Grachan Moncur III was a jazz trombonist from the United States. At the age of 85, he passed away. Let’s see how did he die, what happened, and what was Grachan Moncur III Cause of Death.
How did Grachan die?
Moncur had been in terrible health for some years, according to his relatives. He recently had a leg amputated owing to a vascular condition and spent much of the spring in the hospital. Adrien Moncur remarked, “But my mother and sister came down there very early this morning to wish him a happy birthday.”
Jazz trombonist Grachan Moncur III helmed a handful of adventurous albums for Blue Note and Impulse! In the 1960s and flanked artists like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Jackie McLean. He died Friday – his 85th birthday – from cardiac arrest. https://t.co/dvBZIiZga9
— NPR (@NPR) June 4, 2022
“To recognize that, he did open his eyes for a split second. It was brought to his attention that it was his birthday.” Grachan Moncur III Cause of Death was heart pain according to his son. Moncur III died due to Cardiac arrest.
Grachan Moncur III Cause of Death
Grachan Moncur III, a trombonist, and composer who pioneered modern jazz on his own and with partners such as saxophonists Archie Shepp and Jackie McLean, died on his 85th birthday in Newark, New Jersey. His son Adrien Moncur told WBGO that heart arrest was the reason for his death.
Grachan Moncur III Cause of Death was Cardiac arrest. Moncur came of age at a favorable time, a musician conversant in the languages of blues and bebop yet veering toward the unknown. Moncur’s debut, Evolution, recorded for Blue Note in 1963 and released the following year, encapsulates the questing spirit of the early-to-mid 1960s, which was leading the greatest emerging jazz musicians into new formal terrain.
It boasts an intimidating ensemble of partners, including Lee Morgan on trumpet, Jackie McLean on alto saxophone, Bobby Hutcherson on vibraphone, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Tony Williams on drums, and is fully composed by him.
Grachan Moncur III Early Life
Grachan Moncur III was born on June 3, 1937, in New York City and raised in Newark. Grachan Moncur, his paternal grandpa, was a Bahamas immigrant. Grachan Moncur II, his father, was a bassist with the Savoy Sultans. Ella Catherine Moncur, his mother, was a beautician who ran a salon at 32 High Street in Newark.
Moncur — nicknamed Bugie by his family — was drawn to the trombone as a boy, despite his father’s encouragement to learn the cello. He returned to the trombone, which he studied at North Carolina’s Laurinburg Institute.
Moncur immediately made friends with musicians like McLean and Williams after returning to the greater New York region after high school. He spent a few years on the road with Ray Charles, emerging into a culture that was ready for his kind of experimentation.
Moncur’s spirit was never quenched, even though he fought to make a living in the music industry. Exploration, a 2004 album with other travelers like Cyrille and saxophonists Billy Harper and Gary Bartz, is one of his more recent recordings.
Moncur is survived by two brothers, Loften Moncur and Lonnie Moncur; three sons, Grachan IV, Kenya, and Adrien; two daughters, Ella Moncur and Vera Moncur; and several grandkids, in addition to his wife of 54 years, the former Tamam Tracy Sims. Toih Moncur, his son, and Hilda Moncur, his daughter, predeceased him.
Grachan Monchu III’s Career
These improvisers were part of a peer group that produced some of the era’s most influential post-bop. Moncur struck up a particularly close friendship with McLean, whose Blue Note albums One Step Beyond (1963) and Destination… Out! (1964) include several of his tunes. Moncur also contributed color and richness to Herbie Hancock’s My Point of View, Joe Henderson’s The Kicker, and Wayne Shorter’s The All-Seeing Eye as a trombone.
Moncur’s contribution to James Baldwin’s Blues For Mister Charlie, described by the New York Times as “a play with fires of rage in its gut, tears of pain in its eyes, and a howl of protest in its voice,” went beyond the jazz performance circuit. It was loosely inspired by Emmett Till’s terrible narrative and dedicated to the memory of Medgar Evers, and it premiered on Broadway in 1964, with Moncur portraying many roles.
Moncur’s place in a socio-politically urgent avant-garde was further affirmed by his friend Amiri Baraka, a poet and activist who featured him in a 1965 concert titled “New Black Music.” The program was later abridged for an Impulse CD called The New Wave in Jazz, which featured bands headed by saxophonists John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and Archie Shepp.
Moncur’s intimate relationship with Shepp, which was first documented on Impulse, can be heard to great effect on albums like Mama Too Tight and The Way Ahead, to which he contributed original material. He was also one of the artists who performed with Shepp during Algeria’s inaugural Pan-African Cultural Festival in 1969.
Moncur released New Africa the same year, an album that suggested both a cultural orientation and a continued devotion to exploration. Roscoe Mitchell on alto saxophone, Dave Burrell on piano, Alan Silva on bass, and Andrew Cyrille on drums make up the rest of the album’s lineup. Tracy Moncur, his widow, told WBGO, “He was a revolutionary in music.”
“After making the Blue Note CDs, he wanted to own his songs.” He desired income not only as a performer but also as a songwriter. He was informed that he would never work again. He continued to labor, but he was one of the first to aggressively endeavor to own — and eventually did on — his music.”
Tribute to Grachan Moncur III’s Death
Euclid said,
Just saw this. Very sad to hear that the great Grachan Moncur III has passed away. One of the great trombonists who blazed trails in the Free and Avant-Garde movement. RIP.
Nate Chinen said,
The first time I went to Amiri Baraka’s house, in 1997, Grachan Moncur III was sitting at the kitchen table, “just to hang with my man Baraka.” He invited me to pull up a chair and told a bunch of stories. I don’t remember the details, but I’ll never forget his warmth and great humor.
Hank Shteamer said,
RIP Grachan Moncur III. His work has meant so much to me. I will always treasure the evening I spent w/ him @WKCRjazz, preserved here (~3 hours of music and talk):
Jazz HQ said,
Blog post: Grachan Moncur III, trailblazing jazz trombonist, dies at 85 #jazz: Grachan Moncur III, a trombonist and composer who carved an intrepid path through modern jazz, on his own and with collaborators like the saxophonists Archie Shepp and Jackie…
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