(Post-Bop, Progressive Big Band) [WEB] Greg Ward & 10 Tongues - Touch My Beloved's Thought - 2016, FLAC (tracks), lossless

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, Andrew D’Angelo, and Mike Reed.
In 2000, Ward began his studies at Northern Illinois University where he worked with Steve Duke, Fareed Haque, Ron Carter, and Joey Sellers. Already interested in composition, having the opportunity to compose for NIU’s jazz combos deepened his understanding of the inner-workings of music. Also, working with composer and arranger, Joey Sellers, equipped Ward with some important tools to further explore this new love.
Around his sophomore year in college, Ward started spending many nights performing in the jazz clubs of Chicago. Soon, he would meet another one of his mentors, saxophonist, Fred Anderson, who would later select him to host a jam session at the Velvet Lounge for four years. During this time period, Ward experienced much growth as a performer and composer and developed a vibrant community of performers, artists, dancers, and listeners.
After graduating from NIU in 2004 with a degree in Jazz Studies/Saxophone Performance, Ward moved to Chicago and took advantage of every opportunity that was offered to him. Composing two pieces for the International Contemporary Ensemble, performing a quartet composition for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Chamber Music Series, composing Wings for the Peoria Ballet Company, and being commissioned by the Jazz Institute of Chicago for a new composition, which was performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival in 2009, are just a few of the many experiences that shaped Ward during his years in Chicago.
In 2009, Ward decided to move to New York City. Almost immediately after he arrived in NYC, he began working with JazzReach, an NYC-based jazz education organization that shares multi-media programs throughout the US. In 2010, he would produce his first CD as a leader with his Chicago-based band, Fitted Shards. South Side Story received much critical acclaim, including “Recording of the Year” by the Chicago Tribune. Next, in 2011, Ward formed Phonic Juggernaut, which features Damion Reid on drums and Joe Sanders on bass. Together, they recorded and released a CD on Thirsty Ear Recordings that same year. Also, in 2011, Ward composed and performed a commission from the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra for a concerto for jazz quartet and string orchestra. In 2012, Ward was selected as one of the two New Music USA Van Lier Fellows. In 2014, he received a commission/residency from the Jazz Gallery and premiered Capturing Sunlight, which was an hour-long work for septet and included a short documentary by Diana Quinones Rivera. The Capturing Sunlight project was inspired by the life and work of Preston Jackson.
Recently, Ward has collaborated with another composer, sound designer, and performer, Caleb Willitz. First, they composed the film score for Beresford Bennett’s film, Pinch, which was an official selection of the 2015 San Diego Black Film Festival. Second, Ward and Willitz will be releasing an electro-acoustic project, Gaps and Spaces: Synoptic Optiks.
https://www.greenleafmusic.com/about-greg-ward/

An expansive commissioned original work paying homage to Charles Mingus’ The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady
A Commissioned Work for “10 Tongues”, A Large Ensemble of First-Call Chicago Improvisers, Along with A Choreographed Dance Company
Charles Mingus’ The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady is one of the most lauded records in jazz history – its lush orchestration, its breadth of territory, its uncompromising integrity and vision all contribute to its enduring allure. Recorded in 1963 with an 11 piece band, the 39 minute, continuous composition was described by Mingus as "ethnic folk-dance music", as it was originally scored and conceived as a six-part ballet.
In 2014, Roell Schmidt–executive director of the Chicago performing arts center Link’s Hall–heard Black Saint and was floored. Schmidt quickly went to Chicago jazz impresario Mike Reed about the possibility of staging something at Link’s Hall with Mingus’ music and dancers, as the composer had envisioned. Reed’s instincts led him immediately to contact his trusted collaborator of over 13 years, alto saxophonist and composer Greg Ward. Reed asked Ward simply to listen to The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady, a work he had never heard before.
Upon first listen, Ward’s mind began racing – he was enraptured by Mingus’ varied palette of colors, textures and the masterful orchestration that pervades the record. Ward excitedly got back in touch with Reed, who told him that Schmidt had chosen choreographer Onye Ozuzu to collaborate with Ward on this performance’s realization. The piece was pitched by Schmidt and Reed to Jazz Institute of Chicago’s Made In Chicago: World Class Jazz Series, in the summer of 2015. The proposal was accepted and the wheels were set in motion for the project that would eventually become Touch My Beloved’s Thought, which had its premiere on August 13, 2015.
Since his first time writing for dancers 10 years before, Ward’s imagination and his insatiable appetite has continued to grow – in the 10 intervening years, he’s scored music for films, choirs, orchestras and many multi-media works. He notes, “I’ve found that a lot of really beautiful things can come out of me placing myself in uncomfortable or unfamiliar situations.”
Before Ward and Ozuzu began this work they faced a daunting decision: would they do a transcription of The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady, an arrangement of it, or do something completely original? They ultimately decided that the most fitting way to pay tribute to Mingus was to craft an original work which encompassed much of The Black Saint but seen through their modern lens and sensibility.
Ward notes, “I began to dig through Mingus’ composition looking for the elements that stuck out or that were hidden. A lot of big ideas for my composition came from very fleeting moments from his work, which may have gone unnoticed. I kept questioning myself, ‘How would this idea sound today?’ and ‘How would I interpret that sound or feeling?’.” For instance, Ward’s composition “With All Your Sorrow Sing A Song of Jubilance” was taken from a quick piano run that Mingus played and expanded into a whole composition, while “The Menacing Lean” was taken from a fleeting, 4 second passage in Mingus’ trombones which Ward’s ear latched onto; and “Round 3” was inspired by a Major 7th voicing that Mingus used in the low voices during The Black Saint, yet completely re-imagined in a modern context, replete with a hip-hop beat. Touch My Beloved's Thought’s opener “Daybreak” takes colors, feelings and even its 6/8 tempo from Mingus’ opener, yet borrows other aspects from other forgotten corners of Mingus’ piece. Ward, again like Mingus, interspersed his suite with solo interludes – the piano solo feature appropriately titled “Singular Serenade”; the militaristic trombone battle of “Smash, Push, Pull, Crash” which had dancers holding each other back in a striking visual; and “Grit” which Ward says shows “[his] interpretation of Mingus’ love and interpretation of Duke Ellington’s music.”
Ward and Ozuzu quickly began their intense collaboration by meeting for one week stretches, every month, for 6 months. When not together, Ozuzu would send Ward videos of her improvised dancing to Mingus’ music which began to reveal the palette that Ward had at its disposal.
For his part, Ward put together a 10 piece band, and like Mingus comprised of some of his longest-standing collaborators and top-shelf Chicago musicians: Tim Haldeman (tenor saxophone), Keefe Jackson (baritone and tenor saxophones), Russ Johnson (trumpet), Ben LaMar (cornet), Norman Palm (trombone), Christopher Davis (bass trombone), Jason Roebke (bass), Dennis Luxion (piano), Marcus Evans (drums). Ward chose them all for their unique voices which he utilized while crafting the piece and who brought it to life.
With Mike Reed’s insistence, Ward knew right before the performance that they were going to make a record of this project. They recorded the live show at Constellation Chicago, and went into the studio the following day. Yet the immediacy of feeling from the live show won out and it is what you hear on the record. Reed and Ward shopped Touch My Beloved’s Thought, around to many labels, but trumpeter Dave Douglas was incredibly enthusiastic about it being released on his imprint Greenleaf Music.
Ward’s striking synthesis of tradition and reverence for Mingus’ work, infused with his thoroughly modern and unique sensibilities give Touch My Beloved’s Thought a wonderment and power that is undeniable.
http://www.gregwardmusic.us/news-and-updates/
★★★½
Even though the aesthetic of reinterpretation and renewal is built into the DNA of jazz, it’s a daunting task to take on one of the music’s pinnacles. Greg Ward has done just that with Touch My Beloved’s Thought. It takes its name from a line of verse quoted on the front cover of Charles Mingus’ The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (1963), and its music is inspired by that LP, which stands as a peak achievement of one of the greatest talents in jazz.
Mingus said in his liner notes, “I wrote the music for dancing and listening.” But he never got around to staging that union of music and dance, so Ward and choreographer Onye Ozuzu have picked up the challenge. Rather than try to perform a piece that can never be truly recreated, they built a new one on Black Saint’s foundations. The music and dance collaboration premiered at Chicago’s Millennium Park in 2015.
This CD was recorded around the same time at Constellation, a smaller venue also located in Chicago. Ward’s orchestration, honed in several bands of his own as well as the cross-generational ensemble Mike Reed's People, Places & Things, favors seamless surfaces and sharp corners. Thus when the full ensemble is in play, even the most impassioned horn solos, such as Ward’s turn on the opening “Daybreak,” feel like part of a solid wall of sound.
Anyone remotely interested in this work would do well to seek out Ozuzu’s Vimeo channel, which currently hosts a performance of the piece with dancers as well as musicians.
—Bill Meyer
Downbeat August 2016
http://downbeat.com/digitaledition/2016/DB1608/single_page_view/83.html

Greg Ward - alto saxophone;
Tim Haldeman - tenor saxophone;
Keefe Jackson - tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone;
Ben LaMar Gay - cornet;
Russ Johnson - trumpet;
Norman Palm - trombone;
Christopher Davis - bass trombone;
Dennis Luxion - piano;
Jason Roebke - bass;
Marcus Evan - drums.