Throughout my career as a composer and saxophonist, I’ve had many opportunities to collaborate with artists from various musical genres and other creative mediums. The process of discovering common threads in each individual art form and then blurring those boundaries in search of a new form of expression is an adventure that I’ve found to be extremely satisfying. Some of the work that I’ve produced, along with my collaborators, include ballet scores, orchestral works, animations, theater productions, film scores, and more. When I look back at my start as a composer, it’s sometimes hard to believe the incredible directions that music has taken me.
I’m originally from Peoria, a mid-size city in Central Illinois and was born into a musical family. My father is a professional musician and composer working mainly in the African American church. I am very grateful to have grown up in this community. My earliest memories include many nights attending church with my parents that were filled with beautiful music. As in many African American churches, the music played such an important role in every aspect of the service. For example, I can distinctly hear the warm sounds of the Hammond B-3 organ for welcoming people into the sanctuary, or the various tones of the praise and worship section of the service, and the call and response segments during the end of the sermon when the pastor begins “whooping”. These experiences allowed me to be a part of a real-world collaboration between the musicians, clergy, and the congregation. Also, from a very early age, I could see that music had a real impact on people. It wasn’t just something you did at school. It was real and the emotions that people felt during each service were powerful.
Aside from my experience in the church, I was also very eager to take advantage of the musical offerings at my grade school. In 4th grade, we were allowed to study orchestral instruments and I started playing violin. Then, in 5th grade, I started playing the alto saxophone. During the summer before 8th grade, I began taking saxophone lessons with Larry Harms. He is an incredible teacher that has inspired so many musicians in the Central Illinois area over the years. In our lessons, Larry stressed the importance of learning how to play the piano and showed me how to voice ii-V-I’s. From that point on, I made sure to spend almost as much time playing piano as I played saxophone. Part of my piano study included going through my “Fake Book” to play chord changes of any compositions with basic ii-V-I harmonic progressions.
When I entered high school, I used to get a ride with one of my friends that was also in jazz band. One morning, he mentioned that we should compose music together. I had never considered this and didn’t know where to be begin but was very much excited about the possibility of composing my own music. Sometime after this discussion, my first composition popped into my head. I still remember the moment clearly. In the early morning, while I was out delivering newspapers, a tune started to brew in my mind. I couldn’t believe it. For the remainder of my route, I sang the idea over and over until I could get back to the house to attempt to write it down. With a little work, I was able to complete my first composition before heading to school. I called it “The Route”, which was composed over the form of rhythm changes. From that point on, a new hunger was ignited in me. I loved composing and wanted to do whatever I could to refine this new skill.
Throughout college, there were many opportunities to compose for standard jazz ensembles like quartets, quintets, and sextets. Many of my compositions, during this time, had shorter forms that followed the “head in, solos, head out” formula. Around the summer after my first year of college, I began spending more time playing on the Chicago music scene, which was beautifully diverse. Spending time in clubs like The New Apartment Lounge, The Velvet Lounge, 3030, The Green Mill, The Jazz Showcase, and many more accelerated the development of my overall musicianship and composition skills. The music that these incredible band leaders presented challenged the structures that I, up until that point, had become so familiar with.
They changed musical roles and asked questions like, “Who plays the melody? Where do the solos happen?, Is there a solo section at all?, Should we all solo at once?” Hearing each composer implement these techniques into their music had a big effect on my creative development.
Shortly after graduating from Northern Illinois University, I moved to Chicago and furthered my involvement in as many parts of the music and arts scene as possible. Right around this time, 2005, I received one of the most valuable opportunities of my life: my first commission from the Peoria Ballet Company for a new five-movement suite for 40 dancers, a jazz quintet, and set design by Preston Jackson. At this moment, I knew that I was totally unprepared to take on this task, but I also knew that I would do whatever it took to complete this work. I still remember how excited I was to collaborate with artists outside of my field, but I also had so many questions. How would I begin? Most of my compositions began with me sitting at the piano by myself. This project would be much different. First, I met with the artistic director of the Peoria Ballet, Erich Yetter, to discuss the subject matter for this suite. In our conversation, he told me that he wanted me to compose a score that was a figurative history of the Mid-West.
He also had an outline for each movement and described in great detail what he wanted the music to depict. Here’s an excerpt from these first conversations:
The first movement is primitive, beginnings,
wilderness, The Raven(s), creationist, ritualistic, percussive in an
organic primal way, a hushed expectation, an excited anticipation of
unknown events, Peoria before any people, roads, houses, before
location existed, the tentative title of this movement is Waiting
My excitement grew and I also knew that I had a lot of work to do to be able to execute this project. My first thought was to investigate some well-known ballets. I started with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Petrushka and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. I also checked out some modern dance pieces to see more current collaborations between music and dance. Next, I began researching the Mid-West. Since the first movement was supposed to represent the sound of the land before people, I had to use my imagination to visualize the open fields, tall prairie grass, and the mighty Mississippi River all without any other life. What sounds or music could I create from these thoughts? Soon after completing a good amount of research, I began composing. I made decent progress and was pretty much own my own, without much dialogue with my other collaborators. The deadline was quite open because they were raising money to complete the project, which gave me the time necessary to figure out this new avenue. About a year later, I was getting close to finishing this work. When I listened back to the midi tracks, I was struck by how I couldn’t see how people would dance or create choreography to this music. Then, I realized that I wasn’t considering that element at all while I was composing. I was so caught up in trying to compose music that perfectly described the subject matter that I forgot the most important element of this work. So, I started over. This time, I imagined how people could move along with every phrase, sometimes moving or dancing around my basement while singing through ideas. Even though I didn’t understand anything about how choreographers created, I used my imagination to help me attempt to create something that would inspire them. In 2007, two years after our initial meeting, I had to turn in my score to the PBC. They were pleased and asked for recordings so they could begin choreographing the dance. Finally, in 2008, we were ready to present Wings at the Peoria Civic Center. This work was never properly captured but you can take a listen to a rehearsal recording of the first movement, Waiting.
To this day, this project remains very important to me because it opened my eyes to the possibilities that the music I created, combined with two other artists’ interpretations or responses to that music, brought forth something unique that had also united audiences from three separate art forms. I learned so much from this process and had found a lane for myself.
Shortly before the premiere of Wings, I received another commission for a piece for string orchestra, big band, and a turntablist. This commission would be more open and the only information that I was given about the work is that it was the closing piece on a concert happening during the Looptopia Festival in Chicago, which was an all-night party in the downtown area. Writing for strings and full orchestra was something that I was becoming more and more excited about. Finding a way to bring the orchestra, big band, and DJ together, in a cohesive manner, was a problem that I was eager to solve.
A side note: When I say cohesive, I mean that I never want anything to sound forced or out of place. By this time, I had seen plenty of collaborations where the producers or creators of that work didn’t bother to take the extra steps to solve the “problem”. They seemed to only propose a question, which was “What happens when you put THIS with THAT?” For example, one summer I was excited to hear that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was performing a piece with tap dancer and choreographer Savion Glover at Millennium Park. The CSO is one of the greatest orchestras in the world and Savion Glover is one of the greatest tap dancers that has ever lived and the work that they presented, to me, fell flat because there were no “common threads” explored. The orchestra played while Savion danced. I always think of this as a missed opportunity, which inspired me to explore this collaboration on my own. There are many amazing tap dancers in Chicago. Through the M.A.D.D. Rhythms tap collective, I would meet greats like Jumaane Taylor, Lisa LaTouche, Nico Rubio, Bril Barrett, and others. Over the years, we’ve worked together in many settings including Jumaane Taylor’s Supreme Love, which is his choreography set to the music of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. Jumaane also created choreography for a composition of mine, Velvet Lounge Shut-In, which was written in tribute to saxophonist Fred Anderson. This duo performance can be seen here. I still think about the endless possibilities with music and tap dance and will re-visit this collaboration soon.
Back to the orchestra, big band, and DJ piece. At this time, I was a member of Mike Reed’s Loose Assembly and People Places & Things. Both groups were on the road a decent amount, which meant that I would have to work on this piece late at night in the hallways of the hostels or in my hotel room while everyone else was having a great time in the European cities we were touring. Since this was 2007, I didn’t even own a computer yet and did most of my composing on a roll-up keyboard with an external speaker, something I wear as some sort of badge of honor to this day. Check out the bootleg recording of Adrenaline here. One note, we had less than 30 minutes to rehearse directly before the concert, so, it’s not perfect but I’m still happy with how it came together.
Over the next few years, I would continue to collaborate with orchestral musicians and composers. Some of the pieces that I created during this time were Artic Invention, written for the International Contemporary Ensemble, Infatuation With The Flame(quartet for cello, guitar, percussion, and alto saxophone), and Scorch: Concerto for Jazz Quartet and String Orchestra.
In April 2014, I was the Jazz Gallery Artist-In-Residence. Part of this residency included a month of access to the Jazz Gallery to compose and to rehearse a commission of your choosing. For this project, I chose to pay tribute to one of my greatest mentors, world-renowned visual artist, and musician Preston Jackson. My initial plan was to investigate some of Mr. Jackson’s works, to research their subject matter, and then to create an hour-long suite. Some of the pieces that really stood out to me were Knockin’ On Freedom’s Door, inspired by the presence of the Underground Railroad in Peoria, IL, Strikebreaker, and Decatur Red, Preston’s alter ego that often shows up in his work. As I began working on this commission, my wife, filmmaker Diana Quinones Rivera, encouraged me to include another component and to make a short documentary about Preston’s life. We travelled all over Chicago and Peoria to capture footage of his work and filmed interviews with him in his various studios around town. The final component I added was to include the amazing vocalist and lyricist Brianna Thomas. We both grew up performing with Preston in Peoria, especially at his place, The Contemporary Art Center, then known as the Checkered Raven. In May of 2014, we presented Capturing Sunlight, an hour-long musical tribute to the life and work of Preston along with the 10-minute documentary written for septet at the Jazz Gallery in New York City.
Since 2004, I’ve been creating music with an incredible recording engineer, singer/songwriter, and trumpeter Caleb Willitz. Our collaborations began by Caleb inviting me to his studio(The Rattlesnake) to record over various projects he was working on. The music he was creating always contained many elements including folk, rock, avant-garde, jazz, classical, and more.
Eventually, he asked me if I wanted to work on creating something with him. Of course, I said yes. We began by passing ideas back and forth via email. Caleb would send me a guitar and vocal demo and I would try to compose around what he created. These projects could get as wild as we wanted them to be, since we were creating this for ourselves and there wasn’t any sort of deadline. One of my favorite examples of this is a composition called The Young.
This piece started as a guitar and vocal demo but grew to include beats made with typewriters and other objects, strings, brass, and a choir. In 2015, we released Gaps and Spaces: Synoptik Optiks. This project began when we were venturing into sound design. After a couple of sessions of attempting to create our own sounds together, we realized that it may be better to bring in some other musicians with more experience in this field. Before inviting these musicians, we came up with a game plan. First, I composed a theme, Lenox Avenue Hideaway. Second, we would have each musician perform takes of this theme along with a click, with each take becoming more and more abstract via the use of their various effects pedals. Third, we would have them perform one take without the click. Fourth, we would harvest our favorite moments from their performances and create new music by chopping, mixing, and distorting these sounds. Finally, for the last track on the album, Oration, I composed new music to fit on top of the music that we captured from the other performances. This process was really eye opening. Everyone’s interpretation of the theme was so unique and produced materials that we wouldn’t have been able to create on our own. When we finished this project, we thought that having a visual element to this music would elevate it even further. So, we contacted Jak Ritger, an artist from Massachusetts about creating something for the final track, Oration. He, along with Shannon Wallack, created an incredible stop-time video that they call Brixel. Check it out here.
I’d like to talk about one last collaborative project, Touch My Beloved’s Thought. In January of 2015, I was contacted by drummer, organizer, and presenter Mike Reed and producer and former executive director of Links Hall, Roell Schmidt about creating a new work inspired by Charles Mingus’ masterpiece The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. For this work, I was paired with choreographer Onye Ozuzu. When we met, we discussed ideas about the work. What would we do? Mingus originally intended for this piece to be a ballet but never accomplished that. So, would we just transcribe the music and set choreography to it? Eventually, we decided that it would be best to create our own response to Mingus’ Black Saint. We began by researching the music, the liner notes, and Mingus. I dug through the recording for moments that inspired me and that could be used as building blocks in my music. Some of the moments include the main them played by the alto sax in the first movement, the dirge-like motif that is also throughout the work, the flamenco inspired moments, the piano interludes performed by Mingus, and more. After much investigation, I began composing at the piano. As pieces started to come together, I would enter them into Finale and export a mockup to send to Onye. She would take these to her studio and work on ideas for the choreography. Soon after that, she would send me videos of her ideas. Then, I could adjust my score and send back new ideas inspired by her work. This continued throughout the entire project. Eventually, she invited me to rehearsals at Columbia College where I got see how the music and choreography were coming together. This inspired further adjustments and more compositions as I prepared to meet with my ensemble. As we closed in on the premiere on August 13, 2015, the entire work had really come together quite seamlessly. I felt that the band, the dancers, and the music were all one. That night we premiered TMBT, a piece for tentet and 15 dancers, at Millennium Park in Chicago to a crowd of over 8,000 people. Fortunately, we captured this performance of the music and were able to release it on Greenleaf Music in 2017. Check out the finale, Gather ‘Round, The Revolution Is At Hand.
Collaborating with others, no matter the scope of the project, has established a pathway for unifying all the elements in almost any creative endeavor. Today, I’m constantly looking for opportunities to explore unfamiliar territory. Each investigation proves to be very fruitful and brings me closer to my person creative voice. Can’t wait to share what I find next.
About the Author:
Greg Ward is a saxophonist and composer that was born in Peoria, IL. Currently based in Chicago, Ward has had the opportunity to perform and record with a varied group of artists like Prefuse 73, Lupe Fiasco, Tortoise, William Parker, Makaya McCraven, Linda Oh, and Mike Reed. As a bandleader, Ward has produced 6 recordings including Fitted Shards: South Side Story, Phonic Juggernaut, Touch My Beloved’s Thought, Rogue Parade: Stomping Off From Greenwood, Fitted Shards: High Alert, and Rogue Parade: Dion’s Quest. As a composer, he has also received commissions from the Jazz Gallery in NYC, the Chicago Jazz Institute, the City of Chicago’s Made In Chicago: World Class Jazz Series, Peoria Ballet Company, the Jazz Coalition, and the B’Town Jazz Festival. He has also been awarded the New Music USA Van Lier Fellowship in 2012 and DCASE IAP grants in 2017 and 2018. Ward maintains an active international touring schedule with various ensembles and has been a member of faculty of the Jacob School of Music at Indiana University as Associate Professor of Jazz Saxophone. since 2019.
