Greg "The Professor" Woods  (musical director, singer, Hammond organ, piano, synthesizers, composer)
 
Born in Milwaukee, he attended Lee Street Elementary and graduated from Rufus King High School before going to IIT in Chicago to study engineering. He studied piano with a private teacher, as a pre-teen,  but felt the material was not relevant to his life or musical tastes.

After stopping the lessons, he did not play music again until when he was in Chicago and met a gospel singer who asked him to accompany her. He found that music relaxed him and he would find himself spending his free time at the piano. He dropped out of engineering school disillusioned with a career as the employee of some nameless firm for the rest of his life. That following fall he decided to go back to school at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and pursue courses that interested him.  There he became a part of the Ko-Thi Dance Company as a musician.

After a year he transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. One of the courses he took there, was an innovative new course called the Experimental Improvisational Black Music Ensemble (EIBME) whose professor was the late Jimmy Cheatham. That led to courses in music theory and a workshop on electronic music with Dan Harris. Jimmy Cheatham encouraged the students to write their own material and by now Greg was considering a career in music. He was also learning the life of an professional musician from Jimmy , who never stopped working as a bass trombonist. By the time he graduated, he was doing close to thirty concerts a year of his own compositions.  He was also required by the School of Music to do a senior recital , although he was not officially a music student.

During the time at UW-Madison, he had also been playing in local and regional bands, as well as the UW-Madison Jazz Ensemble and having a radio program on jazz on WHA-Radio. Some of the bands he worked with during that time were, Black Haze , a rock group and Metamorphosis , a fusion jazz group which included bass player Jeff Chambers and guitarist Peter Graham. He also had his own trio called Black Folks Musical Society (BFMS) with Sipho Kunene on drums. Bass players Dave Davenport and Bruce Alford also worked with the group. Drummer Ron Rhyne and saxophonist Robert Rhymes were also group members at various times. Greg was also scoring music for dance companies, as well as recording local talent in the WHA-Radio recording studio. His group was a regular at local clubs and the Rathskeller in the UW-Madison Student Union.

Some of his musical mentors were Ted Jackson (piano), Jeannie Cheatham (piano) , Mel Rhyne (Hammond organ), Manty Ellis (guitar) and Johnny Shacklett (guitar). Greg also got to play with Richard Davis and George Benson when they visited Madison.  His own group, BFMS (Black Folks Musical Society) , opened up for Sonny Stitt when Sonny was there. BFMS was also one of the few jazz groups that could do a school dance because they played a wide range of music.

One day, while practicing in the Howard Johnson hotel across from his apartment, he met legendary sax man Eddie Harris. Eddie suggested that Greg go to NYC to seek his fortune. So instead of going to graduate school in business or law school, he decided to travel to NYC in the midst of the snow storm in the winter of 1977.

In NYC, he struggled to survive and had to think about returning home. But after playing the cabaret circuit, he was finally able to secure a steady gig at Vincent’s Place in Harlem on 125th Street. That job allowed him to finding start building a career in New York. The college experiences with the Moog synthesizer helped him do some recording sessions, including his first major recording session with Japanese guitarist Kazumi Watanabe, “Village on Bubbles”, which became a gold record in Japan. Cecil Bridgewater and Reggie Workman produced the session.

After years of hard work and being consistent musically, he now tours with major acts and has two recording studios aa well as a recording company, Metroboogie Records.   Metroboogie has continued his vision of embracing all black music.

Greg has also produced recordings and albums for Columbia , Def Jamm, Atlantic, Solid Platinum/Virgin and Warner Brothers. He won "album of the year" in Europe for producing , what was his first major release, with Russell Simmons as executive producer with the Def Jamm label.

In 1979, he toured with Sugarhill Gang to promote their hit 12” single, “Rapper’s Delight”. As well as the Sequence girls, which was the starting point for current diva , Angie Stone, then known as Angie B.
Some of his former Milwaukee and Madison bandmates like drummer Sipho Kunene are also in NYC now pursuing their career. Bandmate Rolla Armstead is now teaching in college.  Jeff Chambers has become one of the top jazz bass players on the West Coast.  Other Milwaukee musical alumni are also now in NYC.

Greg has played with artists such as Shirley Alston Reeves,  the Shirelles, Ben E. King, Chuck Jackson, Melba Moore, Maxine Brown, Phyllis Hyman, Chubby Checker, Roberta Flack, Gary US Bonds, Lenny Welch, the Drifters, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, the Teenagers, the Moonglows, the Miracles, the Coasters, the Cadillacs, Eddie Holman, the Tokens, Luther Allison, Fabian, Jerry Jemmott, Huey Lewis, Mic Jones, the Platters, Carla Thomas, the Esquires, Melissa Morgan, the Esquires, Little Anthony, Alyson Williams, Freddie "Boom Boom" Cannon,  the Persuaders, Fonda Rae and many others.

On the jazz side, he has recorded or played with Ornette Coleman, Little Jimmy Scott, Rasheema, Idris Mohammed, Jack McDuff, Eddie Harris, Dave Valentin, Joe Chambers, Harry Whitaker, John Blair, Greg Bandy, Dr. Ron Myers, Cecil Bridgewater,Tony Williams and many others.

Currently, Greg, aka “The Professor”, leads a Hammond organ-based group known as “Organik Kemistry”.  The concept is to play the gamut of black music from the traditional Hammond trio to the rock , funk and blues based roots of the Hammond in contemporary music. 

He is still performing around the World on keyboards with major concert acts, as a sideman,  launching his various websites and expanding his recording company, Metroboogie, to national prominence. There are no regrets for choosing music over going to grad school in law or his MBA in business. He still follows the advice of the late great Eddie Harris who told him to leave music when he stops enjoying what he is doing.  That has not happened yet.   Each experience has led to challenges and more opportunities.

The journey continues.