I know you were planning a record with Monk and Art Blakey and maybe Woody Shaw. That was a travesty that Blue Note didn’t go for that. It would have been a classic.

Oh, man! Honest to God. We had a three-way conference call, because I told Monk and Blakey, “I have this music and I want you guys on this date” and they had heard Evolution and Monk went for it because Monk loved “Monk in Wonderland” that I wrote for him. He told Nellie that, he told Nica. That was his favorite tune that anyone wrote for him, that he really liked. I think those cats would have brought something, they would have carried my music.

It would have been amazing.

I mean, I was so surprised that they were so receptive to want to do it and to prove it they said: “We’re going to call Alfred now.” Alfred said, [imitating German accent] “No, man. No, Grachan. You’re doing something different. What they’re doing is not the same thing!”

Man, what a shame. Do you have that music? The music you would have done?

I have not recorded it. I only recorded one piece of it. That’s a piece that I did recently that I recorded in California with a group called Inner Cry Blues.

I have that CD at home.

Right, OK, “Hilda” was one of the pieces^[12] that I wanted to use.

You sang on that, too…

Inner Cry Blues
BY Grachan Moncur III
(Lunar Module Records, 2007)

Not on “Hilda,” but on two tracks, “Sonny’s Back” and “A for Pops.” But we didn’t have a budget or time for me to do it over; I think I could have been better. Another thing about that date. I didn’t know what to bring because the only thing I heard of these guys was what they sent me and they sent me a whole CD of originals.^[13] You can’t tell how people play on all original tunes. You’ve got to hear a guy play on either a standard or a ballad to really know how he plays. I didn’t know what to play, so I just brought a whole book of stuff and we didn’t have so much time to rehearse. I heard right away that they had a group sound of their own, so I thought more like a composer than I did as an instrumentalist and as a musician. I just utilized their sound, and it was kind of difficult for me to put my thing in there because their whole thing was coming from a totally different thing, rhythmically and sound-wise. It was two sets, so I had to play my trombone on an eggshell, but they followed me well on the freer pieces. It’s just that our conceptions were so different on the inside pieces, like “A for Pops,” which are very demanding chords and “Sonny’s Back,” which is straight ahead blues. It might sound like it, but it’s not straight ahead like the New York type that I could get some use from. You see what I’m saying? But I thought their musicianship was great, especially because they let me lead the band and they did the best they could and they really came off good. I don’t think East Coast musicians would have did any better on the freer pieces, “Hilda,” “Inner Cry Blues,” the freer pieces… they knew how to play collectively and follow. I really… that’s something that East Coast cats don’t have like the West Coast cats.

Now, you said something about Miles’s reaction to this band you had in Europe, but I know that Williams, Hancock, and Wayne were in this group before they were with Miles.

That’s right!