Born in
New York City, United States, and raised in
Newark, New Jersey, Grachan Moncur III began playing the
cello at the age of nine, and switched to the
trombone when he was 11. In high school, he attended the
Laurinburg Institute in
North Carolina, the private school where
Dizzy Gillespie had studied. While still at school, he began sitting in with touring jazz musicians on their way through town, including
Art Blakey and
Jackie McLean, with whom he formed a lasting friendship. After high school, Moncur toured with
Ray Charles (1959–62),
Art Farmer and
Benny Golson's
Jazztet (1962), and
Sonny Rollins. He took part in two
Jackie McLean albums for
Blue Note in 1963,
One Step Beyond and
Destination... Out!, to which he also contributed the bulk of compositions. He recorded two albums of his own for Blue Note,
Evolution (1963) with Jackie McLean and
Lee Morgan, and
Some Other Stuff (1964) with
Herbie Hancock and
Wayne Shorter. Moncur joined
Archie Shepp's ensemble, and recorded with other
avant-garde players such as
Marion Brown,
Beaver Harris and
Roswell Rudd (another
free jazz trombonist). During a stay in Paris in the summer of 1969, he recorded two albums as a leader for the
BYG Actuel label,
New Africa and
Aco Dei de Madrugada, as well as appearing as a sideman on other releases of the label. In 1974, the
Jazz Composer's Orchestra commissioned him to write
Echoes of Prayer (1974), a jazz symphony featuring a full orchestra plus vocalists and jazz soloists. His sixth album as a leader,
Shadows (1977) was released only in Japan. He was subsequently plagued by health problems and copyright disputes and recorded only rarely. Through the 1980s, he recorded with
Cassandra Wilson (1985), played occasionally with the Paris Reunion Band and
Frank Lowe, appeared on
Big John Patton's
Soul Connection (1983), but mostly concentrated on teaching. In 2004, he re-emerged with a new album,
Exploration, on
Capri Records featuring Moncur's compositions arranged by
Mark Masters for an
octet including
Tim Hagans and
Gary Bartz. Moncur died from
cardiac arrest on June 3, 2022, his 85th birthday, at his home in
Newark, New Jersey. == Discography ==