Drummer Sunny Murray Dies at 81

Sunny Murray, a jazz drummer and percussionist who perhaps more than any other drummer developed a free approach to the kit, died yesterday in a nursing home outside Paris, according to a spokesman for Eremite Records, a label Murray recorded for. He was 81.

Murray created a drumming style that disposed of timekeeping, concentrating his efforts instead on a barrage of pure sound that both liberated soloists from rhythmic restraint and allowed his instrument to become as musical and textural as those on the frontline.