Former King Crimson percussionist Jamie Muir, who played on their 1973 album Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, died on Monday (February 17) at age 82. His time in King Crimson was short, but he left a big impact on long-running King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford, who posted the news of Muir’s death, along with this tribute:
Jamie was the drummer/percussionist with whom I worked on the King Crimson album ‘Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (1973). He had a volcanic effect on me, professionally and personally, in the brief time we were together many years ago – an effect which I still remember half a century later. I’m sorry we lost touch, but his departure from our working relationship was so sudden and unexpected, I sort of assumed he didn’t want anything more to do with me and my colleagues in King Crimson!
He was a lovely, artistic man, childlike in his gentleness. There was probably a dark side underneath. It could be be glimpsed as he climbed the PA stacks in a wolf’s fur jacket, blood (from a capsule) pouring from his mouth, on a rainy Thursday night in Preston, Lancs., to hurl chains across the stage at his drumkit. One of these Robert Fripp will tell you, only narrowly missed him.
His conversations with Jon Anderson at my 1973 wedding party, in Jon’s words, ‘changed my life’. Jamie also changed mine.
I consider it a privilege to have known, and benefitted from the company of, a man of such quiet power, even briefly. He struck me as one of those about whom one might truthfully say he was a beautiful human being. He will be much missed. Goodbye, Jamie.
Bruford had previously called Muir “my biggest influence and the guy who turned my head totally around” and said, “Muir’s direction was totally opposite from mine. I am a technique, precision drummer and Jamie, a free form improvising percussionist. God, did he open my eyes. Jamie saw above and beyond chops. He was into the color of the music, the tone, and being intuitive about it. He had this thing called “the industrial drum kit,” which was treated with chains and steel plates on the drums. They had such an incredible sound, we didn’t know how to record it. We used it on ‘Larks Tongues In Aspic (Part 1),’ the really fast free-meter part in the middle. All our conceptions of a good drum sound went right out the window.”
Prior to playing in King Crimson, Muir played in the ECM-signed British jazz group The Music Improvisation Company. After leaving Crimson, he moved to the Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland to become a Buddhist monk. He later returned to London and music, playing on solo albums by his former Music Improvisation Company bandmates Derek Bailey and Evan Parker, and also playing with fellow King Crimson alumnus Michael Giles on the soundtrack to the 1983 British independent film Ghost Dance.
Rest in peace, Jamie.
Stream Larks’ Tongues in Aspic below and watch a video of King Crimson with Jamie here.