Like many who came of age in the 1990s, Charles Wilson III was a diehard hip-hop fan, galvanized by the likes of Biggie and Busta Rhymes.
But the Detroit-born piano prodigy had another, unconventional musical ace up his sleeve: He was an exceptional classical music talent.
Today, performing and recording as BLKBOK — that’s “Black Bach” — he has been the subject of increasing attention and acclaim, touring the country with a growing body of original piano work steeped in Black American history.
His latest album is “9,” named in tribute to the Little Rock Nine and released on Sept. 25 — the 66th anniversary of the first full day of school for those Arkansas integration trailblazers. The date was important enough to BLKBOK that he eschewed the record industry’s standard Friday release schedule to accommodate a Monday drop.
“We’re talking about kids who were 15 years old, you know, integrating schools in America. It was a pretty brave thing to do something like that,” he says. “So this was definitely an opportunity to shine a light upon what they had done. And it speaks to the architecture of the album, which is togetherness, peace, love, unity. These are the things I think we need to focus on in building the world.”
Since 2020, following a well-traveled career as a keyboardist for several pop music A-listers, BLKBOK has been making a name with his imaginative instrumental compositions, eloquently performed and often themed with a socially conscious eye.
While the hip-hop in his music comes more via the spirit than the sound, it’s an intriguing approach, and BLKBOK — with his flashy rings, amply tattooed right arm and Detroit royal “D” emblazoned on his chest — certainly looks the part.
Having grown up on Detroit’s west side, BLKBOK attended Ann Arbor Trail Middle School and spent two years at Cass Tech before finishing out his high school time at the Detroit School of Arts. He’d been a piano standout since age 6, studying into his teens under the tutelage of late Lathrup Village piano instructor Toma Schwartz.
Mozart, Debussy and Bach were among his obsessions, he says, but after high school, he found himself drawn to Detroit’s jazz scene, rubbing shoulders with influential players such as Marcus Belgrave and Richard (Pistol) Allen.
“These people who were influential in Motown always say there’s no better city to grow up as a musician than Detroit because there’s so much of it there,” BLKBOK says. “My history and my roots in Detroit run really, really, really deep. I still love the fact that the city has so much to offer. There’s so much (musical) variety — whatever you want to do, it’s available.”
He eventually headed to Florida (“I’ll give you the real — I was kind of getting into trouble,” he says), made his way to Full Sail University and devoted his musical energies to playing with local bands.
It was there that he was discovered and soon enlisted for Justin Timberlake’s touring band in 2003, playing around the globe on the Justified Tour. Such work continued to pour in for the pianist, still known then as Charles Wilson, and he toured with acts such as the Backstreet Boys, Rihanna, John Mayer and Demi Lovato while honing his studio chops making beats with the likes of Timbaland.
It was following a stint with Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson production, “Immortal,” that the epiphany came.
“Honestly, when I was done with that, it was just: You know, I’ve been listening to Michael Jackson in my head every day. Who’s next?” he says. “And the only answer I could get was me. So I started on that path.”
In late 2019, prompted by a push from his publisher, the pianist set out to create a solo album. The pandemic lockdown turned out to have a silver lining: Adopting the name BLKBOK, he composed at his keyboard for 121 consecutive days, crafting 10 pieces and landing a record deal.
That debut album, “Black Book,” was released in summer 2021, following an EP dubbed “CVRART,” featuring classically infused renditions of songs by Drake, Cardi B and others.
“It was all an experiment for me — and it still is an experiment — but it worked,” he says. “Somehow I had mixed the right chemicals to create something that was really cool. So this (new album ‘9’) is just the continuation. This is the second iteration of, ‘Let’s sit down and mix some chemicals and see what we get.’”
It wasn’t just the quarantine that fueled BLKBOK’s creative vision: Amid the killing of George Floyd and other racially charged 2020 incidents, he found a thematic purpose.
For the new album, BLKBOK traveled the South, meeting with police reform advocates and ultimately crafting a largely instrumental album of what he calls “conversation starters.”
Song titles such as “Magic’s Apology to Isiah,” “The Dissolution of Kanye West” and “Toddlers Don’t Care About Race” give a sense of the record’s bent.
That last one, says BLKBOK, “is just a reminder to us adults that, you know, this is not really what the world is all about. It’s about this wonderment and understanding that everything is beautiful, and let’s have fun. And that’s pretty much what the album is all about — just togetherness.”
While writing, he sits at a keyboard, digitally recording it all as he goes, playing “until something feels right.” Later, he’ll listen through, pick out the bits that speak to him, and begin filling in a song like a jigsaw puzzle.
Despite his deep classical background, he says he doesn’t consciously tap the style or approach of the composer greats who enchanted him in his youth. The inspiration is instead intuitive, as on “What Is Truth,” whose chorus melody was shaped around a four-note bird song he heard outdoors.
“So I’m not really leaning on anything that’s been created in the past. My ideal and objective is to create things relevant to our time,” he says. “I think classical music very much exists around pieces that were created, 100, 200, 300 years ago. But what about what’s going on right now? I think our time needs its own voice as well.”
BLKBOK’s live shows typically find him solo at a piano, often accompanied by video and recorded poetry, performing for what he calls “the most diverse, colorful audiences I’ve ever seen.”
“With music like this, I believe that it allows enough space for everyone’s mind to kind of travel, to create their own narrative. I’m not giving you anything to lock you into these words. And I think that’s always a great experience for people. The beautiful thing after shows is that people always say, ‘You made me cry.’ And I say, ‘Well, that means I did my job.’”
BLKBOK says he’s enjoying his artistic journey as it goes (“there’s no final destination,” he says), and while he’s focused for now on the new record, his songs are being arranged for orchestra by a cousin, music scholar Bill Banfield. He hopes to perform at some point with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
And even as a seasoned piano pro, BLKBOK says his solo adventure continues to bring new lessons.
“I have a better understanding of art, like the fact that I’m just the vessel, sitting here with a message and using frequency and resonance to convey an idea,” he says. “I think that’s the most important thing I’ve learned in the last couple of years — and this vision has become more focused.”
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.