The American jazz trombonist Grachan Moncur III, who has died on his 85th birthday, was among the first to show that a place for his instrument existed in the avant-garde of the 1960s. A valued collaborator with the saxophonists Jackie McLean, Wayne Shorter and Archie Shepp, he was destined to remain in relative obscurity while they, and others with whom he played, attracted a measure of wider fame.
The recorded evidence, particularly on several albums for the Blue Note label, left no doubt that he was their creative equal. When he slipped out of the public eye, it was largely because of his refusal to compromise a longstanding resentment against the music industry’s reluctance to reward musicians properly, particularly in respect of publishing royalties for composers.
