Illinois-based Chris Greene joined Preston Frazier to discuss his forthcoming album ‘Conversance.’ Due on Oct. 18, the LP is his first studio effort since 2017’s ‘Boundary Issues,’ following two live albums:
PRESTON FRAZIER: Chris, Conversance is your 11th album and I understand this is your first time on Pravda Records.
CHRIS GREENE: Yes, it’s the very first, and it’s Pravda’s first jazz album release. They’re very much an institution in Chicago. They are the longest-running independent label in Chicago. They release all kinds of music including soul, indie, rock folk, rock and punk. Somehow, I got on their radar. I played with several artists on their labels, but it was kind of a fluke that I played with several artists on that label. I did a couple of tracks on Steve Dawson’s last album and a couple of side gigs with people in a band called the Handcuffs. One day, I was playing a gig with a couple of people on the label, and the guy who owns the label came over and introduced himself. We started conversing, and he said, “I would love to work with you.” I’m excited because they’ve built up a fan base primarily of music lovers. There is no absolute allegiance to any particular style, and I’ve always been a person who likes to perform for people. “Let me get in front of the people and try to make you dig what we’re doing.” It’s a super cool situation.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Conversance is the first studio album since 2017, but you have been busy since then, having released albums during the pandemic. The first one was PlaySPACE from Evanston Space in Illinois, and then PlaySPACE: Play Harder. Is this quartet the same band?
CHRIS GREENE: Yes, it was formed in 2005.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Conversance features your long-time drummer Steve Corley. Damien Espinosa was handling the acoustic and the Fender Rhodes and then Mark Paine, who I believe contributed songs and co-produced the album, correct?
CHRIS GREENE: Yes, Mark is my co-pilot on this. We recorded half the album at his house. He’s got a pretty nice studio setup at his house, and the other half is at Uptown Recording in Chicago. One of the biggest compliments we received was from a good friend, whom I let hear the basic tracks of the album. He said he honestly couldn’t tell which were recorded at Marc’s studio from those at Uptown Studios. Pravda has been great to work with. They suggested we do a CD run, a digital run, and a vinyl run, and I’m excited about that.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Let’s dig in and talk a bit about some of the tracks in the album. Let’s start with the first single, “Gentleman’s Breakfast.” How did that come about?
CHRIS GREENE: It’s kind of my love letter to many Brazilian artists I love. My sister is a prominent Brazilian music fan and played much of their music when we were younger. Ed Motta is a guru. When I wrote the song, I had that vibe in mind sort of a Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass vibe mixed with Brazilian soul.”Gentleman’s Breakfast” stems from a ritual that my son and I had whenever he had a day off in school or was done. His day is done at around 11 or 12. We will go somewhere in town or to Chicago for breakfast or lunch. That’s the seed that inspired that song.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Did you have an album in mind when you started composing songs?
CHRIS GREENE: No, I never really had albums in mind when I started writing. I’m thinking about the band and what we can do. Steve, our drummer, can do just about anything you throw at him. I think about what I can do with this particular feel and what kind of mood I can create for him and the rest of the band. Mark, our bass player, to play on top of that groove, and then Damian, our piano player, too. There’s nothing I can tell him about playing the piano. I could just say, “These are the parameters of the song; make your presence felt in these parameters.” So, I enjoy creating a canvas for them to shine. I’m also from the Duke Ellington school, where you write for your bandmate. I may have an idea, and I’ll start to play it. Maybe they’ll make a mistake, quote, unquote, and I’ll say, “What you just did, do that again. You just enhanced what I was thinking about.”
PRESTON FRAZIER: Do you arrange in the studio with the band?
CHRIS GREENE: We tend to rehearse when we have new material. We’re playing so much that the arrangements will take shape while we’re playing them. We’ll get it as tight as possible, then we’ll start playing it in front of audiences, and it will evolve. Things are going to happen during the song, and there are going to be musical landmarks that we’re looking for, but what happens between those landmarks is what makes jazz, as far as I’m concerned. In the studio, we take the raw cut as it usually is. I try not to edit too much unless, for example, the end of one take or the intro to the song is really strong, or maybe the start of the song itself is not as good as a second take. We’re old school, using new recording tools.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Let’s discuss the song “Broken Glass.” Damien Espinosa wrote that. He has a fantastic Fender Rhodes solo.
CHRIS GREENE: One of the things I love about Damien is he is a student of piano. He’s a student from James P. Johnson to Robert Glasper. Damian retooled another song we tried out. It was a swing tune that he revamped into “Broken Glass,” with a Robert Glasper-type vibe. It’s a fantastic tune — a fine tune to play — and one that grooves. It has some really unusual chord changes, which are really surprisingly difficult to navigate, but it grooves. You have to think melodically and kind of thread the needle. It’s a surprisingly challenging song to play, but it’s fun.
PRESTON FRAZIER: It’s a great feel to it. I love the solos, too. Next on my list is “Thumper,” which Mark wrote.
CHRIS GREENE: Mark is very dynamic. He can write these beautiful melodies for one song and songs where all hell breaks loose. “Thumper” is fun because it gives us a chance to explore a side of ourselves that we’re not known for. Mark’s tunes often tap into this spiritual free jazz that people don’t even know we can do. It’s like group improvisation. We’re all just having this conversation together. It’s a really fun tool to use.
PRESTON FRAZIER: I like that description. It’s a raucous musical conversation.
CHRIS GREENE: That makes it a heated conversation. I didn’t necessarily want to be like, “You take a solo, and you take a solo.” It’s like, this is this last section where everything’s happening together. We’re trying to figure this out all together.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Then there’s your composition, “The Emperor Strikes Back.”
CHRIS GREENE: My son, who’s 13 now, is a talented musician. He’s a fantastic drummer and a much better piano player than I am. One day, he started playing this cool melody on the piano – and I thought, “Oh wow, it’s cool.” One day, I said to him, “Alex, I’m gonna show you this melody I wrote,” I would play his melody back at him! I threatened to finish it and not give him any credit unless he developed it further! One day, I just sat down and started to play the melody. The next thing I knew, we were working out on the bridge then I finished the song. I immediately called ASCAP and set up a publishing company for him. Not only is he credited as a co-writer, but at 13 years old, he’s also the co-writer on a major independent release. Musically, it’s about as close as we get to fusion.
PRESTON FRAZIER: I believe Mark wrote the song “Inspiration.”
CHRIS GREENE: Yeah. That’s the other side of Mark’s thing where he can turn around and write beautiful melodies. It’s an effective contrast to the avant-garde stuff. I should mention that the CD version of the album contains the song “Boogie Woogie Bossa Nova,” which is not on the vinyl pressing. That was a song by Eddie Harris. Eddie Harris is from Chicago. He was a magnificently talented, crazy, gifted, wonderful saxophone player, super soulful, heavy. He had incredible popular success for a while. Every once in a while I’m searching around the songs to play. I was going through my computer, and I found this file of Eddie Harris songs that I arranged a couple of years ago. I grabbed it and took it to our gig.
One of the benefits of working with these three brilliant guys I work with is they put their spin on it and make it super fun to play. This is another one we’re adding to the arsenal and the album. The last song is “Just Squeeze Me” by Duke Ellington, which I’ve always liked. It’s a beautiful song, both instrumentally and vocally. I love hearing it performed by a vocalist. I love hearing it. I’ve got a bunch of different versions of Duke Ellington playing it with his band. I also have this organ trio thing where Johnny Hodges is playing it. Playing any classic jazz song in 2024 can be challenging. How do you take a great song that was written 70 or 80 years ago and make it interesting to play while retaining its essence? We took it and used a slow-burning gospel style, almost a country gospel swing style.
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