Grachan Moncur III - Mosaic Select FLAC download

Description from Mosaic website:"It’s a moment in time. And it’s a reason for being. The point of discovery for Grachan Moncur III was the moment this music happened, an era when he and his contemporary Rodwell Rudd were the names in free jazz on trombone. And the point of discovery is Moncur’s reason for playing trombone the way he does and writing music in his inimitable style.Hearing these tracks again is to put yourself in a time when jazz was an uncontainable force. There were innovations everywhere. Some were regional. Some stylistic. Some petered out. Others haunt us still. But again, the job of the discoverer is not to sort all that out. It’s to go on discovering. And Grachan Moncur III -- a man in his 20s during the 1960s – was virile, alert, determined, respectful of tradition, trained in composition and on his instrument, but eager for something new, to find “what else.”The album titles from the time tell it all: There were Jackie McLean’s “One Step Beyond” and “Destination Out.” There were Moncur’s own “Evolution” and “Some Other Stuff.” These were young men on a quest to find a place in art where there was no place, because that place was always moving away.The McLean LPs more or less introduced Moncur to the world as a musician and composer, and his importance in both fields was immediately felt. His music had a peculiar characteristic of seeming at the same time familiar and strange, like Monk’s. Yes, you find yourself saying, “Frankenstein” is a jazz waltz, but it’s like no jazz waltz I’ve heard. Yes, “Air Raid” is propelled against a very present sense of time, and it’s a composition with a clear structure, but I’m not sure exactly where “one” comes again. And “Evolution?” Pure art. That kind of thing. His music toys with your expectations at the same time that it fulfills them.And his sound was all his own. While the trombone is by nature intensely masculine, Moncur could always find its ethereal qualities. Sleek, unadorned, his blowing clear and direct, Moncur’s music could move right smack into you.This newly remastered Mosaic Select package captures Moncur in the act, with the aforementioned Jackie McLean (replaced by Wayne Shorter on the “Some Other Stuff” sessions) and with that exceptional young dynamo, Tony Williams on drums. In addition to the records already mentioned, this set also includes McLean’s “Hipnosis” and most of “’Bout Soul”. Sidemen include Bobby Hutcherson, Eddie Kahn, Larry Ridley, Roy Haynes, Lee Morgan, Bob Cranshaw, Herbie Hancock, Cecil McBee, Woody Shaw, Lamont Johnson, Scotty Holt, Billy Higgins and Rashied Ali. The four sessions led by Jackie McLean include a number of Moncur compositions, and help bookend the material on the now out-of-print Mosaic package, “The Complete Blue Note 1964-1966 Jackie McLean Sessions.” This set is limited, too, and is certain to sell out. Please reserve yours."