New York's trombonist Grachan Moncur III (1937) composed large parts of
Jackie McLean's
One Step Beyond (april 1963) and
Destination Out (september 1963),
and then recorded his own debut album,
Evolution (november 1963), with Jackie McLean on alto, Lee Morgan on
trumpet,
Bobby Hutcherson on vibraphone,
Bob Cranshaw on double bass and Tony Williams on drums, followed by
the four suites of Some Other Stuff (july 1964),
with Herbie Hancock on piano, Wayne Shorter on
tenor saxophone,
Cecil McBee on bass and
Tony Williams on drums.
The four compositions of
New Africa (august 1969) were equally outstanding and performed by another
stellar quintet (Roscoe Mitchell on alto saxophone,
Dave Burrell on piano,
Alan Silva on bass,
Andrew Cyrille on drums) plus Archie Shepp in one piece.
Four more pieces appeared on Aco Dei de Madrugada (november 1969).
He composed Echoes of Prayer (april 1974) for the Jazz Composer's Orchestra, a jazz symphony for orchestra, vocalists and jazz soloists.
As usual, four compositions show up on
Shadows (june 1977), that features
Marion Brown on alto saxophone,
Reggie Workman on bass,
Joe Chambers on drums,
Roland Prince on guitar,
Dave Burrell on piano
and Andy Bey on vocals.
After a long hiatus, he recorded the compositions for octet of
Exploration (june 2004), a retrospective of sort, containing old compositions
performed with
seven of his compositions (and one group improvisation) by altoist Gary Bartz, tenor man Billy Harper (who played with Moncur on Lee Morgan's eponymously self-titled final studio date), drummer Andrew Cyrille, bassist Ray Drummond, trumpeter Tim Hagans, baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan, John Clark on french horn and second trombonist Dave Woodley.
Then came the six lengthy pieces of
Inner Cry Blues (february 2007), with tenor saxophonist Mitch Marcus, trumpeter Erik Jekabson and a rhythm section.
Grachan Moncur III died in 2022 on his 85 birthday.
