Sunny Murray

I got in trouble with Milford Graves quoting that interview on my site. He wrote me and accused me of trying to start some s* between him and Sunny.

I never met him, but Sunny seems to have been a strange dude. His pure 60s thing gets kind of one dimensional after awhile, but he did invent that kind of playing-- it is a thing jazz drummers should have in their purview.

I like this record:
 
From A. B. Spellman's 1966 "Four Lives in the Bebop Business", speaking about the difficulty of black jazz musicians obtaining grant funding Cecil Taylor notes:

"Sonny Murray should have had a grant two years ago, Milford Graves should have a grant now. Can you imagine what that would do for the young cats, if they started doing that? But Sonny Murray is an innovator and he doesn't own his own set of drums. He doesn't have an instrument."

This broke my heart, seriously.
 
toddbishop said:
I got in trouble with Milford Graves quoting that interview on my site. He wrote me and accused me of trying to start some s* between him and Sunny.

I never met him, but Sunny seems to have been a strange dude. His pure 60s thing gets kind of one dimensional after awhile, but he did invent that kind of playing-- it is a thing jazz drummers should have in their purview.

I like this record:
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That’s a great record. I wrote the record label after getting totally caught up in it. The letter came back as undeliverable.
 
20221001_131910.jpgTwenty page interview in the first volume of William Parker's excellent "Conversations" book series. As he stated elsewhere (and with me paraphrasing), when students would come to him wanting to learn avant-garde drums, he emphasized learning to swing, to be able to work. Once a student could work, then they could do as they wished.
 
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..,for more Informactions..: E - Mails ,, [email protected] ,,-
This is a very special ''RARE'' Live concert leads by these two Greatest Jazz-Drummers..:
*PHILLY* JOE JONES ,dr ,+, SUNNY MURRAY ,dr ,&, ^ Change of the Century Orchestra ^..
..Live at '' Painted Bride Art Center '' Philadelphia., 8* October 1983,.-


-- xx --
 
Lol, of the one dimensionality of Sunny's "pure 60s thing"! That said, I acknowledge my tastes may be off the beaten path and I am primarily interested in free/avant-garde drumming.
 
Quick update- the " Sunny's Time Now" documentary IS available as a two DVD set, but you will need to email the publisher or use the contact form on the site- all the purchase links are dead. It's very enjoyable, though I was told by someone who knew Sunny that they didn't think it entirely captures him. I still recommend it for interested parties and anyone in the fan club.
 
Preview
swing!
 
toddbishop said:
I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, that's just my feeling
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Hey Todd, perhaps not my best turn of phrase to indicate that I don't presently, in my enthusiasm, share that specific observation of Sunny. That said, your blog, I believe, recounted a pretty disappointing gig of Sunny's you attended, and while that's distinct from your take on Sunny's records with Albert Ayler it would be hard (for me anyway) to separate the two. Any which way, I value your thoughts.

I'm also terribly curious to know if you know of any thoughts Milford might have shared about Sunny?
 
end Goat said:
Hey Todd, perhaps not my best turn of phrase to indicate that I don't presently, in my enthusiasm, share that specific observation of Sunny. That said, your blog, I believe, recounted a pretty disappointing gig of Sunny's you attended, and while that's distinct from your take on Sunny's records with Albert Ayler it would be hard (for me anyway) to separate the two. Any which way, I value your thoughts.

I'm also terribly curious to know if you know of any thoughts Milford might have shared about Sunny?
Click to expand...

I never saw him play in person, I don't know what I would have said there. Milford didn't really say anything about Sunny to me, he was just mad at me for quoting him. I thought it was some kind of insight, that Milford didn't come out of bebop, but apparently it was just personal bull s*t. I stopped looking for any insight from what they say-- their playing is what it is.
 
Ahh, I must have crossed my wires on that one - I read a blog post by someone who attended one of Sunny's shows and he was apparently intoxicated (or behaving that way) and didn't really play and was belligerent. Glad that wasn't your experience, the author was pretty offended as I recall.

Musicians.
 
Another nice interview with Sunny, this one from 2003:

www.allaboutjazz.com

Sunny Murray article @ All About Jazz

Sunny Murray article by Clifford Allen, published on October 14, 2003 at All About Jazz. Find more Interview articles
www.allaboutjazz.com www.allaboutjazz.com

"You know, some of my stories sound so strange, people think they're lies, but it's only because no one tells the truth about the past of new music. They look at new music like it didn't have that thing bebop had. Stories, suffering, gangsters, ups and downs, like it was just a flower that popped up some-damn- where. That's not true at all; we paid some dues, Cecil paid some dues, the violence, the hate, depression. This music was not born to some sweet walk in the tulips, you know?"
 
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