Jamie Muir

Jamie Muir (* in Edinburgh ) is a British artist who, primarily as a percussionist, contributed to the development of New Improvisation Music and was also part of King Crimson .

Live and act

Muir had first piano lessons and played horn before during his studies at the Edinburgh College of Art the Jazz turned. He played the trombone for a short time , but then switched to drums and in the early 1960s founded the band The Assassination Attempt , which played free jazz . When he moved to London, he played in the Little Theater with Derek Bailey . In 1968 the two formed with Evan Parker , the Music Improvisation Company , which existed until 1971 and soon with Hugh Davies has been expanded to a quartet. Muir integrated numerous object trouves into his game. His aim was not to turn these things thrown away by others into an antique shop, but to treat them as rubbish, which one should approach as rubbish "with absolute respect for its nature". "The way to experience the undiscovered in the dimensions of art is to immediately discard everything familiar (the concealment of the unknown) - in order to give music a future." The Music Improvisation Company became international through their album for ECM known.

In addition, Muir also played briefly with Pete Brown's Battered Ornaments , in 1970 in the band Boris (with Don Weller , Jamie Peters and Jimmy Roche) and in the Afro rock band Assagai , before founding Sunship with Alan Gowen and Allan Holdsworth . In the summer of 1972 Robert Fripp brought him to King Crimson as a percussionist , where he worked until the beginning of 1973. According to David Cross , everyone in the band learned an incredible amount from Muir, who acted as a catalyst.

When Muir decided to follow the principles of Buddhism more strictly and retire to a monastery, he left the band after the album Larks' Tongues in Aspic was completed. It wasn't until 1980 that he came back to London, where he worked with Bailey again. Together with Michael Giles and David Cunningham , he wrote the score for Ghost Dance in 1983 .

Muir completely withdrew from the music scene in 1989 and now devotes himself to painting.

Discographic notes

• Music Improvisation Company (ECM, 1970)
• Music Improvisation Company 1968-1971 (Incus 1971)
• King Crimson Larks' Tongues In Aspic (1973)
• Jamie Muir, Derek Bailey Dart Drug (Incus 1981)
• Michael Giles / Jamie Muir / David Cunningham Ghost Dance (1983)

literature

• Ben Watson Derek Bailey and the Story of Improvisation Verso 2004, pp. 195ff.

Web links

• Jamie Muir in the nndb (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} An Interview with Jamie Muir . Discipline # 122, Friday January 21, 1994
2. ↑ cit. n. Derek Bailey improvisation: art without work . Hofheim 1987, p. 146
3. ↑ Chapter Six: King Crimson III and Brian Eno ( Memento of the original from February 8, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.