Moncur III, Grachan - New Africa CD
SKU
CDJ-CDSOL-3890
Grachan Moncur III – trombone
Archie Shepp – tenor sax
Roscoe Mitchell – alto sax, piccolo
Dave Burrell – piano
Alan Silva – bass
Andrew Cyrille - drums
Claude Delcloo – drums
Recorded at Studio Savannah, Paris, France, August 15, 1969.
I consider Grachan one of the greatest of the lesser known free jazz guys of the 60s, and this was his first release after his two Blue Note STONE CLASSICS from 1964 and 65.
“August 15, 1969 was a major day in a major week for BYG/Actuel. They had a large host of musicians at their disposal, everyone from Archie Shepp to Clifford Thornton to Alan Silva, the list goes on and on. Moncur was playing with Shepp's band, which had kept his rent paid since Blue Note dropped him over a publishing issue in 1963. The problem was that he hadn't had any luck getting a label who would release his revolutionary music. But seeing as he was here anyway, Actuel gave him two records to put out, neither of which earned him a penny, but it still got out to some fans in France and Britain, at least.
The last music he'd recorded, a long piece of which would sit in the vault until 1978, was at a charity concert for Impulse!, and it showed that he still had a lot to say. Then four years went by, and Moncur bided his time playing with Shepp and Jackie McLean, among others. Finally, he got his chance. He clearly had compositions ready to go (especially the intricate title track suite on side one). He was also able to get some incredible musicians who were also there making their own stuff. Shepp shows up for one track, but Roscoe Mitchell, Dave Burrell, Alan Silva, and Andrew Cyrille were there for the entire session.
The injustice is in just how fast this was expected to be completed. Some artists, like Sunny Murray, were recording two albums on a single day in this week, and it was a bustle to record as quickly as possible for all the talent. Lesser artists just squawked out free blowing dates, but the best, and it is many of them, made far more complex albums than could be expected in a brief recording period. That means that while the music is excellent and far more intricate than one might expect in such a short time, it was still rushed, and the sound was hardly Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood studio.
Still, as the modal/spiritual title track breezes through its near eighteen minutes, it is apparent that the talent in the band will be able to overcome such niceties as rehearsal. As each part of the suite fades into the next, it's apparent that Moncur was waiting for an opportunity to record, and it goes down easy. A little less easy is "Space Spy". Burrell comes down on the piano for the dirge, which reminds me of some of Moncur's work in the early sixties such as "Monk in Wonderland". Cyrille comes to these pieces as he does to his then boss Cecil Taylor, finding all the hidden places to color, moving forward and moving everywhere at once. He gets some real Elvin Jones moments in the suite, but on "Space Spy" he's all over the place. This lets the voices of Moncur and Mitchell stand out, playing mournfully into the moody piece.
"Exploration" is a much more forward track that leans into the free (Moncur was never really a free player, but all the others sure were, and they tear it up here). Again, you can hear sounds from Moncur's early work, and Cyrille has the ability to keep up with what Tony Williams was doing on those original records while taking it further out. Burrell finally takes off here, sparring with Cyrille as his hands are all over the keys. Finally, "When" is a swinging track with a heavy vamp from Burrell. The star of this show is Shepp, and everyone largely just backs him up. Shepp doesn't fly too far out (unlike his solo records on BYG/Actuel recorded around this time). Rather, he keeps in the bouncy, modal swing and finds a lot of different approaches to filling the gaps. As the song ends, it's pretty amazing what's here given the circumstances. It hardly seems right, though, that Moncur got so few other chances (though he'd get one more record with Actuel that has a Brazilian feel). Still, be thankful to get to spend forty-eight minutes with this group of exceptional players. A solid album.”-rateyourmusic
- LabelUltra Vybe
- UPC4526180722489