1963 was a momentous yr for Grachan Moncur III. That was when the 26-year-old Newark trombonist started a fruitful affiliation with Blue Be aware Information. Debuting on Herbie Hancock’s second Blue Be aware LP, Level Of View, Moncur then appeared on One Step Past and Vacation spot…Out!, two outstanding collections of groundbreaking progressive jazz by alto saxophonist Jackie McLean. On McLean’s information, Moncur contributed materials that confirmed he was a composer with a singular voice. That was sufficient to persuade Blue Be aware producer Alfred Lion to offer the trombonist a shot as a frontrunner in late 1963. The outcome was Evolution, a key early instance of experimental music in Blue Be aware’s catalog. Seven months later, in July 1964, Moncur recorded his second Blue Be aware album, Some Different Stuff, an avant-garde touchstone that cemented his place as a jazz pathfinder.
Music was in Moncur’s blood: his father was a double bass participant and his uncle performed in a band referred to as the Savoy Sultans. At 9, Moncur’s dad gave him a cello, however he most well-liked the trombone he discovered underneath a mattress at house. As a youngster, Moncur performed within the Nat Phipps Band with one other budding New Jersey musician, Wayne Shorter. He would additionally take a look at himself by sitting in on jazz membership jam periods, taking part in with legends like drummer Artwork Blakey.
Moncur’s breakthrough as knowledgeable musician got here in 1959 when he joined Ray Charles’ band. After two and a half years with the blind R&B genius, he blew his trombone in The Jazztet, Benny Golson and Artwork Farmer’s short-lived exhausting bop outfit, earlier than touchdown at Blue Be aware.
For his second solo recording with producer Alfred Lion, Moncur selected sidemen whom he knew and trusted: his good associates Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Evolution drummer 18-year-old Tony Williams, all like-minded musicians eager to push sonic boundaries. Considerably, all three have been members of Miles Davis’ so-called “Second Great Quintet,” which performed a key function in shaping post-bop jazz. On bass was Cecil McBee, whose credit ranged from Dinah Washington to Jackie McLean.
Some Different Stuff started with “Gnostic,” an eerie piece that was daring for its absence of a well-defined rhythmic pulse and the way in which it broke away from melodic, harmonic, and song-form conventions.
The African-themed “Thandiwa” – whose title meant “beloved one” in Zulu – was the album’s most standard observe with its swinging pulse. The piece’s jaunty groove and infectious melody had echoes of Thelonious Monk, a key affect on Moncur. “I would say that the studying of Monk probably led to everything,” he informed All About Jazz in 2003. The album’s longest observe, “The Twins,” an off-beat quantity impressed by Moncur’s youthful twin brothers, has a playful nursery rhyme-like high quality. In distinction, the closing reduce, “Nomadic,” is a automobile for Tony Williams’ dextrous, extremely nuanced drumming, with occasional interjections by the remainder of the band. “I don’t think too many cats could have kept it as interesting as Tony did,” Moncur informed author Don Heckman.
Sadly, there aren’t many extra Moncur Blue Be aware dates. He later performed with Archie Shepp within the late 60s and early 70s, persevering with to fly the flag for avant-garde music, however his solo profession by no means actually took off in the way in which that many had predicted.
Reframing the trombone in an avant-garde context, Grachan Moncur III was a real pioneer whose improvements have usually been missed. Constructing on the muse of Evolution, Some Different Stuff confirmed him blossoming into an envelope-pushing participant and composer who introduced a brand new sensibility to jazz.
Order Grachan Moncur III’s Some Different Stuff on vinyl now.
