Full Cream – an album between Greg Ward on alto saxophone and Moog; Leo Genovese on Hammond B-3, piano, and synths; Matthew Stevens on guitar and electric bass; and Ziv Ravitz on drums – was released 1 November via Ward’s label, Sugah Hoof Records.
Links to purchase Full Cream, and to Ward’s website, can be found at the end of this article.
While you listen to Greg Ward, Leo Genovese, Matt Stevens, and Ziv Ravitz’s collaborative album, think of a playroom — musically speaking.
At Clubhouse Recording Studio in the mountains of Rhinebeck, Hudson Valley, New York, the jazz veterans “didn’t have to worry about trying to get back home, and then coming back,” Ward remembers. “We could relax, and sort of settle in.”
This laid-back, exploratory attitude led to Stevens flying from guitar to guitar, and from pedal to pedal — and Genovese on a keyboard instrument you may not expect. And the connection between Ward and Ravitz is a story all its own.
Read it, and the other ins and outs of Full Cream, below.
UK Jazz News: Linda Oh was a huge connector and nexus for you guys...
Greg Ward: I’ve been working with Linda since 2012, I believe. She first called me for her [2019] octet project, Aventurine. That was an amazing thing to work on with her, but because it has eight people — and eight very busy people — it didn’t work [as a consistent unit] very much.
Probably sometime in 2015, I started to work with her quartet in different variations of that ensemble, and then I started touring with her in 2017, with that group. I think I was subbing for [saxophonist] Ben Wendel at the time.
So, I’ve been working with that version of the group since 2017 — and then the pandemic happened, and Linda was one of the first people I worked with, getting back on the road in October of 2021.
At this time, she had recently had a baby, and this version of the quartet was going to be her and [husband and collaborator, pianist Fabian Almazan]. And a drummer I hadn’t heard of at the time: Ziv Ravitz.
They were going to be doing this wild transit across Europe involving Fabian’s mom and the baby. I was pretty much traveling alone with Ziv, and immediately, we hit it off. We connected and really enjoyed playing together. We found out that we had a lot in common, and developed an instant rapport.
UK Jazz News: How did that connection with Ziv develop as the tour progressed?
GW: We knew that we wanted to do something together, and after that tour, we started brainstorming about what we could do. He had done a bunch of duo records recently, like with [guitarist and vocalist] Lionel Loueke.
[The thought came up] that we should do another duo record. He was like, “Well, why don’t we bring somebody else into it?” And I was thinking about [guitarist] Matt Stevens, who was also in that 2017 version of the quartet that went on tour throughout Europe with Linda. Closer to the session, it grew from there — and we added Leo.
UKJN: I love Aventurine. Maybe my favorite Oh. I ranked and reviewed it for JazzTimes. What do you remember about those sessions?
GW: I just remember being excited about, number one, playing with a string quartet. And playing Linda’s music, anyway. She called me because she got one of those Jazz Gallery composer-in-residence commissions.
That’s what I think she was writing this music for — or maybe she had written something, and this was an opportunity for her to further explore this ensemble. It originally featured the Sirius String Quartet, with [Dallas, Texas, pianist] Sam Harris and Ted Poor [of Andrew Bird fame] on drums.
I believe it was one of the last recording sessions at the Avatar [known as such from 1996 to 2017], before Berklee bought it and turned it back into the Power Station [as founded in 1977].
It was rather nerve wracking to be all separate and isolated — everything to a click, having to perform this very complex music. But it came together, and I’m very happy with that recording.
UKJN: “Argo” is a monster.
GW: That’s the more heavy metal joint on the record. We had tried a few variations in a slower tempo, but we just kept amping it up. Then, I had an idea: I’m going to start off the piece like this! And I did my best impersonation of a Colin Stetson saxophone moment.
When we were together, we just kept pushing each other, pushing each other, until we reached the goal. There were lots of moments like that.
UKJN: Can you talk about Genovese on the Hammond B-3?
GW: I was really surprised: it was there at the studio, and Leo was like, “I’m gonna play this.” I wasn’t thinking about that instrument in this context, but I was open.
What he did throughout the tracks he played organ on, I think was just a really cool use of that instrument. He pulled a lot of wild, uncharacteristic sounds out of the organ. So, I’ll give it to Leo: he surprised me, and pushed us in some other directions.
UKJN: How do your originals on Full Cream — “Argo,” “Good Morning Zebras!,” the title track — reflect your evolution as a composer?
GW: Argo is a suburb of Chicago, on the southwest side. My whole family is from there. When I graduated from college, I moved into my grandparents’ house, in their basement, for about five years. It was an experience being on the southwest side with all the characters that make up that community.
That piece encompasses all the different things that have inspired me. If you’ve heard any of my records, by [my projects like] Fitted Shards, Gaps and Spaces, or Rogue Parade, they have heavier, or rock, elements. That’s been a constant in my compositional taste.
I grew up playing in the African American church with my father, who was a B-3 player. That has a strong element, and mix of things, from the church.
There are things [on the album] that are inspired by my experience with avant-garde playing, via the AACM and other musicians from the South Side and North Side of Chicago — more free playing. So, that’s a blend of those two things — with the music communities in New York and elsewhere.
UKJN: Where do you want to go from here, creatively?
GW: I’m at a moment where I’m trying to figure that out.
Last spring, I started a trio where I sing with electronics and effects on my voice, along with playing saxophone. That’s with guitarist Matt Gold, and a drummer here in Chicago named Quin Kirchner. I’ve written a bunch of music for that. I would love to record this.
Also, I’m always composing — for myself, not for specific projects. But I have some larger ensemble pieces that I would like to complete — something for a large vocal choir, maybe an orchestral thing. I just want to really get these scores done, and ready to be performed if the opportunity arises.
Then, of course, I want to take this Full Cream quartet on the road. That’s something we’re trying to do. We’re trying to figure it out with everybody’s schedule, and hopefully we’ll do something in the fall of ‘25.
