Sonny's Time Now

Sonny's Time Now is an album by American free jazz drummer Sunny Murray, his first as a leader. It was recorded in New York City on November 17, 1965 and first released on LeRoi Jones' Jihad label. It was later reissued on the DIW and Skokiaan labels.

The album features Albert Ayler and Don Cherry, with whom Murray had recorded and toured during the previous year, along with two bassists, Henry Grimes and Lewis Worrell. (Sonny's Time Now is one of the few recordings on which Ayler appears as a guest artist.) The track titled "Black Art" features Jones reading his poem of the same name, backed by the musicians. ("Black Art" is one of Baraka's most controversial poems, and it "became a central icon of the Black Arts Movement, and at the same time, it also became a favorite target of those critics who regarded the black aesthetic as an anti-aesthetic.") According to Jeff Schwartz, bassist, Ayler biographer, and author of "Free Jazz: A Research and Information Guide", Jones financed the recording, with Murray's choice of performers.

The Jihad label released only three recordings: Black & Beautiful, which featured Jones reading poetry backed by Yusef Iman, his wife, and a Doo-wop group; A Black Mass, a play written by Jones about a mad scientist, with music by Sun Ra's Myth Science Arkestra; and Sonny's Time Now.

When asked if he had been composing since leaving Cecil Taylor's band in 1964, Murray recalled: "After I left Cecil I didn't have much choice, because nobody was giving me a job. So I did a small job. Cecil came to it, and I played all of Max Roach's pieces. They were correct, and then I wrote some music, and I asked my children did they like it. They said, 'Yeah, Dad.' So I found out I could write. My first record, Sonny's Time Now, they're all my pieces: 'Virtue,' 'The Lie,' 'Justice.' It's a strange record because Albert and Don [Cherry] are playing like this [makes screeching sound]."