Sunny Murray

Sunny Murray (James Marcellus Arthur Murray, Idabel, Oklahoma, September 21, 1937 - December 8, 2017) was an American jazz drummer, one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming. 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". He featured on the influential 1962 concerts in Denmark released as Nefertiti the Beautiful One Has Come. He 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". 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." He later recorded under his own name for ESP-Disk and then when he moved to Europe for BYG Actuel. Murray died in December 2017. Discography As leader 1965: Sunny's Time Now 1966: Sunny Murray (ESP Disk) 1968: Big Chief (EMI/Pathé) 1969: Homage to Africa (BYG Actuel) 1969: Sunshine (BYG Actuel) 1969: An Even Break (Never Give a Sucker) (BYG Actuel) 1978: Charred Earth (Kharma) 1979: Live at Moers-Festival (Moers) 1979: Aigu-Grave (Marge) with Bobby Few, Alan Silva, Richard Raux, Pablo Sauvage 1980: Apple Cores (Philly Jazz) 1987: Indelicacy (West Wind) 1996: 13 Steps on Glass (Enja) As sideman with Cecil Taylor Cecil Taylor Jazz Unit, The Early Unit 1962 (Ingo) Live at The Cafe Montmartre (Debut) Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come (1962) It Is in the Brewing Luminous (1980) with Albert Ayler Holy Ghost (Revenant) Ghosts (Debut, 1965) Spirits (Debut, 1966) Swing Low Sweet Spiritual (Osmosis, 1965, [1971]) also released as Goin' Home (Black Lion) with bonus tracks Prophecy (ESP Disk) Spiritual Unity (ESP Disk) New York Eye and Ear Control (ESP Disk) Albert Ayler (Philology 88) Bells (ESP Disk) Spirits Rejoice (ESP Disk) with Gil Evans 1961: Into the Hot (Impulse!) with Jimmy Lyons Jump Up/What To Do About (Hathut) with David Eyges Crossroads (Music Unlimited) with Billy Bang Outline No. 12 (Celluloid) with Khan Jamal Infinity (Jam'Brio) Change of the Century Orchestra (JAS) Speak Easy (Gazell) with Alexander von Schlippenbach Smoke (FMP) with Cheikh Tidiane Fall and Malachi Favors African Magic (Circle) with Burton Greene and Alan Silva Firmanence (Fore) with David Murray A Sanctuary Within (Black Saint) with Dave Burrell High (Douglas) Echo (BYG Actuel) with Aki Takase Clapping Music (Enja) with The Reform Art Unit Subway Performances (Granit) with Charles Gayle and William Parker Kingdom Come (KFW) with Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers/Sonny Murray Quartet-1968(JCD) with Archie Shepp Live at the Pan-African Festival (BYG Actuel) Yasmina, a Black Woman (BYG Actuel) Black Gipsy (America) Pitchin Can (America) Bill Dixon 7-tette/Archie Shepp and the New York Contemporary 5 (Savoy) with Gunter Hampel Gunter Hampel and His Galaxie Dream Band Journey to the Song Within (Birth) with Sabir Mateen We Are Not at the Opera (Eremite) with Christian Brazier Peregrinations (Bleu Regard) with Walter Malli Geh' langsam durch die alten Gass'n (PAO) with Kenny Millions Loved by Millions (Leo) Mayhem in Our Streets (Waterland) No Money No Honey (Hum Ha) with Clifford Thornton Ketchaoua (BYG Actuel) with Arthur Doyle Dawn of a New Vibration (Fractual) Live at Glenn Miller Café (Ayler) with Francois Tusques Intercommunal Music (Shandar) with Assif Tsahar and Peter Kowald MA Live at Fundacio Juan Miro (Hopscotch) with The Contemporary Jazz Quartet The Contemporary Jazz Quartet Featuring Sunny Murray Action (Debut) with Telectu 2002: Quartetos (Clean Feed) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.