Sunny Murray

James Marcellus Arthur "Sunny" Murray (born September 21, 1936 in Idabel, Oklahoma) is one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming.

Biography

Murray spent his youth in Philadelphia before moving to New York City where he began playing with Cecil Taylor: "We played for about a year, just practicing, studying — we went to workshops with Varèse, did a lot of creative things, just experimenting, without a job" [1] He was featured on the influential 1962 concerts in Denmark released as Nefertiti the Beautiful One Has Come.

Murray was among the first to forgo the drummer's traditional role as timekeeper in favor of purely textural playing. "Murray's aim was to free the soloist completely from the restrictions of time, and to do this he set up a continual hailstorm of percussion ... continuous ringing stickwork on the edge of the cymbals, an irregular staccato barrage on the snare, spasmodic bass drum punctuation and constant, but not metronomic, use of the sock-cymbal" [2]

After his period with Taylor's group, Murray's influence continued as a core part of Albert Ayler's trio who recorded Spiritual Unity: "Sunny Murray and Albert Ayler did not merely break through bar lines, they abolished them altogether." [3]

He later recorded under his own name for ESP-Disk and then when he moved to Europe for BYG Actuel.

Discography

As leader

As sideman

with Cecil Taylor

with Albert Ayler

with Gil Evans

with Jimmy Lyons

with David Eyges

with Billy Bang

with Khan Jamal

with Alexander von Schlippenbach

with Cheikh Tidiane Fall and Malachi Favors

with Burton Greene and Alan Silva

with David Murray

with Dave Burrell

with Aki Takase

with The Reform Art Unit

with Charles Gayle and William Parker

with Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers

with Gunter Hampel

with Sabir Mateen

with Christian Brazier

with Walter Malli

with Kenny Millions

with Clifford Thornton

with Arthur Doyle

with Francois Tusques

with Assif Tsahar and Peter Kowald

with The Contemporary Jazz Quartet

with Telectu

References

  1. ↑ Lock, Graham (1994). Chasing the Vibration. Devon: Stride Publications. p. 120. ISBN 1-873012-81-0.
  2. ↑ Wilmer, Val (1977). As Serious As Your Life. Quartet. ISBN 0-7043-3164-0.
  3. ↑ Litweiler, John (1984). The Freedom Principle: Jazz After 1958. Da Capo.
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