Jemeel Moondoc

Someone played me a record one day, and the pianist just had this incredible touch—sometimes you hear people play, and you can’t describe it, but it’s something you’ve never heard before and it’s something special. Something distinctive. So I heard this, and it just made me say, “Wow—who is that?” The person playing me the record told me it was Connie Crothers. I knew a drummer named John McCutcheon, and one day, around 1999 or 2000, he asked me if I wanted to meet Connie.

our bid for moondoc's finest ever small-group recording. revolt of the negro lawn jockeys shows a musician capable of drawing together the post-bop lineage that includes jackie mclean & charles mingus, & the free jazz/energy music tradition of ornette coleman & cecil taylor into one grand, swinging synthesis. it is clear that for Moondoc, one does not exclude the other. his big-hearted, all-embracing music renders irrelevant the boundary between free & post bop jazz.