Label:
BYG Records – 529.205
Series:
Double Actuel – 205
Format:
2 × Vinyl, LP, Compilation; Country: France - Released: 1971
Style:
Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Free Improvisation
Side
A/B - Recorded In Paris 11. August 1969
Side
C/D - Recorded In Paris 04. November 1969
Executive-producer
– Claude Delcloo
Producer
– Jean Georgakarakos, Jean-Luc Young
Two
seminal sessions from avant soul trombonist Grachan Moncur III. Beautiful
recordings.
New Africa (1969)
A1
- New Africa . . . 17:30
1st
Movement: Queen Tamam
2nd Movement: New Africa
3rd
Movement: Black Call
4th Movement: Ethiopian Market
A2
- Space Spy . . . 6:55
B1
- Exploration . . . 10:45
B2
- When . . . 12:00
Grachan
Moncur III – trombone
Roscoe
Mitchell – alto saxophone, saxophone [piccolo]
Archie
Shepp – tenor saxophone (track: B2)
Dave
Burrell – piano
Alan
Silva – contrabass
Andrew
Cyrille – drums, percussion
Aco Dei De
Madrugada (One Morning I Waked Up Very Early) - 1969
C1
- Aco Dei De Madrugada (Traditional Bresilian) . . . 7:02
C2
- Ponte Io (Traditional Bresilian) . . . 6:46
D1
- Osmosis . . . 9:25
D2
- Tiny Temper . . . 5:28
Grachan
Moncur III – trombone
Fernando
Martins – piano, vocals
Beb
Guérin – contrabass
Nelson
Serra De Castro – drums, percussion
Grachan Moncur III
In
1969 Grachan Moncur III - jazz trombonist and composer - recorded two albums
for the legendary French free jazz record label BYG: "New Africa" and
"One Morning I Woke Up Very Early (Aco Dei De Madrugada)".
Moncur
had come to France via Algiers, where he had played at the First Pan-African
Cultural Festival. This Festival, which focused on Black African ethnic
identity politics, had been held in Algeria from the 21st of July to the 1st of
August 1969 by the new-fled Organization of African Unity. Moncur had come to
the Festival together with Archie Shepp, with whom he had been playing since
1967 (i.a. on 'Life At The Donaueschingen Music Festival' and 'The Way Ahead')
and with whom he would remain closely associated in further years (on 'Things
Have Got To Change' and 'Kwanza'). Besides Moncur, Shepp brought with him
cornet player Clifton Thornton, pianist Dave Burrell, bass player Alan Silva,
and avant drummer Sunny Murray.
At
the Festival, the whole group was invited to record in Paris by BYG Actuel's
Jean Georgakarakos and Jean-Luc Young, and record they did: in a very short
time span, working in ever-changing constellations, they created scores of
beautiful free jazz records. "New Africa" was recorded on august 11th
1969, only ten days after the end of the Festival; "One Morning I Woke Up
Very Early (Aco Dei De Madrugada)" was recorded only a little later, on
september 10th and november 4th 1969.
But
the jazz corpus created by those invited to record by BYG Actuel - though one
of the most enticing on record - was marred by greed: to this day, BYG's
mainmen Bisceglia, Young and Georgakarakos have apparently not paid any
royalties to the artists involved. The financial problems this created for
Moncur initiated a downward spiral, which was worsened by health problems. The
result was that Moncur was able to record only rarely after the early 1970's,
apparently became quite depressed, and didn't even merit a personal entry in
the 7th (2004) edition of "The Pinguin Guide To Jazz On CD".
It
is ironic that where a Festival (the First Pan-African Cultural Festival)
provided the main impetus for BYG Records, another festival proved to be it's
undoing. BYG Records organized a festival together with the countercultural
magazine Actuel called 'Le Festival Actuel'. It was planned to take place from
October 24th to 27th 1969 in Paris. However, the French authorities denied the
organizers the necessary permits, fearing that either a Woodstock-like chaos or
a repetition of the may 1968 student riots might ensue. This forced the
organizers to move the entire Festival at a very late stage to Belgium, to a
place called Amougies (or Amengijs in Flemish) which is near the French-Belgium
border. The Festival had a very ambitious line-up, featuring Pink Floyd,
Captain Beefheart, Soft Machine and Ten Years After. Also, much of BYG Records
roster of Free Jazz performers participated; Grachan Moncur III appeared on
Saturday night, together with Don Cherry, saxophonist Arthur Jones and pianist
Joachim Kurt Kuhn. Frank Zappa was master of ceremonies at the Festival. Though
an audience of 15-20,000 attended the Festival, the financial strain it caused
was too much of a burden for BYG Records, which finally went bankrupt in the
early seventies.
Bisceglia
went on to become a Jazz photographer; Jean Georgakarakos founded Celluloid
Records; and Jean-Luc Young founded the record label Charly Records in France
in 1974 and moved operations to England in 1975. Living up to his reputation
for shady deals, Young ran into legal trouble due to copyright infringement in
2000 while still working for Charly Records.
The
trombone - Moncur's instrument - has held a particular fascination for me ever
since I saw drone metal band Earth perform live, Steve Moore - who has roots in
Free Jazz - providing beautiful trombone gravitas to Earth's haunted Americana.
But Moncur's trombone playing is light years removed from Moore's drones: his
style is firmly rooted in Jazz tradition.
Moncur's
music is not Free Jazz of the chaotic and noisy, Merzbow kind; and it is also
devoid of the cheap quasi-mystical exoticism which can spoil Indian/Jazz-fusion-type
Free Jazz. Notwithstanding the influence of Shepp's ethnopolitical protest
music, both albums present a rather lyrical style of Free Jazz, elegant rather
than intransigent, poetic rather than acerbic, a mélange rather than a hotchpotch.
Moncur comes across as a good-natured progressive who chooses to explore both
the heartlands and the borders of the Jazz tradition, rather than as a
revolutionary firebrand who aims to scorch the earth of that tradition.
But
that does not mean that Moncur's music lacks passion - on the contrary!
'New
Africa' features Roscoe Mitchell (alto sax), Dave Burrell (piano), Alan Silva
(bass) and Andrew Cyrille (drums). It opens with the eponymous
seventeen-and-a-half minute suite, which consists of four movements. Over the
course of these movements, the relaxed, steady bass work by Silva binds
together the energetic performances of the other musicians. The drums and the
piano on the one hand and the sax and the trombone on the other maneuver around
each other in benevolent aerobatic dog-fights. In 'Space Spy' Dave Burrell
provides a suspenseful piano tune that gives the track a tense feel appropriate
to it's title: that of a Free Jazz afro-futurist espionage thriller. The third
track ('Exploration') is the 'Free-est' of all. It is thoroughly informed by
Alan Silva's musical style: spiritually ecstatic, with an interplay of
instruments that is as writhing as a mass of Cthulhoid tentacles. Archie Shepp
appears on the fourth and final track of 'New Africa', where a self-confident
(but never swaggering) swing provides the two musicians with a theater stage on
which to perform their powerful art.
I'm
also very fond of the second part of this double LP, the album "One
Morning I Woke Up Very Early (Aco Dei De Madrugada)". It was recorded
after 'Le Festival Actuel'. This album presents two songs which are
interpretations of Brazilian traditionals: "Aco Dei De Madrugada" and
"Ponte Lo"; and two originals: "Osmosis" and "Tiny
Temper". On this recording, Moncur was assisted by French bass player Beb
Guérin, Brazilian pianist Fernando Martins and Brazilian drummer Nelson Serra
De Castro. More laid-back than 'New Africa', the Latin influence gives his
music an immensely graceful swing. - Enjoy!
_ Text:
Documents, By Valter
If
you find it, buy this album!
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