Jesús Florido Talks About His Early Days

Before the interview, Jesús Florido was busy chasing his young son around the house; homework needed doing!  When Jesús was a child, his parents didn’t have the time to chase him around, except when it came to attending school, lessons, and sports practice. He remembers them placing his future in his hands at 6 years old: one sport and one art, what’s it going to be?  He chose piano (and tennis), but after several lessons with a tyrannical teacher he quit.  Of course, his mother asked him what new instrument he was going to replace it with!  

Jesús Florido’s Italian father fed him many styles of music throughout his youth – jazz, classical, latin – and, that day, bought front seat tickets to an orchestra concert.  “Choose an instrument.”  As the orchestra played Beethoven’s Fifth, the cellos struck Jesús with their gruff, intense athleticism.  He had discovered his new instrument. Meanwhile, his father found a local youth orchestra, called El Sistema, that was taking on new players and providing instruments for them.  This was around 1974, when the now famous youth orchestra of Venezuela, El Sistema, was organizing its first large-scale (roughly two-hundred strong!) youth orchestra.  Jesús visited their office to borrow a cello, but the only options for little kids were flute or violin!  And he wasn’t about to switch from his cello dream to a silly little flute, so he joined the orchestra, placed in the very back of the 2nd violins.  

After several rehearsals of struggling to see the conductor, playing in slight delay from the center, and generally feeling unimportant, Jesús wanted to quit.  But his Mom said, “Well, I guess if you want to be better, you better practice! Because that’s the only way to get to the front seat.”  Supplied with a plan, Jesús let his competitive nature take over, driving him to practice with more determination.  Well, with as much determination as a young kid gets; so, his Mother found a way to ignite the fire just a little more.  She didn’t force him to practice long hours, but handed him a simple rule: when you don’t practice, you don’t eat. 

“When you take a break from food, you can take a break from the violin,” Jesús explains matter of factly, with a smile.

All the while, he contended with a foreign violin teacher who taught in a mix of broken Italian, Spanish, and the occasional Polish!  If that wasn’t enough, his teacher only provided Jesús Russian manuscripts; lessons in the Cyrillic alphabet accompanied lessons in violin craft.  Luckily, Jesús was a natural linguist, and a year later he progressed to the front seat of the orchestra.

When asked what keeps him focused and buoyant throughout career hardships, Jesús tells me his father is to thank.  Mr. Florido passed on a love of music through tons of shared records and performances.  When Jesús won the local violin competition for 16-18 year olds – as an 11 year old – Mr. Florido gave him a record of Kind of Blue by Miles Davis.  The quiet energy and honesty of that music is still cherished by Jesús to this day, as a place of safety and love offering refuge. 

Originally, Mr. Florido believed that music had to be fun, not something to make money with.  Despite harboring reservations about Jesús’ career path, he wasn’t always discouraging. Once, Jesús stopped playing his beloved Mozart pieces after his teacher declared Mozart wrote the hardest music; Mr. Florido countered by encouraging him to continue, that he could play anything he set his mind on.  Carrying that flame, Jesús entered the professional music realm with his love of music intact.  Eventually satisfied, Mr. Florido embraced Jesús’ professional choice and became a proud father, always calling to find out what Jesús was up to next. 

The famously prolific folk violinist, Mark O’Connor, saw Jesús Florido improvising for kicks with a Latin percussion player during a recording session, and said, “You should do that!”  Jesús wasn’t sure, but agreed to teach at O’Connor’s camp, and became convinced it was time to break out of Classical-only playing. O’Connor made him connections, set him up with other players.  He was the incubator for Jesús’ entrepreneurial beginnings, encouraging him to explore electric instruments.

Once introduced to the 5-string electric violin, Jesús was hooked.  In the late nineties, upon gaining his confidence with the new instrument, he transitioned to a career in music outside the Classical realm. Shortly after, in 1998, he bought his first 7-string electric (and hasn’t looked back).  Since playing the 5-string, the limited range of four strings just doesn’t have the same lure.  As a viola player, I completely understand the need for that C string!  Now Jesús only uses his 4-string acoustic for Classical performances.  In every other style, he uses the extended range of variably tuned 5, 6, and 7 string violins.

For those not familiar with playing violin, switching between different tunings and string-numbers is very difficult and quickly becomes confusing.  How does he manage to interchange them? Apparently, Jesús relies on one simple trick.  He learned from his college teacher, Davis Brooks, to treat every different tuning or number of strings as a separate instrument even though the general techniques overlap. 

Much like a band player who comfortably switches between members of the clarinet and saxophone families (and more), Jesús seamlessly switches between his instruments.  However, adopting a new setup isn’t immediate.  Eager to take advantage of every element the unprecedented range provided, Jesús spent a year getting comfortable with the 7-string electric violin before he played it in public.  Now he is in the same transition with a 6-string Glassar acoustic violin, with debut recordings planned for this June.

Jesús plays in different styles the same way a cook grows their cultural repertoire or a bored linguist takes a new language under their belt.  His obsession with sound may have something to do with it.  He told me no matter how little he knows of a language, he will only speak with an impeccable accent (to his own embarrassment when people assume he knows more!).  Over time, he applied this same determination to the music of India, Latin America, American Folk, and more.  Now, he takes great joy in eclectic navigation through these “languages” of music. 

But does he portray a different facet of himself in each cultural style, or present a united identity? He answers with another language analogy: just as someone’s personality conveys itself effectively in different languages, his unique vocal identity find expression in each musical style.  And his approach is very vocal.  Jesús sings through his instrument, inspired by his youthful hours listening to radio Met broadcasts with his grandfather. And he cherishes the single most important aspect of a unique voice: sound.  That’s where the YourHeaven CloseUp System delivers! 

When Jesús Florido first encountered our system at our NAMM festival booth several years ago, he got it immediately.  Setting him up twenty feet from the drum section, it was horribly noisy. Yet even there, Jesús could hear the difference.  He remembers gleefully calling his wife that day to spread the good news: his 20 year search for uncompromising sound had ended!  When he came back asking for a custom wireless setup, we were more than happy to help.  (Due to high costs of wireless systems worth using, we generally don’t sell a wireless version).  He gave us confidence that we were on to something, that we had a product worth investing in.  

Jesús has many examples on tour where the sound he gets out of the CloseUp System created unique musical moments.  Within intimate Indian music concerts, Jesús’ electric violin shines thanks to our system. Afterwards, people come up and rave about the special tone and expressivity Jesús Florido gets out of his instrument.  He’s particularly happy with our EzQ feature. “[The closeup system is great] if you are looking for the ability to mold your sound, because you can really shape it to what you need, or what you want, what you hear.” He’s tried every mic out there and none has this ability.  He has two settings on his CloseUp box for his five-string violin: one setting for a plane acoustic sound, and one for effects.  The software allows him to shape the EQ, the reverb, and more.

Jesús is determined to have the same features and capabilities with his new Glassar 6-string acoustic violin.  So, we are hard at work tinkering with our proprietary software to adjust to the huge range of all 6 strings at once!  Jesús says matter of factly:

“Well, I’m expanding your company.  I’m expanding your horizons and your technical capabilities!  [More Glassar 6-strings are on their way,] so people are going to need this, if they want to sound great.”