Sunny Murray (James Marcellus Arthur Murray, Idabel, Oklahoma, September 2… Read Full Bio ↴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)