View source for Sunshine (Sunny Murray album)

{{Infobox album
| name       = Sunshine
| type       = studio
| artist     = [[Sunny Murray]]
| cover      = Sunny_Murray_Sunshine.jpg
| alt        =
| released   = 1969
| recorded   = August 15, 1969
| venue      =
| studio     = Studio Saravah, Paris
| genre      = [[Free jazz]]
| length     =
| label      = [[BYG Records|BYG Actuel]]<br><small>529.348</small>
| producer   =
| chronology = [[Sunny Murray]]
| prev_title = [[Sunny Murray (album)|Sunny Murray]]
| prev_year  = 1966
| next_title = [[Big Chief (Sunny Murray album)|Big Chief]]
| next_year  = 1969
}}
'''''Sunshine''''' is an album by American [[free jazz]] drummer [[Sunny Murray]], his third as a leader. It was recorded in [[Paris]] in August 1969, and released on the [[BYG Records|BYG Actuel]] label later that year.<ref name="allmusic" /> On the album, Murray is joined by [[Arthur Jones (musician)|Arthur Jones]] and [[Roscoe Mitchell]] on alto saxophone, [[Archie Shepp]] and Kenneth Terroade on tenor saxophone, [[Lester Bowie]] on trumpet, [[Dave Burrell]] on piano, and [[Malachi Favors]] and [[Alan Silva]] on bass.
In 2002, [[Fuel 2000]] reissued ''Sunshine'' along with Murray's 1970 BYG album ''[[An Even Break (Never Give a Sucker)]]'' on a single disc.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/sunshine-an-even-break-never-give-a-sucker-mw0000221874/releases |title=Sunny Murray: Sunshine/An Even Break (Never Give a Sucker) |last=Bush |first=John |website=AllMusic |access-date=January 21, 2022}}</ref>
The album was recorded as part of a marathon week-long BYG session which also produced Murray's ''[[Homage to Africa]]'' as well as albums by artists such as Archie Shepp (''[[Yasmina, a Black Woman]]'', ''[[Poem for Malcolm]]'', and ''[[Blasé (album)|Blasé]]''), the [[Art Ensemble Of Chicago]] (''[[Message to Our Folks]]'' and ''[[Reese and the Smooth Ones]]''), [[Grachan Moncur III]] (''[[New Africa (album)|New Africa]]''), Alan Silva (''[[Luna Surface]]''), Dave Burrell (''[[Echo (Dave Burrell album)|Echo]]''), [[Andrew Cyrille]] (''[[What About?]]''), and [[Jimmy Lyons]] (''[[Other Afternoons]]'').<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bygrecords.com/story |title=BYG Records: Story |website=BYG Records |access-date=January 21, 2022}}</ref><ref name="redbull">{{cite web |url=https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/10/the-greatest-week-in-the-history-of-avant-garde-jazz |title=The Greatest Week in the History of Avant-Garde Jazz |last=Robson |first=Britt |date=October 27, 2015 |website=Red Bull Music Academy|access-date=January 21, 2022}}</ref>
==Reception==
{{Album ratings
| rev1 = [[Allmusic]]
| rev1Score = {{rating|4|5}}<ref name="allmusic">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/sunshine-mw0000163355 |title=Sunny Murray: Sunshine |last=Burke |first=Brandon |website=AllMusic |access-date=January 21, 2022}}</ref>
| rev2 = ''[[The Penguin Guide to Jazz]]''
| rev2Score = {{rating|3|4}}<ref name="penguin">{{cite book | last1=Cook |first1=Richard |last2=Morton |first2=Brian | title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | publisher=Penguin Books | year=2006 | pages=968 }}</ref>
}}
In a review for [[AllMusic]], Brandon Burke wrote: "Sunny Murray's ''Sunshine'' is yet another all-star blowing session from the BYG Actuel series. Like many of the others, it is loud, very intense, and clocks in at just over 30 minutes. Also, and again like the others in the series, it is an indispensable document of late-'60s Pan-African art music. This is an opportunity to hear a number of fantastic players at the peaks of their respective careers... This is some heavy music and is not for the faint of heart, but fans of avant-garde jazz will find a great deal to enjoy here."<ref name="allmusic" />
Britt Robson, in an article for ''[[Red Bull Music Academy]]'', commented: "''Sunshine'' is an appropriate title for its incandescent three songs. The longest, 'Flower Trane,' frequently has a dirge pace, but with a roiling undertow that sucks you in. Archie Shepp and Lester Bowie retain their distinctive tonalities in the maelstrom that is set by Murray's frenetic flow, so relentlessly off-kilter it becomes the norm. 'Real' is a wonderful showcase for obscure tenor Kenneth Terroade blasting away amid the powerhouse rhythm section of Murray and bassist Malachi Favors. And 'Red Cross' has an intro that is so immediately frenzied and yet seemingly coordinated among a bevy of horns, including Roscoe Mitchell and Arthur Jones, that it was wisely used as the lead track for the superb three-disc compilation of the BYG/Actuel catalogue, ''JazzActuel'', back in 2000."<ref name="redbull" />
Writing for the ''Bleg'' web site, Kikanju Baku called the album "a stellar opus of vintage 60's inventive-extremism" and "glorious & ineffable, an extraordinary triumph," praising "Red Cross" as "a biblical show-down of indomitable mayhem & fraying fanaticism... It's beyond powerful, obliterating & feverishly exciting, overflowing at apex emergency."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://bleg.jigokuki.org/sunny-murray-sunshine-cd |title=Sunny Murray: Sunshine CD |last=Baku |first=Kikanju |date=January 23, 2015 |website=Bleg |access-date=January 21, 2022}}</ref>
The authors of ''[[The Penguin Guide to Jazz]]'' awarded the album 3 stars but stated: "there was never much coherence to the album."<ref name="penguin" />
==Track listing==
All compositions by Sunny Murray.
# "Flower Trane" – 13:44
# "Real" – 8:44
# "Red Cross" – 7:50
==Personnel==
*[[Arthur Jones (musician)|Arthur Jones]] – alto saxophone (track 3)
*[[Roscoe Mitchell]] – alto saxophone (track 3)
*[[Archie Shepp]] – tenor saxophone (track 1)
*Kenneth Terroade – tenor saxophone
*[[Lester Bowie]] – trumpet (track 1)
*[[Dave Burrell]] – piano (tracks 1 and 3)
*[[Malachi Favors]] – bass
*[[Alan Silva]] – bass (track 1)
*[[Sunny Murray]] – drums
==Production==
*Jean Georgakarakos, Jean-Luc Young – producers
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Sunny Murray|state=autocollapse}}
[[Category:1969 albums]]
[[Category:Sunny Murray albums]]
[[Category:BYG Actuel albums]]