Updated: July 12, 2025
Born: August 5, 1967
Robert C. Ford, known as the Wall $treet Poet, is a globe-trotting poet, lyricist and spoken word artist based in New York City. His performances span Europe and the Americas, and he is recognized for blending poetry with music; collaborating with world-class performers across genres including pop, rock, jazz and opera. His words are delivered both in his own voice and interpreted by acclaimed vocalists.
He has released two albums of poetry set to music: The Music Between Us (2021) and Footprints of Steel (2025). These works feature collaborations with notable composers such as Charles Coleman (Paavo Järvi, London Symphony Orchestra), Adam Holzman (Miles Davis, Steven Wilson), Mark Kostabi (Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion, Ornette Coleman), Carli Muñoz (Beach Boys, Wilson Pickett), Gene Pritsker (Matrix Resurrections, Joe Zawinul) and Jay Rodriguez Sierra (Groove Collective, Wu-Tang Clan).
Ford has also performed alongside other celebrated musicians including: Gerry Brown (drums--Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder), John Clark (horn--Gil Evans), Jane Getter (guitar--SNL Band), Jason Kao Hwang (violin), Paul Nowinski (bass--Les Paul, Keith Richards), Harvie S (bass), Dave Soldier (violin--Bo Diddley, John Cale) and David Taylor (bass trombone--Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones).
He has graced the stages of prominent New York City venues such as Birdland Jazz Club, The Bitter End, Joe's Pub, Pianos, Le Poisson Rouge, Chelsea Table + Stage, Nublu, The Stonewall Inn and Theatre 80. Beyond NYC, he has performed at Howland Cultural Center (Beacon, NY), Jazz Club ZWE (Vienna, Austria), Centro Mexicana para la Musica y las Artes Sonoras (Morelia, Mexico), NWEAMO Festival (San Diego, CA) and University of Costa Rica (San José, Costa Rica). In September 2022, he was featured with Grammy-winner Suzanne Vega at the Players Theatre as part of The Village Trip Festival.
Ford is also the host and curator of Sky Vault, an intimate concert and performance venue in New York City.
His work has been mentioned in outlets including New York Daily News and AM New York. He has appeared on podcasts such as Missing Link Ensemble with Eddy Malave and Composers with Drinks Listening to Music. His recordings have aired on radio stations including WFMU 91.1 FM (Jersey City), WPRB 103.3 FM (Princeton), WRUU 107.5 FM (Savannah) and WMSE 91.7 FM (Milwaukee).
Read moreTags
All About Jazz Articles
Articles Across the Web
...or were mentioned in an All About Jazz article.
- Moonlight & Maple Syrup [Baseball Poems by Robert C. Ford] - Rutland Herald - Aug 25, 2024
- NWEAMO Festival Featuring Soprano Ljiljana Winkler, Poet Robert C. Ford & CompCord Ensemble - KPBS - Jan 27, 2024
- Guitars and Poems at Greenwich House [Robert C. Ford poet] - NYS Arts Council - Dec 20, 2023
- Mark Kostabi's Paintings Interpreted by Composers and Poets Including Michelle Shocked, Kathleen Supove, Robert C. Ford and Gene Pritsker - NY Daily News (Richard Johnson) - Oct 23, 2023
- Robert C. Ford Reads His Poem "Suicide Barbie" with CompCord Ensemble - Highlands Current - Jun 30, 2023
- Robert C. Ford Gifts Mark Kostabi a Birthday Poem Backed by Trio Led by Gerry Brown - NY Daily News (Richard Johnson) - Dec 25, 2022
- Songs and Poems Featuring Suzanne Vega [Robert C. Ford poet] - The Village Trip - Sep 14, 2022
- Michael Wolff Trio, Dan Cooper Quartet and Gene Pritsker's Sound Liberation at Birdland Jazz Club [Robert C. Ford poet] - New Music USA - Mar 3, 2022
- "The Music Between Us" with Poetry by Robert C. Ford Album Review - No Scene Unheard (Andrew Humphries) - Feb 22, 2022
- Review: Gene Pritsker's Sound Liberation @ Chelsea Table + Stage [Robert C. Ford poet] - No Scene Unheard (Roger Hitts) - Feb 11, 2022
- Octavio Maya Rocha and Robert C. Ford Premiere "Ascending Volumes" At Zebra Film Festival in Berlin - PECIME - Jul 16, 2021
- Octavio Maya Rocha Brings Together Robert C. Ford, Mark Kostabi and Gene Pritsker for "The Call - NYC" - PECIME - Feb 5, 2021
Gene Pritsker's Sound Liberation Featuring Amira B. & Dick Griffin At Joe's Pub Saturday, August 23, 2025
Source:
Robert C. Ford
On Saturday, August 23, 2025, Sound Liberation, the audacious musical collective led by visionary composer, guitarist, and rapper Gene Pritsker, storms the stage at the vibrant Joe's Pub in NYC. Armed with the philosophy of “ending the segregation of sound vibration,” Pritsker and his ensemble obliterate genre boundaries, fusing classical elegance, jazz improvisation, rock intensity, hip-hop swagger, and global grooves into one electrifying soundscape. This one-night-only performance will feature powerhouse R&B vocalist Amira B., a Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal ...
read more
Mark Kostabi To Host Exclusive Salon Concert At His Rome Villa On Friday, July 18, 2025
Source:
Robert C. Ford
On Friday, July 18, 2025, internationally renowned artist and musician Mark Kostabi, famed for painting the iconic Guns N’ Roses Use Your Illusion album cover, will open the doors of his luxury villa in Rome, Italy, for an intimate salon concert. In addition to his celebrated visual art, Kostabi is an accomplished composer and pianist whose collaborations include jazz legend Ornette Coleman. For this special evening, he will be joined by a lineup of acclaimed performers, including: Tony Esposito: legendary ...
read more
Harlem Jazz Series Featuring In4mation On May 16, 2025
Source:
Robert C. Ford
On Friday, May 16, 2025 at 7pm EST, Harlem Jazz Series presents In4Mation, a quartet dedicated to improvisation and compositions that encourage exploration of groove and ensemble interplay. The music evolves from original scores and charts through the musicians' personal interpretation and the merging of the quartet's distinct voices. The band features Jane Getter (guitar—Saturday Night Live Band, Brother Jack McDuff), Gene Pritsker (guitar—Matrix Resurrections, Joe Zawinul), Harvie S (bass—Mike Stern, Sheila Jordan, Michael Brecker, Kenny Barron) and Gerry Brown ...
read more
Keyboardist Adam Holzman's 'Schizo' Concert On December 6, 2024
Source:
Robert C. Ford
On Friday, December 6th, 2024 at 7pm EST, acclaimed keyboardist Adam Holzman (Miles Davis, Steven Wilson) will perform with Jane Getter (guitar—Saturday Night Live Band, Jack McDuff), and Gene Pritsker (Di.J—Matrix Resurrections, Joe Zawinul) at an intimate concert at the Chelsea townhouse of renowned artist and pianist Mark Kostabi (Guns N’ Roses Use Your Illusion, Ramones Adios Amigos, Ornette Coleman). The music will feature acoustic tones from Kostabi’s Steinway D concert grand piano in tandem with frenzied electronic textures. ...
read more
Anthony Arya (NBC's The Voice) Performs Intimate Concert At Sky Vault On September 29
Source:
Robert C. Ford
On Sunday, September 29th, 2024, at 4:00pm EST, singer-songwriter Anthony Arya will perform an intimate salon concert at Sky Vault in the Financial District of New York City. Arya catapulted to national prominence following his performance on NBC's The Voice Season 15 (Team Adam Levine). Subsequently, he has released 4 albums, including his latest, As It Turns Out, featuring the single "Why Don't I". Arya will be joined by Robert C. Ford, aka Wall Street Poet. The two became fast ...
read more
Chuck Connelly's Art Interpreted By Music And Poetry on September 22, 2024
Source:
Robert C. Ford
On Sunday, September 22nd, 2024, world-class musicians and poets will gather at the home studio of renowned artist Chuck Connelly to interpret his paintings through music and words. Connelly rose to fame in the 1980's and was immortalized by Martin Scorsese in the film New York Stories. However, he shunned the commercial art world, and for the past 25 years has lived as a recluse in his Victorian home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania surrounded by over 5,000 of his paintings. One ...
read more
Composers Concordance's 'Compcord@40' Compilation Album Release May 3, 2024
Source:
Robert C. Ford
CompCord@40 is a 22-track digital-only compilation album featuring a variety of eclectic cross-over new music curated from Composers Concordance Records (CCR) extensive catalogue. CCR has released 88 albums by well-known artists including jazz luminaries, Adam Holzman, John Clark and David Taylor; Hip-Hop artist Keith LeBlanc; percussionists Glen Velez and Peter Jarvis; conductor Kristjan Jarvi and The Absolute Ensemble, and composers Gene Pritsker, Dan Cooper, Debra Kaye, and Shanan Estreicher. The cover art image and design are by graphic artist Graham ...
read more
John S. Hall Of King Missile Strikes Sky Vault + Mike Visceglia, Gene Pritsker, Wayne Dumaine, Charles Coleman, Robert C. Ford & Carlinius M On March 29, 2024
Source:
Robert C. Ford
On Friday March 29, 2024, at 7:30pm EST an intimate salon concert will be held at Sky Vault in the Financial District of New York City. Featured performers include poets Robert C. Ford, John S. Hall (King Missile) and Carli Munoz aka Carlinius M (Beach Boys, Eddie Gomez), accompanied by baritone Charles Coleman (Paavo Järvi, London Symphony Orchestra) and musicians Mike Visceglia (bass—Suzanne Vega, John Cale), Gene Pritsker (guitar—Matrix Resurrections, Joe Zawinul) and Wayne Dumaine (trumpet—New York Philharmonic, Prince). John ...
read more
Gene Pritsker's Sound Liberation Feat. Lara St. John At Joe's Pub Saturday, March 9, 2024
Source:
Robert C. Ford
On March 9th at 7pm (doors open 6pm), Joe's Pub and Composers Concordance present “Vivaldi's Hot House." This composition by Gene Pritsker (Matrix Resurrections, Joe Zawinul) is a starting point for this eclectic event with violin doyenne Lara St. John and Pritsker's ensemble Sound Liberation. The concert will feature a genre defying repertoire of music inspired by various composers from the past including Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Mozart, reinterpreted with jazz, metal, hip-hop, etc. Featured singers include soprano Adriana Valdes, baritone ...
read more
Gene Pritsker's Sound Liberation At Nublu Sunday, February 25, 2024
Source:
Robert C. Ford
On February 25, 2024 at 7:30pm, Composers Concordance presents The Sound Liberation Trio at Nublu (151 Avenue C, NYC). The trio is comprised of Gene Pritsker (Matrix Resurrections, Joe Zawinul) guitar, Adam Holzman (Miles Davis, Steven Wilson, Brave New World) moog/synth and David Cossin (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) drums in a program of eclectic trio compositions. Joining the trio are trumpeter Franz Hackl (Outreach Music Festival) and trombonist Dick Griffin (Sun Ra's Arkestra) as well as poets Kelsea Brunner, Robert ...
read more
”What exactly is “new music” these days and how much further can it strive beyond the high Downtown years? One answer may lie within Footprints of Steel's fourth selection, “Not All Apples Are Blue Color”, which embraces the wonderfully bizarre. No, this cut is not of the Dada school, it isn’t No Wave, nor post-punk, but of a late-1960s fashion recalling Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable and an acoustic Velvet Underground, wherein Robert C. Ford's recitation and droning vocal are interspersed with Milica Paranosic’s mellifluous singing and piercing spoken word, anchored by Brian DuFord’s classical guitar
