Grachan Moncur

"I WOULD SAY THAT THE STUDYING OF MONK PROBABLY LED TO EVERYTHING. I think it probably led to my whole compositional outgrowth because that's when everything started happening. After I did that study, I did the studying of Monk for six weeks or maybe two months, and then I put that down and just started writing stuff and practicing and writing and writing. I WAS TRYING TO LOOK AT WRITING (MUSIC)...THE WAY A PAINTER WOULD PAINT"
"To me, Evolution wasn't avant-garde, per se, for what the avant-garde was really standing for at that time. THE AVANT GARDE AT THAT TIME WAS DEALING WITH THE IDEA OF BEING REVOLUTIONARY MUSIC. I had no thoughts in my mind of this being revolutionary. I thought the way I named the album Evolution, I WAS THINKING OF THE MUSIC EVOLVING FROM THE MAINSTREAM. I didn't want to think in terms of we are taking over, we're changing. My mind was never there. That is why my album was called Evolution."
"I THINK THE REASON WHY I GOT PIGEONHOLED WAS BECAUSE OF THE BUSINESS, because Alfred Lion and them were pretty disappointed with me that after they recorded Evolution, they thought that they were going to be able to put the music in their publishing company and I had already published mine and I had already sent them the copyrights and I had got my company name and all that. They were very disappointed with that and they kind of dropped me like a hot potato in reference to the plans that they had had for me. I THINK MY MIND WAS REALLY GOING TO A REVOLUTIONARY ATTITUDE MORE ON THE BUSINESS TIP THAN IT WAS ON A MUSICAL TIP BECAUSE I WAS KIND OF DETERMINED ON TRYING TO OWN MY OWN MUSIC."
Grachan Moncur, Roswell Rudd & Archie Shepp
"IT FORCED ME INTO ANOTHER DIRECTION- TOWARD THE YOUNGER MUSICIANS IN THE AVANT GARDE. They respected what I was doing and pulled me into their thing. That saved me because I had nowhere else to go."