King Crimson drummer and percussionist Jamie Muir dies at 82

King Crimson percussionist and drummer Jamie Muir has passed away at the age of 82.

The news was announced by his former bandmate Bill Bruford in a Facebook post. "Jamie Muir died today 17.02.2025 in Cornwall, UK, with his brother George by his side,' read the post.

"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," the post continued. "(...) He was a lovely, artistic man, childlike in his gentleness."

King Crimson founding member Robert Fripp took to Instagram to pay tribute to Muir.

"Jamie Muir was a major, and continuing, influence on my thinking, not only musical," shared Fripp in his post. "A wonderful and mysterious person. Of the five members of KC 1972, Jamie had the greatest authority, experience and presence."

 

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Muir was born in Edinburgh in 1942. He attended the Edinburgh College of Art, where he began playing jazz as a trombonist before switching to percussion.

In the mid-'60s he moved to London and started The Music Improvisation Company alongside guitarist Derek Bailey and saxophonist Evan Parker, with musicologist Hugh Davies joining the band later.

Muir joined King Crimson in 1972, but announced his departure shortly after the release of Larks' Tongues in Aspic in 1973. He left the band to pursue a monastic lifestyle in Samye Ling Monastery, a Tibetan Buddhist complex located in southern Scotland.

"The reasons why I left were to do with my interest in Buddhism," said Muir in a 1991 Ptolemaic Terrascope interview. "(...) I cleared my house and went up to a Tibetan monastery in Scotland, became a monk and took the robes."

"I didn't feel too happy about letting people down, but this was something I had to do or else it would have been a source of deep regret for the rest of my life," the percussionist added.

In the '80s, Muir returned to London and collaborated again with Derek Bailey and Evan Parker, among others. By the early '90s, he had stepped away from music to dedicate himself to painting, a passion he pursued until his passing.

King Crimson were an English band and a key figure in progressive rock. They have influenced bands and artists since the release of their 1969 debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, which is often credited as one of the best prog-rock albums of all time.