It is the actual biographical notice on the artist’s Myspace to provide a definition of him as “sort of an enigma”. Who could have ever expected this Welsh bass player (born 1950) to raise to such uppermost perfection? First as a composer, with 1977’s Kew.Rhone. along with Peter Blegvad and Lisa Herman; then, these days, as a singer-composer, with Verlaine. Eerie indeed: the beauty of former Henry Cow’s latest enterprise – to set to music the poems of Paul Verlaine – can leave one befuddled. Hardly a piece in this collection goes without resonance in the listener’s heart.
Time seasoned his voice by steadying, deepening and sanding it, turning it into the instrument of a consummated chansonnier; not less surprising are the chamber-music inspired charts, lead by the pervasive electric piano under Greaves’ hands. Tight are the electro-acoustic sidemen, handling anything from strings, harmonica, ukulele, accordion, to winds, guitar and percussions.
Besides, all of Greaves career has ben under the sign of discovery: his beginnings in the early Seventies with Henry Cow (shooting patrol of the “Rock in Opposition” movement), then the relocation in New York, the encounter with Carla Bley and Michael Mantler and the recording of Kew.Rhone., finally, back in the UK, his joining National Health with his old pal Dave Stewart along with Phil Miller and Pip Pyle (Of Queus and Cures and D.S. Al Coda, based on compositions by Alan Gowen).
His solo work from the early Eighties ha proofed no obstacle to prestigious team-ups (Soft Heap, The Lodge, Peter Blevgad, Michael Nyman, Michael Mantler ecc.). A long series of album have been uniformly worthwhile, from the beautiful, oblique Accident, recorded 1980-81 in Paris for the indie label Europe of Jean-Pierre Weiller.
Greaves moves in 1984 to France and sets to work with a variegated group of musicians (Francois Ovide, former Gong Mireille Bauer, Sophia Domancich, Pip Pyle, Kristoffer Blegvad etc.), drawing notice through more “great projects”: from Songs, 1995, with Robert Wyatt (here Greaves rearranges items from his own book, only singing in The Green Fuse), to Loco Solo-Live in Tokyo (2002) and Chansons (2004), featuring Elise Caron. 2003: the project “Dedicated to you”, an hommage to Wyatt’s compositions; in 2007 Greaves and Blegvad revive Kew.Rhone. That same year Greaves lends his voice to guitarist-composer Alain Blesing’s project “Songs from the beginnings” covering celebrated songs by Soft Machine, King Crimson, Hatfield and the North, Who, Led Zeppelin, etc.

Let’s start speaking about your last work Verlaine: poems by Paul Verlaine transposed into songs. Can you tell us about the genesis of this work and where you take the inspiration to start it up?
Having been in France for more than twenty years I wanted to do an album entirely in French.
I also wanted to re-read poetry I hadn’t looked at for an awful long time. Mallarmé, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Apollinaire. I didn’t want to set poetry to music. I was looking for songs. Reading Verlaine it was immediately obvious that in their structural rigour and thematic limpidity, these were pieces to be sung. Lyrics no less.

Can you dedicate some words to musicians who took part at Verlaine recording?
I started the project alone with a Fender Rhodes and a click track. I added guests one by one.
Mostly friends on their way through Paris. It was interesting to watch the album grow, shifting direction with each intervention without losing track of the original thread. This was true at every stage from Karen’s armonica (Karen Mantler), Fay’s ukulele (Fay Lovsky) and saw to Matthieu’s drums (Matthieu Rabate) which he managed to do at the end of the process. Quite unusual really. All the musicians are stars: Jef Morin, Scott Taylor, Jeanne Added, Laurent Valero... their contribution makes the record, I believe, an extraordinary work. 

You’ve been living in France for 20 years and now your style now is very close to French “chansonniers” as Leo Ferré or George Brassens. How much is the French musical culture important for you? 
Yes, I’ve been here a long time. I don’t think my style is close to Ferré or Brassens though I admire them a lot. I suppose this record is nonetheless my little “hommage” to the cultural climate I’ve imbibed over the years.

You have collaborated with composers/musicians who have always taken lirycs in great consideration. For example Henry Cow, Peter Blegvad or Michael Mantler. What about you? Are you more focused on words now?
I suppose I still get great satisfaction out of finding the right relation between the musical and lyrical phrase. It’s a kind of problem-solving really. I’m interested in language  and music equally.

You singing style is really original and unique. When did you decide to express yourself as a singer? And do you have any model o pattern to take inspiration from?
My voice, as it were, seems to have a mind of its own. Wayward and occasionally inspired.
I like the way it tackles the French language.  Quite perverse really.

You are planning to propose Kew.Rhone. live with the original singer Lisa Herman. Can you talk about this project?
I was contacted to put on a performance of Kew.Rhone. in Bourgouin-Jallieu  near Grenoble.
Miraculously Lisa is willing and able to do it. So is Peter (Peter Blegvad). 30  years on we finally perform it fairly much in its entirety. David Lewis on trumpet, Simon Goubert on drums. May 24th. I believe.

And what about the Robert Wyatt tribute project “Dedicated to you” alongside Karen Mantler, Sylvain Kassap and others? Any recordings?
I like very much the re-workings of Robert’s songs sung by Karen and Jaques Mahieux.
No recordings as yet but I believe we’re recording it for German radio at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival in October.

Can you also spend some words describing Alain Blesing’s “Songs from the Beginning” project. Is it just a collaboration or something more?
I had fun singing those songs. It was just a collaboration.

Going back a bit. How do you look now at your career with Henry Cow. Why did you leave the group in early 1976? Perhaps you were not happy about Henry Cow’s new leftward-moving ideologism…
It’s a long time ago. It was a hugely inspiring and formative period. Probably like being in the Marines. Something you never quite get over. Yes I began to find the dogmatism stifling so I moved on.

When you returned from States, after finishing Kew.Rhone., you joined National Health: a different musical context if compared with Henry Cow and new colleagues! How did you manage with this change?
In some ways, as a bass player, I found National Health more demanding. Less iconoclastic certainly, but formally more of a challenge. 

Regarding National Health period is there anything unreleased in the archive?
Not as far as I know.

Any recordings of John Greaves Band with Elton Dean, J. F. Pauvros and Pip Pyle?
Not unless there’s a bootleg out there. 

Are you a self-taught bassist? I mean did you get a formal training when you were young? Can you speak about your musical education?
Yes. I learned to play bass in my father’s dance-band when I was thirteen. Probably the “Henry Cow” period was responsible for any progress I may have made as a composer.

What was the first record you bought? And what kind of music did you use to listen to when you started your career? 
Mel Tormé’s Mountain Greenery when I was eight. Then in the early sixties it was a heady mix of Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis The Big Three and The Beatles.

In your long career you have played with a lot of musicians but…who would you like to play with now?
The great thing about this business is that there are always new, wonderful and exciting people who appear out of nowhere. I look forward to meeting  lots of them.

What about the future? Any new projects? Any chance to come to Italy?
I’d like to do more live things. Tour the “Verlaine”, Kew.Rhone. too maybe. I’m about to embark on another record in French. That’s about as far into the future as I’m able to see. I’ll come to Italy whenever I get an invitation.