Customer Reviews

Some Other Stuff

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This is a classic Blue Note from the mid-sixties (recorded on July 6th, 1964). It was released for awhile in the Connoiseur Series in the early nineties (I believe) but has been out of print since. This is a crime. All of us that love this type of music should be firing off e-mails to Blue Note demanding the rerelease of this, Moncur's other great CD, Evolution, and all those lovely mid-sixtes Jackie McLean CDs (Action, Right Now, Consequence, etc.) Music like this should never be unavailable.

The band on this CD is Wayne Shorter on the tenor sax, Herbie Hancock on the piano, Cecil McBee on the bass and Anthony Williams on the drums. Grachan Moncur III plays the trombone and wrote the compositions. And what wonderful compositions! They are the following (with times in paranthesis): Gnostic (11:41), Thandiwa (8:16), The Twins (12:53), and Nomadic (7:41). The heads are fairly simply but the overall group sound is unusual- spacious with thorny harmonies or just plain free. One of the things that Moncur does that I really enjoy is on Nomadic which is basically just Williams in an extended drum solo with various obligatti from the other instruments. Since this is Tony Williams this is a wonderful and fascinating piece.
So get on your high horse people and fire off those e-mails to Blue Note and demand they free up this stuff! Or, at least, that it goes thru a limited release every five years or so. Music like this belongs to us all.

Mr. Carter has gone straight to the point: the MOSAIC Grachan Moncur III box set, remastered by Ron McMaster sounds just like rubish. The two G.M.III albums originally issued by Blue Note are must haves - I take SOME OTHER STUFF to be not only G.M.III's masterpiece but one of the truly greatest albums of the entire B.N. history. Anyway, let's pray this is released in the U.S. under an affordable price.

P.S. WE LOVE YOU Mr. MONCUR.
P.S. II WE HATE YOU Mr. McMASTER.
P.S. III WE LOVE YOU Mr. VAN GELDER.
P.S. IV Listen to this one next to TONY WILLIAMS' B.N. debut, the wonderful LIFETIME (1964 also).

This record features two of the greatest modern musicians to ever come from Newark, NJ or anywhere. You probably have some Wayne Shorter in you collection right now, and if you do you definitely need some Grachan. He doesn't need Wayne's tunes, his own are just as amazing. Both Some Other Stuff and Evolution are easily among Blue Note's most special LPs. As per the RVG vs. McMaster deal, this stuff would sound fresh on your Fisher Price. I'll probably rebuy them if these Toshiba versions come down the pike, but until that day the Mosaic is still in heavy rotation.