Somewhat of a mystery figure in jazz history,
J.C. Moses was a very versatile (and for a time greatly in-demand) drummer who played in settings ranging from mainstream to free jazz.
Moses first gained the attention of the jazz world in the early 1960s, when he recorded with
Clifford Jordan,
Kenny Dorham and quite notably
Eric Dolphy. As a member of the New York Contemporary Five -- a group that included
Archie Shepp,
John Tchicai and
Don Cherry --
Moses toured Scandinavia in 1963 and recorded in Denmark. Back in New York the following year,
Moses was with the New York Art Quartet (a group that matched
Tchicai and
Roswell Rudd), was with an early version of Charles Lloyd's Quartet and spent two years (1965-67) with
Rahsaan Roland Kirk. During this period,
Moses also worked with
Archie Shepp,
Andrew Hill and
Sam Rivers. In 1969
Moses played regularly in Copenhagen as the house drummer at the Montmartre Club, working with such players as
Ben Webster and
Dexter Gordon. Erratic health forced him to cut back on his activities in the early 1970s and he returned to Pittsburgh, where he occasionally played with
Nathan Davis and
Eric Kloss before his premature death.
Moses never led his own record date. ~ Scott Yanow