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As a young adult, Ward enlisted in the Air Force, and Sjerven thinks he served in or near Vietnam.
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“Like everyone who comes from there, he had that second line influence in his music,” recalls saxophonist Bill Pierce, who first met Ward when the two were at the Berklee College of Music in the late ‘60s, and who appears on “Virgo Spectrum.” Like many great New Orleans players, Ward was part of the music program at Xavier University Preparatory School. Ward was born in Michigan, but his musical story really began when as a young child his family moved to New Orleans.
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“The spirit of the times was to be independent-minded - if a jazz artist couldn’t get a big contract, they could do it themselves,” says Bret Sjerven, who penned the reissue’s extensive liner notes. And by releasing the disc on his own Twin Quest label, Ward joined the legacy of Black-owned ‘70s jazz imprints like Strata East and Black Jazz, whose place in jazz history has received renewed attention in recent years. The record’s contemplative energy puts it in the realm of “spiritual jazz” artists like Alice Coltrane and Gary Bartz, who are often cited as key influences by emerging jazz musicians. If the world wasn’t quite ready for “Milt Ward and Virgo Spectrum” the first time around, this might be the perfect moment for the disc.
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“Eventually, I found his family on Facebook, and that’s how I could sign a contract with them to license and release it.” Vingaard tried looking for Ward, but discovered the trumpeter had died in 1987. “I’ve been collecting records for a long time, and this one kept popping up, and it was really good,” says Frederiksberg owner Andreas Vingaard. Now the record is finally getting a proper reissue from New York’s boutique Frederiksberg label. It has been bootlegged and one dealer is currently asking four figures for an original pressing. But over the ensuing decades, the album has become a cult classic. Like any number of excellent independent recordings, “Milt Ward and Virgo Spectrum” pretty much went nowhere. Sometime in 1976 or 1977, a Boston trumpeter named Milt Ward brought a hand-picked band into a local studio - most likely Dimension Sound Studios in Jamaica Plain - and cut the cosmos jazz record that he hoped would propel his career to the next level. Trumpeter Milt Ward's 1970s jazz album, "Milt Ward and Virgo Spectrum," is getting a proper reissue from Frederiksberg Records.