Ken comes from an extended family where it seems like everyone was musically inclined. His great-grandfather, Henry Kailimai, was a virtuoso ukelele player and composer who came from Hawaii in 1915 to perform at the Pan Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. The performances by him and other Hawaiian musicians exposed the public to Hawaiian music for the first time, fueling the exploding popularity of Hawaiian music on the mainland. Attending the exposition was Henry Ford, and he was so impressed with Henry Kailimai that he persuaded him and four other Hawaiian musicians to move to Detroit, Michigan to be artists in residence for the Ford Motor Company. Because of Henry Ford’s friendship with Thomas Edison, the group traveled to New York and made several recordings at The Edison Recording Studio, using Edison’s new phonograph invention, which he was perfecting at the time.

            Ken’s grandfather was a professional pianist by night, and an engineer by day. His career was curtailed due to the wishes of his wife, who didn’t want him to go on the road. Ken’s mother was a vocalist who performed in nightclubs with her father when she was in high school. (Later, when she got a night job, and slept in the daytime, Ken as a young child was left to his own devices during the day, so he figured out how to work the record player, and listened to Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” and Duke Ellington’s “Take The A Train” over and over again.) Ken’s siblings are musicians as well. Ken’s sister was a classical pianist, and an older brother who played guitar in a band got Ken interested in music, and guitar in particular. He gave Ken his first guitar when Ken was eleven.

            At this time, Ken’s family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from their home in Kansas. In high school, Ken took classical guitar lessons, and competed at music competitions. He became interested in Rhythm and Blues, playing along with records, and Ken’s Mom, who noticed her son’s growing interest in music, and who was aware of various fusion artists through listening to local radio, bought him recordings by Earl Klugh, George Benson, the Yellow Jackets, and Joe Pass. Ken also started listening to Chuck Mangione and Larry Carlton, who became his heroes at the time. While still in high school, Ken joined a top-40 band with a repertoire of Hawaiian songs and top-40 dance tunes, which played every Friday night at a local country club.

            After high school, when Ken was 19, he attended the Dick Grove School of Music in the Los Angeles area for one year. “I got tired of not knowing harmony, so I decided to learn”, he says. “Dick Grove was totally into harmony and reading music. One teacher taught the harmony class, but I had to skip it because I worked at a hardware store, so I picked up harmony in guitar class. Those guys gave me enough information for 50 years. They typed up handouts to give us, there was a workbook, and I also took notes. All the different instruments practiced reading music in Ensemble Class. None of the guitar players could read. They all just sat together in the class and acted like Beavis and Butthead. The guitar players were always the worst readers. Guitar is hard to read on, though, because there are so many different ways to play a line.”

            On visits back home to Sunnyvale, he became aware of the local jazz-rock fusion scene then in full swing. A local radio station, KPEN, promoted fusion music extensively, and Ken was attracted to the scene, which included Russell Ferrante of the Yellowjackets, and Robben Ford. Many of the local clubs featured fusion bands, and Ken saw an opportunity, thinking that it would be easier to break into the scene here than in L.A., with all its competition. Wanting to meet new musicians, he found a job playing in the pit band at Marriott’s Great America theme park for a show called “The Evolution of Rock”. He worked there for two years, and met drummer Lance Dresser (who would go on to play with Maynard Ferguson and Super Diamond), and keyboardist Ted Kooshian (who later moved to New York City to become a successful freelance jazz player). With drummer Lance Dresser, Ken put together his own band in 1981, “The Ken Harrill Group”, and started working at Charley’s, a San Jose club. Also in the band was his older brother Mark on vocals, and John Gehmen on bass.

            “We were mainly a club band”, Ken says. “We started out playing fusion, which I liked because it was more harmonically complex than R&B. Later, we began playing mostly top-40, the top-40 we liked- stuff by Lee Ritenour, Jeff Lorber, and Toto. We did a few casual gigs too. We played quite a bit. We used to play this place in Saratoga called Blondie’s. In Mountain View we played at a club called the “Monterey Whaling Company”, in San Jose it was the “Grog and Sirloin” and Charley’s”, and in Palo Alto we played at “The Winery”. Since I was the leader of the band, I booked the band myself. I had a mailing list- I did everything. I can’t believe I did that! I guess it was before I knew how much misery there was in doing that.”

            Ken also signed up for a big band class at De Anza College in Cupertino. The big band had no pianist, so Ken, along with another guitarist, supplied the chordal accompaniment. Ken played for the vocal class as well, playing in the rhythm section, which also had no piano player.

            After the Ken Harrill group petered out, Ken started freelancing, playing top-40, country recording sessions, and his favorite gigs, fusion and straight ahead jazz. He also began writing material in the fusion style, mostly instrumental, but some pop vocal tunes as well.

             In 2000, he joined Dick Bright’s SRO band, which does corporate events all over the United States, and some weddings too. “Dick was number one on the west coast for corporate gigs, now he’s not working nearly as much. We had too much work before sep 11, and I thought, I don’t know if I want to spend the rest of my life being a corporate guy, it was taking away time from everything else”. SRO did of lot of jobs for the tech companies in Silicon Valley, but after September 11, most of the gigs were out of town. There were many restrictions on flying, making it difficult for the band. “I can’t stand flying”, Ken groans. “Some airlines have their own rules for baggage, and I never knew if I had to check my guitar. On one flight, the trombone player had to check his horn, and they dented his bell. They made him check it on the way back too. I got a lot of frequent flyer miles, though. I went to Rome for $75. There was nobody on the plane, everyone was scared to fly, it was great!”

            “My favorite jazz guitar players are George Benson, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, and Pat Martino. George Benson is my favorite modern player. I like the emotional impact that he has, and he plays with good technique, but doesn’t always feel the need to display it. He knows how to play bluesy when it’s called for, how to play pretty when it’s called for, how to play modal when it’s called for- he plays the right stuff at the right time. Michael Brecker is probably my favorite musician for any instrument. I listened to the first Michael Brecker record (his first as a leader) over and over. For fusion, I like Larry Carlton, Mike Stern, Bob Berg- I liked Robben Ford a lot, still do.”

            Regarding the future, he says “Eventually I’d like to put my own record out. I might put out something that appeals to me, which probably means a fusion album, which probably won’t be big for the audience!”

            “I think it’s good to play for yourself, in other words, don’t look for recognition or approval from the audience, and don’t play the way you think people want you to play. Play for yourself, and be true to yourself. Just have a good time and play, that’s the way I look at it.”

            Ken has also played with Prodigy, Napata Mero, Import Export, Narada Michael Walden, Eric Martin, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Booker T. Jones, Clarence Clemons, Neil Young, Patti Austin and her “West Coast Band”, Angela Bofill, and the “Bammies” band (Bay Area Music Awards).

            He has recorded for the music video games “Guitar Hero” and “Karaoke Revolution”, the movie “Return to Two Moon Junction”, and the San Francisco Bay Area TV station KTVU’s “Mornings on Two” news show theme song.