Jazz drummer John Ward was one of the pioneers in the musical "nouvelle vague", alongside Robert Pernet, Jo Demuynck and Armand Van de Walle.



John Ward played in the Jack Sels Orchestra, founded in 1949 by Sels, who first studied the piano, but later turned to playing the saxophone. It featured Rudy Frankel on congas. The Jack Sels Orchestra made an impressive debut but the group finally had to disband due to financial difficulties.