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Albert Ayler Trio: 1964: Prophecy Revisited
by Mark Corroto
Albert Ayler is often quoted as saying “Trane was the Father, Pharoah was the Son, I am the Holy Ghost," referring to John Coltrane, “Pharoah Sanders," and himself. It might be better said that Ayler was John The Baptist, the musical prophet that proclaimed the coming of free jazz. Like many a prophet, his end was agonizing. Ayler drowned in the East River in 1970, after a very brief eight year recording career. Coltrane knew then what many ...
Continue ReadingSunny Murray, Bob Dickie, Robert Andreano: Homework
by Alberto Bazzurro
Inciso nel maggio 1994 e pubblicato tre anni dopo su LP a tiratura limitata su etichetta Super Secret Sound, questo album vede il leggendario Sunny Murray, all'epoca cinquantasettenne, affiancato da due giovani musicisti che non avrebbero poi avuto particolare modo di far parlare di sé. L'attuale versione in CD, rispetto a quella in vinile, vede l'aggiunta di oltre venti minuti di musica inedita, anche se i pezzi sono gli stessi, però in quattro casi su sei in versioni dilatate anche ...
Continue ReadingSunny Murray: Homework
by John Sharpe
Sunny Murray, who died in December 2017, was one of the pioneers of free-jazz drumming, having established himself on seminal discs with pianist Cecil Taylor and saxophonist Albert Ayler during the 1960s. Homework presents Murray in 1994 in a bare-bones trio format with a pair of young Philadelphia musicians who went on to work in indie rock. Guitarist Robert Andreano, then 22 years old, relates in the liner notes how his friendship with Murray developed and the idea to record ...
Continue ReadingSonic Liberation Front: Sonic Liberation Front meets Sunny Murray
by AAJ Italy Staff
L'incontro tra Sunny Murray e Sonic Liberation Front avviene per errore, anzi per un errore. Nel lontano 1985 il grande batterista e alfiere del free jazz cerca di contattare telefonicamente il vibrafonista Khan Jamal ma sbaglia a digitare una cifra. All'altro capo del telefono risponde Kevin Diehl, futuro leader del Sonic Liberation Front. Nasce così un'amicizia che dura da venticinque anni e che porta alle due sedute di registrazione presentate in questo CD. I primi cinque brani (in studio) sono ...
Continue ReadingSunny Murray: On Taking the Leap from One Reality to Another
by Robert Levin
[Editor's Note: From a work-in-progress, Going Outside: A Memoir of Free Jazz and the Sixties][Author's Note: Sunny Murray is widely regarded as the preeminent drummer of the free jazz movement. The “Jeanne" mentioned below was Jeanne Phillips. Although there were, to be sure, significant differences--she was black, she worked a forty hour-a-week civil service job and her one bedroom flat on West 10th Street in New York City was no showplace--Jeanne, who was astonishingly astute ...
Continue ReadingSunny Murray Trio at The Vortex in London
by John Sharpe
Sunny Murray Trio The Vortex London, England September 1, 2009
Two nights in north London with free-jazz drum pioneer Sunny Murray's European Trio was a prospect to set the pulse racing. That expectancy was widely shared, it appeared, as there was standing room only even on the second evening. Murray first found a way to shift beyond his bebop roots to pit a shimmering rhythmic undertow against Cecil Taylor's new thing in ...
Continue ReadingSunny Murray: Big Chief
by Clifford Allen
Sunny Murray Big Chief Eremite Records 2009
American jazzmen have long called Paris something of a second home, due to a perceived promise of more work and cultural acceptance. The lineage in this music can be traced to artists like reed player Sidney Bechet, who called the city home from 1949 until his death and was an early “notable" jazz expatriate. If one could say anything like an exodus occurred, it might ...
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