Grachan Moncur III - new africa - Vinyl LP

2025

A vital document of artistic resistance and spiritual searching, New Africa captures a transformative moment in jazz and global Black consciousness. Recorded in Paris in 1969, the album stands as a deeply personal and boldly experimental statement from American trombonist and composer Grachan Moncur III — one of the most compelling figures of the avant-garde movement.

Driven by a sense of urgency and vision, New Africa channels the energy of a world in flux. Moncur, deeply moved by his journey to Algiers during a pivotal cultural gathering, poured that experience into a work that is at once avant-garde and grounded in ancestral memory. The music does not seek comfort — it provokes, interrogates, and ultimately uplifts. Across its four tracks, Moncur challenges structure, tone, and expectation. The album’s movements shift fluidly between tension and resolution, melody and abstraction, lament and celebration. It is jazz as prophecy — rooted in Black radical thought and extended through fearless improvisation.

More than 50 years on, New Africa remains a resonant artistic cry: urgent, unresolved, and unafraid to imagine what liberation might sound like. This reissue gives the album the treatment it has long deserved, offering listeners a renewed opportunity to engage with one of the most potent recordings of its time - and of ours.

PERSONNEL

Grachan Moncur III (trombone)
Roscoe Mitchell (alto sax, piccolo)
Archie Shepp (tenor sax in title WHEN only)
Dave Burrell (piano)
Alan Silva (bass)
Andrew Cyrille (drums)