This is my first album by trombonist Grachan Moncur III. It’s his debut as a leader and was recorded in 1963 and released in 1964. Historically, I’ve held the trombone some ways down on my favorite intruments in jazz list. It can tend to be quite muffled and sluggish. But I enjoy for example Curtis Fuller and the leader on this album, Grachan Moncur III, is superb. I’ve listened to a couple of his albums as a leader and he’s on a few others as a sideman. Always plays interesting stuff. Looking to dive deeper into his catalogue and see what gems I’ll discover.
This album is wonderful. It’s what…avant-garde mixed with post bop maybe? It’s unique for sure. It sets and explores different moods throughout and keeps me engaged and interested in a different way than a hard bop blowing session would. This is a bit deeper stuff. It’s triggers something else than hard bop does. It’s more reflective and contemplative music. Very effective stuff for making your mind wander a bit and travel somewhere else than the room you are sitting in.
The cats on this are Moncur on trombone, Morgan on trumpet (he really shines in this environment), McLean on alto, Hutcherson on vibes, Cranshaw on double bass and the brilliant Tony Williams on drums. All-star line up and you can feel the quality of the players on this session.
I can highly recommend this album if you like some very interesting jazz with unique flavors which offers both deeper, contemplating passages as well as easier to digest stuff with some tempo to it. I find it to be a lovely mix.
Some questions: do you have some favorite Grachan Moncur titles you’d like to share? Other favorite trombone players?
Current status is that I have a war chest waiting to be spent on some great jazz vinyl. But I have a want list which I will hopefully stick to. Looking to only buy titles from that want list. There are plenty of other stuff I would want to add to the collection, and stuff becomes available all the time, but if I spend money on other titles then I will not have the means to purchase a specific title on the want list when it eventually will become available. That’s just the way it is. So I will bide my time a bit to really have a shot of getting some of those highly sought after titles into the collection. Looking as well at the current market it will definitely take some dough as well to be in the game. We’ll see what happens. Being a jazz vinyl junkie, it’s hard to wait for long periods of time to add new stuff. But I’ll try this approach.
Hope your year has started off well and I’m looking forward to more great discussions and interaction with you guys in 2022. Have a great Thursday, cheers!
