot about you both.

Ken - I don't take credit for that it's his doing. He got better at a certain point in his life and he learned to relax. He definitely changed his approach to his day to day life. I hope to get to the same place with the same grace that he did. I'm still working at it frankly.

John - Was there a friend when you were growing up that really influenced you with music?

Ken - Yeah, I had a friend in College actually if that still counts for growing up who I'm still in contact with.

John - Let's give him some credit what's his name?

Ken - Doug Thorpe. I was best man at his wedding he was best man at mine.

John - Did he play?

Ken - Doug didn't play an instrument but he heard music as clearly as any musician that I know and he turned me on to so many things including Joni Mitchell and just listening in a new way. Part of it was just that time in my life and part of it was he was just a gentle kind of person and never preached and said this is great music. It wasn't like that it was just for the love of the music and the music was absolutely what drove our friendship and I'm glad that it wasn't someone who was a musician. It wasn't someone who inspired me because they played so fast or so complicated or anything like that. It was somebody who brought me to that other level that I have never left and I still go back to some of the music that he turned me onto and a lot of it are still treasures in my record collection.

John - If you weren't in music what do you think you'd be doing?

Ken - Teaching.

John - Really?

Ken - Yeah.

John - Teaching music?

Ken - Probably but I just like teaching and I still think about it I may still do it.

John - What album made you want to be a better player?

Ken - I think it would have been when I first heard the Pat Metheny album 'First Circle." I just felt that he raised the bar higher. He brought it up ten times of what you had to bring to the table to start.

John - Are there albums that made you cry.

Ken - You know I live for that. I look for that. John Klemmer's 'Touch' album pardon the cliché' but it touched me. In fact that record kind of gave me a renewed interest to make music that makes people feel a little healed or just feel better. I know that might sound a little cliché but I hadn't heard that record in years then I read your interview with him and I went back and heard it and got re-inspired.

John - Has anyone ever told you that you have perfect pipes for radio?

Ken - No. No one ever has but I consider that a very nice compliment. (laughing)

John - When you first got on the phone you sounded more like one of our 'Behind the Mic' radio guy's interviews.

Ken - Well, I had a chance to do a couple of things. One was for XM Radio and one for Sirius but they never said anything they just said thank you. They never said anything nice about it. (laughing)

John - Well, radio is full of Smooth Jazz musicians hosting shows Dave Koz, Alexander Zonjik, Eric Marienthal, Ramsey Lewis and soon Chris Botti.

Ken - Yeah, there are lots of us on radio in many capacities.

John - Ever have a religious experience?

Ken - No, I can't say that I have. I was brought up Roman Catholic and I definitely have a pretty good spiritual side to me but I've yet to have what I think would be called that.

John - What gives you peace?

Ken - At this point of my life it's a combination of family especially now that I see my eighteen year old around and this time next year he won't be living here anymore. There is also writing and working in the studio.

John - What scares you?

Ken - Man these are tough questions. (laughing) I guess the thing that scares me the most and it's a very naked answer would be suddenly not having my family. Believe it or not it doesn't scare me to loose a hand or a finger and not be able to play. I'd still have music.

John - If you could have coffee with a celebrity who would it be?

Ken - That's the easiest question you've asked me all night. It would be Pat Metheny. I've never met him. My life has been turned left and right so many time by his music. I would just love before I die to have a cup of coffee with Pat Metheny.

John - Ken this has been a lot of fun for me and I appreciate you taking the time.

Ken - John, man you are great. I really appreciate getting the chance to talk to you. It's been really fun. I think you're doing something in such a good way and for me it's great to go into your site and read the interviews page and to find out some information that I've always been looking for. There really is clarity to the way your site looks.

John - Well thanks Ken.