Robben Ford -

Robben Ford is an American jazz and blues guitarist whose career spans work with Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, George Harrison, and Tom Scott. He formed the group that became the Yellowjackets around the sessions for his 1979 album The Inside Story and remained closely associated with the band through its early development. Ford later established a long-running solo career with albums including Talk to Your Daughter, Mystic Mile, Tiger Walk, and Truth.

Background

Robben Lee Ford was born Dec. 16, 1951, in Woodlake, Calif., and grew up in Ukiah. He was the third of four sons in a musical family; father Charles Ford worked as a country-and-western singer-guitarist, while mother Kathryn Ford played piano and sang at home. Older brother Patrick played drums, and younger brother Mark took up harmonica.

Ford began alto saxophone at age ten after seeing a featured soloist in a school band. His father showed him initial guitar chords in his early teens, and Ford taught himself from records, chord books, and scale books after he heard Mike Bloomfield on the first Paul Butterfield Blues Band album. By 1968, Robben and Patrick played local dates in the Ford Blues Band, which soon added Mark on harmonica and worked around Ukiah through Robben’s years at Ukiah High School.

After high school, Robben and Patrick moved to San Jose and formed an early Charles Ford Band in 1970 with harmonica player Gary Smith and bassist Stan Poplin. Charlie Musselwhite recruited Patrick and Robben for a touring band that recorded Takin’ My Time for Arhoolie in early 1971. Ford left Musselwhite by mid-1971 and reassembled the Charles Ford Band with Patrick, Mark, and Poplin; Chris Strachwitz recorded the quartet at Funky Features in San Francisco in January and March 1972 for The Charles Ford Band.

Ford also assembled a quartet with keyboardist Paul Nagle, bassist Poplin, and drummer Jim Baum that played Ford compositions and modern-jazz repertoire. Jimmy Witherspoon hired the quartet in 1972 after he heard Ford at a Northern California engagement, and the group backed him at the Troubadour in Hollywood and Monterey Jazz Festival. Ford joined the 1973 West Coast Guitar Explosion concerts in San Francisco and Los Angeles through Witherspoon management.

Tom Scott recruited Ford in 1974 as the replacement for Larry Carlton in the L.A. Express, which backed Joni Mitchell on her tour behind Court and Spark. The tour, documented on Miles of Aisles, led to his role on her 1975 album The Hissing of Summer Lawns. He also backed Scott on Tom Cat and the concurrent George Harrison album Dark Horse, joining the ex-Beatles‘ North American tour. Ford remained with the L.A. Express for the 1976 self-titled Caribou album L.A. Express.

Ford conceived six originals as music for a low-budget film project. Chris Huston produced and engineered Ford with keyboardist Paul Nagle, bassist Stan Poplin, and drummer Jim Baum on the 1976 L.A. International album Schizophonic.

Sideman Credits, 1977–79

In 1977, Ford played electric guitar on “Two Lives” for Bonnie Raitt on Sweet Forgiveness, appearing alongside keyboardist Bill Payne and backing singers Michael McDonald and Rosemary Butler (ex-Birtha). Kenny Loggins used Ford across six tracks on Celebrate Me Home, co-produced by Bob James.

Other sessions placed Ford on the 1977 Barbra Streisand release Superman and the self-titled Merrilee Rush album. Perry Botkin Jr. featured a Ford guitar solo on “Low Tide” from the A&M album Ports. Ford also played acoustic guitar on the Capitol soundtrack Outlaw Blues, which included performances by Steven Fromholz, Hoyt Axton, Peter Fonda, and Susan Saint James.

Steely Dan hired Ford to attempt the guitar solo on “Peg” from Aja. Engineer Elliot Scheiner recorded a Ford take that Walter Becker and Donald Fagen retained temporarily, then erased as they continued auditions with other guitarists. Jay Graydon played the solo used on the released master.

The Sylvers included Ford among the guitarists on the 1978 Casablanca album Forever Yours, recorded at Capitol Records Studios in Hollywood. The album’s credit list names Ford, Graydon, fellow guitarists Herman Brown, Mitch Holder, Tim May, and group member Ricky Sylvers.

Maria Muldaur employed Ford on two tracks for her 1979 Warner album Open Your Eyes. Ford played electric guitar on “Birds Fly South (When Winter Comes)” with bassist Willie Weeks, drummer Peter Bunetta, percussionist Bobbye Hall, and acoustic guitarist David Nichtern. Stevie Wonder appeared on harmonica. Ford returned on “Clean Up Woman” alongside saxophonist Junior Walker and slide guitarist Rick Vito.

Little Feat credited Ford as a guest guitarist on their 1979 album Down on the Farm. The sessions also used guitarists David Lindley and guitarist Fred Tackett, plus pedal-steel guitarist Sneaky Pete Kleinow.

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