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CD
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MTE 045CD
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2005 release. Sunny Murray: drums; Sabir Mateen: alto and tenor saxophones, alto-clarinet; Dave Burrell: piano; Alan Silva: bass; Louis Belogenis: tenor saxophone. Sunny Murray's talent is bigger than any category you could use to describe it. He's one of the most original musical minds of the past 50 years, a genuine innovator, the liberator of the drum kit, and an artist of uncompromising honesty. Murray's playing in the 1960s with Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, and others opened up entirely new expressive realms for the drums in jazz. Murray's act of liberation -- to free drummers from their strict time-keeping role -- still outrages many listeners, and his militant individuality, his obstinate adherence to his artistic vision over the years, still make him something of an outlaw presence in jazz. It should come as no shock to his listeners, then, that the music on this CD and its companion volume (MTE 046CD), recorded on brief visits to the U.S. from Murray's home base in Paris, is full of fire and surprise, ornery as hell, charming and urbane, and totally, unstintingly true to his free-spirited aesthetic.
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CD
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MTE 046CD
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2005 release. Sunny Murray: drums; Sabir Mateen: alto and tenor saxophones, clarinet; John Blum: piano; Oluyemi Thomas: bass clarinet and c-melody saxophone. There's enough great music from Sunny Murray's 2003 Northeast tour to fill yet another volume, following Vol. I (MTE 045CD). The designation is dictated partly by chronology -- this material comes from the later part of the tour -- and partly by an aesthetic decision to program the music to show off the diversity and contrasts in Murray's handling of the different ensembles he worked with on the tour. Murray is a different drummer than he was when he first made jazz history with Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler. Partly that's because it's harder at his age to physically sustain the intense high energy of previous decades. Partly, it's a matter of artistic growth, development, and change. Murray's drumming on these discs is unfailingly musical. His unerring touch, sensitivity to sound and color, his relaxation and swing are the mark of a mature talent who knows exactly what he's doing. Murray's creativity, wit, and power are at a mature peak and no aspect of improvised music is beyond this most individual -- and still radical -- drummer.
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CD
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ESPDISK 4037CD
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Reissued and expanded edition of this classic and important '66 release from the innovative drummer Sunny Murray in a quintet session, remastered and with bonus interview track between Murray and ESP label founder Bernard Stollman. Sunny Murray is one of the most important drummers in the development of free jazz. In his work as a member of the groups of Cecil Taylor and then Albert Ayler, he was a pioneer in the abandonment of steady time, the freest of the free, taking the drums out of their subordinate timekeeping role and standing as an equal in the music's textures. He was a crucial component of ESP-Disk’s first jazz release, Ayler's Spiritual Unity, of which critic Ekkehard Jost wrote, "Ayler's negation of fixed pitches finds a counterpart in Peacock's and Murray's negation of the beat. In no group of this time is so little heard of a steady beat.”
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LP
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BYG 332LP
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2024 restock. 32nd volume in the BYG Actuel series; gatefold sleeve, 180 gram vinyl. "Avant-garde jazz drummer Sunny Murray was a major player in the experimental jazz community throughout the 1960s. After three years as a member of Albert Ayler's band (1964-1967), Murray traveled to France where, after releasing two LPs on the BYG label, he recorded An Even Break, (recorded on November 22, 1969) for Affinity. Although his first release for the Affinity label, this was Murray's third release of the year! Featuring Byard Lancaster, Malachi Favors and Kenneth Terroade."
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BYG 303LP
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2023 restock. Third volume in the BYG Actuel series; gatefold sleeve, 180 gram vinyl. "After three years as a member of Albert Ayler's band (1964-1967), avant-garde jazz drummer Sunny Murray traveled to France where he recorded for Affinity and BYG. The amazing Homage to Africa was recorded on August 15, 1969 for BYG and features Archie Shepp, Alan Silva, Grachan Moncur III, Lester Bowie, Clifford Thornton, Roscoe Mitchell, Kenneth Terroade and Jeanne Lee."
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