Famous Drummers From A to Z
Born: 1936. Drummer, composer, and bandleader Sunny Murray is best known for his work with Cecil Taylor in trio, quartet, quintet and septet groups (1959-1965). In addition to his long association with the “88 Tuned Drums” of Taylor, Sunny has worked with some of the most important saxophonists in free jazz including Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Byard Lancaster, Kenneth Terroade, Frank Lowe, Sabir Mateen, and Assif Tsahar. Murray's playing has influenced generations of jazz drummers. .
Photo by Rozanne Levine
Dan
Warburton: Listening
to the range of sounds you can get from a snare, a bass drum and
a couple of cymbals, you must be rather amused to see the enormous
kits drummers use today...
Sunny Murray: They
got two bass drums, two drums over here, an extra drum here, cymbal
here, cymbal there... and I get a kick out of it, I'll be sitting
there waiting for them to hit all that sh*t! I just saw Calvin Weston
with James Carter, and he had one two three four five six seven drums,
and he never did hit 'em all... He had five or six cymbals, and he
didn't hit 'em all. Louis Bellson was like that – he had something
like eight or nine snares, and when I came in the room I said “Whose
sh*t is that?” They whispered, “Louis Bellson's...” I
said “I bet you anything he doesn't hit 'em all.” When
I have extra drums in my kit, in my head those are the things I play
first, to get rid of them. Play that sh*t and get it out of the
way! They gave me an electric set once, they gave Max [Roach] one,
they gave Billy Cobham one, and I never played it. I set it up at
a gig in New York and all the cats were amazed. “Wow, Murray's
playing electric...” It was all made of tubes and mounted together
on wheels; it was made for TV so they could push you off the set
on it (laughs) and it had a big case you couldn't get through
the door. Some guys came to steal mine but they couldn't get it out
of the door so they threw it out of the window! Somebody found the
soundboard in the street and called me. I was already in Paris with
my family – this was 1970...
(Photo
by Mathieu de France)
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