FRIDAY 20th August 2010
Times : 8pm
Tickets : £10 adv. / £12 on the door
£18 for a 2-day pass
Sunny Murray - Drums
John Edwards - Double Bass
Tony Bevan - Soprano, Tenor and Bass Saxophones
Sunny Murray: The Father of Avant-Garde Drumming
Sunny Murray was one of the early avant-garde's most inventive and influential drummers, doing a great deal to establish the role of the drums in free improvisation. Although Murray could swing as hard as anyone, he often abandoned the drums' traditional timekeeping role. Instead of playing a steady beat, he might punctuate and color behind the soloist's lines, or engage in dialogues with the rest of the ensemble, commenting and conversing with an open-ear sense of give and take.
Born James Marcellus Arthur Murray in Idabel, OK, Sunny began drumming at age nine and moved to New York in 1956. At first, he played with traditional artists like Red Allen and Willie "The Lion" Smith, but he soon branched out into more adventurous territory with Jackie McLean and Ted Curson. His big break, however, came when he joined Cecil Taylor's group in 1959, which allowed him to improvise at a far more advanced level. While touring Europe with Taylor, Murray met Albert Ayler, and wound up joining his band in 1964; through 1967, Murray appeared on most of the saxophonist's greatest free jazz sessions. He also worked with Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, and John Tchicai, and made his first albums as a leader with 1965's Sunny's Time Now (for Jihad) and 1966's Sunny Murray Quintet (for the seminal ESP), the latter of which helped him win Down Beat's New Star award.
In 1968, Murray traveled to France, where he played with Archie Shepp and recorded as a leader for Affinity and BYG Actuel; returning to the U.S. in 1971, Murray settled in Philadelphia and formed a group called the Untouchable Factor, which he led off and on through varying lineups. He led a fine quintet in the late '70s and '80s, and surfaced on several dates during the '90s.
“Murray is the magic ingredient that makes this trio so magnificent. Anyone who can take to the stage with Bevan and Edwards on an equal footing deserves respect; Murray has a lot of additional weight to carry: it can’t be easy being a Jazz legend. But Murray’s current rep doesn’t rest on his contributions to Jazz history. The passion and feeling he invests in his drumming is palpable and energising; more than that this trio works wonderfully well together in that special way that only the most congruous partnerships do." The Jazzman
LINKS
http://www.myspace.com/sunnymurray
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwL4FXUTyPk
John Edwards is a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Perpetually in demand, he has played with Evan Parker, Sunny Murray, Derek Bailey, John Wall, Joe McPhee, Lol Coxhill, and many others.
Tony Bevan is an improvising virtuoso on Soprano, Tenor and Bass saxophones. He has appeared numerous times with Derek Bailey's international symposium of improvisers, COMPANY, released acclaimed CDs on Bailey's INCUS label (including the Mercury Music Prize nominated "Bigshots") as well as recording with Bailey himself (he is a member of Bailey's "Limescale" quintet). He has toured extensively in Europe and America. Writer Ben Watson has written of him as "one of the unsung heroes of modern British music".
Bevan has played and record with Derek Bailey, Sunny Murray, Otomo Yoshihide, Luc Ferrari, Fourtet, Matthew Bourne, Henry Grimes, Steve Reid, Bobby Few, J Spaceman, Sonny Simmons, Chris Corsano, Jeb Bishop, Michael Zerang and many others.
|
