Some Other Stuff

by Anthony Medici in Album Reviews, Musician Reviews, New Releases, Opinion Posts, Reviews

It arrived on the scene inconspicuously, without fanfare.  It had been on my want list for ages.   I only came across it online while I was looking for something else.  I found out it was released on February 24, 2009 in its current incarnation.  A welcome arrival, indeed.  What am I talking about (you may well ask)?   I am referring to the Rudy Van Gelder series release on Blue Note of trombonist Grachan Moncur III’s  laconically titled Some Other Stuff, recorded July 6, 1964 at RVG’s studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, and released initially in 1965 on Blue Note.  It is one of the great “inside -outside” albums produced by Blue Note.   For some reason, previous issues of this album on both LP and CD had proved hard to come by.  Even repeated trips to our dearly beloved PREX failed to turn up a copy.  I mulled purchasing the Moncur 3-CD box set on Mosaic just to get it, but I had all the other albums contained on the set and was loathe to pay the asking price just to complete my Moncur collection.  Now the Moncur set is out of print (and already commanding high asking prices), but here was the individual album that I sought, complete with Reid Miles original and enigmatic cover art, and with an added annotation by Bob Blumenthal.   It did not take long to hit “Buy,” and pop it into the CD player on arrival. 

It was more than worth the wait. Moncur had recorded a previous album in 1963 for Blue Note, “Evolution,” also loaded with talent:  Lee Morgan on trumpet, Jackie McLean, alto sax, Bobby Hutcherson, vibes, Bob Cranshaw, bass, and Williams again on drums (here billed as Anthony Williams).  The four compositions, “Air Raid,” “Evolution,” “The Coaster,” and Monk in Wonderland,” are all by Moncur.  The musical performances are stellar (McLean just really kills) but it is Moncur’s compositions that shine.  They are powerful, mysterious, touched with a deep blues sensibility, occupying some indeterminate space between traditional and mainstream jazz forms and new, free jazz topographies.  I find Moncur kindred spirits to Andrew Hill, another Blue Note artist turning out one masterpiece after another during that same time (”Black Fire,” “Smokestack,” “Judgment!,”  and supremely, “Point of Departure”), and Larry Young (”Into Somethin’,” “Unity” ).  Moncur approached trombone much like Young approached the organ, and Hill the piano; not as a mechanism for virtuoso performance, but as a compositional tool to explore new musical possibilities.  

In Some Other Stuff, Moncur is accompanied by Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Herbie Hancock on piano, Cecil McBee on bass, and Tony Williams on drums.  A super group really, and although each had created some “buzz” to jazz cognoscenti, none of them had reached individual stardom yet.  Shorter and Hancock would reach superstar status, McBee would continue to perform at a high artistic level in many jazz contexts,  but Moncur, after a dispute over copyright with Blue Note,  eventually slipped from the scene in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, only returning to relative prominence in the last decade.  The album again features four Moncur compositions:  “Gnostic,” “Thandiwa,” “The Twins,” and “Nomadic.”  The first and third of these constitute an exploration of the liminal.  ”Thandiwa” is closer to a “typical” Blue Note bop number, although more complex.  “Nomadic” is essentially a drum solo by Williams, with occasional sparse accompaniment.  It is doubtful you will hear a more musical, or interesting, or admirable drum performance; Williams is brilliant.  While Evolution is undoubtedly also a masterpiece, the relatively large supporting group tends to distract from what Moncur is trying to accomplish.  This album, stripped down, spare, and concentrated, represents a distillation of Moncur’s musical vision.

For some, the Blue Note era of the mid to late 50s is the pinnacle of the labels greatness, but for me, because of albums like this, the early to mid-60s is the label’s era of greatest artistic accomplishment.  I am very glad that Rudy Van Gelder finally got around to remastering, and Blue Note got around to reissuing, this superb album.