NEDERLAND — Joslyn Ford-Keel, known professionally as JoFoKe, has essentially been a professional musician for her entire life. The daughter of professional musicians Jennifer Ford Keel and Joe Keel, she found and pursued music on her own terms.
“According to my parents, I started singing before I could speak,” she says. “I would sing along to whatever I heard, so I really was making melodic noise before I could form words.”
Performing her first paid gig at five years old, she attended the Denver School of the Arts and graduated from East High School before earning a spot at Fisk University.
“I guess in the 90s, the arts were a little more prevalent than they are now,” reflects Ford-Keel on music programs in her early school years. “Public school, education, the music departments were fierce and there were rivalries. It was a healthy thing, like with any sports team.”
In her college years, she toured around the world with the Fisk Jubilee Singers and sang on their album "In Bright Mansions" (nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package). She says June 2027 will mark 40 years since her first paid gig.
“I think jazz has been kind of a compass for me,” says Ford-Keel, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in classical music. “It has informed everything. Whether it’s classical, gospel, R&B, or funk, I can hear everything in and through jazz.”
During the COVID pandemic, Ford-Keel cemented the lineup of her quartet Same Cloth, performing as the vocalist with Solomon J. Chapman Sr. on keyboard, Will Gaines on bass, and Matthew J. Campbell Sr. on drums. The members had performed together in various capacities, performing their first gig as Same Cloth at the Juneteenth celebration in Dazzle Denver.
“It’s always so inspiring for us, even as the players, the purveyors of the music, to just create,” says Ford-Keel about performing jazz. “We definitely are sticklers for preparation; we’re well-prepared in such a way to where we can improvise, where there is that comfort, that confidence but also a freedom.”
Along with her family, Ford-Keel performs in a wide variety of styles and genres. However, through her history as a performer, she says playing jazz is where she feels most at home.
JoFoKe and Same Cloth will perform as the middle act at the 5th Annual Nederland Jazz and Wine Festival, hosted in Chipeta Park in Nederland on Saturday, August 22, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Same Cloth will perform from noon to 2 p.m.
