Last night Bird & Beckett Books and Records hosted a tribute concert in memory of jazz trombonist Grachan Moncur III, who died on his 85th birthday this past June 3. The ensemble served as a reflection of quintets in which Moncur had performed. Thus, the instrumentation was the same as the one found on Jackie McLean’s One Step Beyond album, which was actually the result of a close partnership between McLean and Moncur. Using that quintet as a “cast of characters,” the “roles” were taken by Rob Ewing on trombone, Steve Adams on tenor saxophone (McLean played alto), Dave Casini on vibraphone, Lisa Mezzacappa on bass, and Jordan Glenn on drums.
Casini served as “moderator,” keeping his remarks to a comfortable minimum. For the most part, however, attention resided with Ewing. Since my Moncur collection is far smaller than it ought to be, I cannot say whether Ewing was channeling Moncur or even trying to reconstruct some of his improvised solos. What I can say is that he performed with a thoroughly engaging virtuosity that clearly honored the spirit of Moncur’s performances, if not the letter. Adams was not quite as inspiring in his sax solos, but this is probably because he had to fill in for an ailing Bruce Ackley.
Equally interesting was the interplay of rhythmic patterns. Many of these amounted to a dialogue of Casini engaging with Glenn. This provided a “background” that highlighted the “foreground” of the rhythms that Ewing brought to his trombone solos. All this provided a rich tapestry of invention by the sextet taken as a whole. Indeed, the richness was such that, since I was viewing the live-stream at home, I found that the first set had provided so much that I did not want to obscure my memories by remaining for the second set!
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