Greg Ward was an integral part of Make Jazz Not War! At first, Greg “just” did audio things for us – as a favor, but he quickly became our producer. He was no bullshit. He knew what he was doing and expected the same from others. He was, as he would say, a professional. He was the one who could, at the end of the night, still climb ladders with me and take down the lights. He was fun and he was good. He made our work more than the performance. He struggled for a while with the avant-garde process. When the lightbulb went off, it was brilliant. He recently wrote something for this page about his work with us. I will publish it soon.
Greg produced and mixed almost everything we did for a real long time. When Edward “Kidd” Jordan heard the recording of Thanamattapoeia, he opined it was the best sounding recording of him(self) he’d ever heard.
Greg was generous with his time and talents. I paid him what little I could – a musician’s share on gigs – but nothing compared to what he gave. He did it because he believed. He believed in Make Jazz Not War! He was generous with other musicians, too.
Greg cut his teeth on the George Clinton groups and mixed Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Freaky Styley. I’ll let others talk about those days.
The best part of it all, though, was the way we worked together. Just like a jazz band or a basketball team, we knew where we were, where we were going, where we were gonna be and where we were gonna be.
So here. Listen to We Are Not Going Away. Greg created this piece as much as or more than anyone else, including me. He believed in it fiercely. He believed it made a difference. And he meant it. This is his.