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James Blood Ulmer

Free jazz has not produced many notable guitarists. Experimental musicians drawn to the guitar have had few jazz role models; consequently, they've typically looked to rock-based players for inspiration. James "Blood" Ulmer is one of the few exceptions—an outside guitarist who has forged a style based largely on the traditions of African-American vernacular music. Ulmer is an adherent of saxophonist/composer Ornette Coleman's vaguely defined Harmolodic theory, which essentially subverts jazz's harmonic component in favor of freely improvised, non-tonal, or quasi-modal counterpoint. Ulmer plays with a stuttering, vocalic attack; his lines are frequently texturally and chordally based, inflected with the accent of a soul-jazz tenor saxophonist. That's not to say his sound is untouched by the rock tradition—the influence of Jimi Hendrix on Ulmer is strong—but it's mixed with blues, funk, and free jazz elements. The resultant music is an expressive, hard-edged, loudly amplified hybrid that is, at its best, on a level with the finest of the Harmolodic school.

Ulmer began his career playing in funk bands, first in Pittsburgh (1959-1964) and later around Columbus, OH (1964-1967). Ulmer spent four years in Detroit before moving to New York in 1971. He landed a nine-month gig at the famed birthplace of bop, Minton's Playhouse, and played very briefly with Art Blakey. In 1973, he recorded Rashied Ali Quintet with the ex-John Coltrane drummer on the Survival label. That same year, he hooked up with Ornette Coleman, whose concept affected Ulmer's music thereafter. The guitarist's recordings from the late '70s and early '80s exhibit a unique take on his mentor's aesthetic. His blues and rock-tinged art was, if anything, more raw and aggressive than Coleman's free jazz and funk-derived music (a reflection, no doubt, of Ulmer's chosen instrument), but no less compelling from either an intellectual or an emotional standpoint. In 1981, Ulmer led the first of three record dates for Columbia, which helped to expose his music to a wider public. Around this time Ulmer began an association with tenor saxophonist David Murray, Bassist Amin Ali, and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. As the Music Revelation Ensemble, this intermittent assemblage (with various other members added and subtracted) would produce a number of intense, free-blowing albums over a span of almost two decades.

Ulmer's work has varied in quality over the years. In 1987, with the cooperative group Phalanx (George Adams, tenor sax; Sirone, bass; and Rashied Ali, drums), Ulmer drew successfully on the free jazz expressionism that made his name. Generally, however, Ulmer's interest in out jazz waned in the '80s and '90s, to the extent that his music became progressively more structured, rhythmically regular, and (arguably) less inventive. Much of his later work bears scant resemblance to the edgy free jazz he played earlier. Nevertheless, '90s recordings with the Music Revelation Ensemble showed him still capable of playing convincingly in that vein.

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Radio & Podcasts

Off Da Hook – Or, You Got Rock in My Jazz

Read "Off Da Hook – Or, You Got Rock in My Jazz" reviewed by Patrick Burnette


We all know about fusion--the (sometime unholy) union of jazz and rock that tried to find a new audience for instrumentalists in the 1970s. But there have always been, well, odder experiments with electricity in jazz, more like intrusions of the rock world than integrations, and we look at four rather varied examples in this here podcast. Running the gamut from harmolodic blues-slinger to fusion axe-hero to... Herbie Mann?--these artists let the guitar off da hook and, possibly, into your ...

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In Pictures

James Blood Ulmer trio at the 2018 GetCloser Festival

Read "James Blood Ulmer trio at the 2018 GetCloser Festival" reviewed by Roberto Cifarelli


Photos from the concert by James Blood Ulmer at Momkult in jny: Budapest on April 7th featuring James Blood Ulmer, Charlie Burnham and Warren Benbow. ...

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Live Review

James Blood Ulmer and the Thing at Bochum Art Museum

Read "James Blood Ulmer and the Thing at Bochum Art Museum" reviewed by Phillip Woolever


James Blood Ulmer and The Thing Bochum Art Museum Bochum, Germany April 8, 2018 Improvisational master guitarist Ulmer has played a number of varying, high quality shows around Germany in recent years, solidifying his reputation as a wide-ranging entertainer. Tonight's set was one of his best. A considerable contribution to the equation came courtesy of The Thing, that highly combustible Nordic noise trio featuring bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and sensational ...

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Album Review

James Blood Ulmer: Baby Talk

Read "Baby Talk" reviewed by Mark Corroto


It was a predestined meeting. This collaboration between the legendary guitarist James Blood Ulmer and the band The Thing. Ulmer, who cut his teeth with the soul jazz organists Hank Marr, Larry Young and Big John Patton before collaborating with Ornette Coleman's electric free jazz/funk harmolodic music, expanded upon Coleman's ideas, incorporating rock music with players like Ronald Shannon Jackson, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and Calvin Weston. His more recent work like Birthright (Hyena, 2005) and No Escape From The Blues: The ...

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Live From New York

James Blood Ulmer, Bill Laswell, Ty Segall, Richard Thompson & Method Of Defiance

Read "James Blood Ulmer, Bill Laswell, Ty Segall, Richard Thompson & Method Of Defiance" reviewed by Martin Longley


James Blood Ulmer/Bill Laswell/Adam Rudolph/Don McKenzie The Stone June 24, 2014 Bassist Bill Laswell's week-long residency at The Stone featured an enticing selection of combinations, not least this quartet, co-fronted with guitarist James Blood Ulmer. Also, the globally-adventuring percussionist Adam Rudolph connected with drummer Don McKenzie, the least well-known player here, who's worked with Vernon Reid, Elliott Sharp and Marc Ribot. The late set had the feel of a jamming session, as Ulmer ...

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Album Review

James Blood Ulmer: In And Out

Read "In And Out" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


The title of this record is simultaneously a tip of the hat toward the record label which released it and an appropriate explanation of the music contained within. James Blood Ulmer's sound resides at the crossroads where Jimi Hendrix's blues-rock collides with Ornette Coleman's music; where gutsy blues songs meet the avant-garde. His voice bears some similarity to Hendrix's--with a little bit of Richie Havens' low end thrown in and a primordial blues delivery that's earth-shaking, brilliant, and increasingly expressive ...

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Album Review

James Blood Ulmer: Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions

Read "Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


"Blood wrote these songs that are the essence of the blues," suggests producer and guitarist Vernon Reid. “They're politically incorrect, they're sad and haunting, they're pissed off and on an existential level, they address the complicated concept that is America, which is something Blood's been dealing with since the beginning of his career."

You might forgive a certain about of hyperbole from the producer, but even one listen to Bad Blood in the City proves that what Reid ...

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Event

James Blood Ulmer, One Of The 'Greatest Guitarists Of All Time,' In Cambridge, MA on November 16, 2023

James Blood Ulmer, One Of The 'Greatest Guitarists Of All Time,' In Cambridge, MA on November 16, 2023

Source: Mary Curtin Productions

James Blood Ulmer is among the most distinctive and influential electric guitarists who has made a career built on left turns and reinvention. One of the most expressive guitarists on the planet, Blood is one of the undisputed keepers of the flame for the “harmolodic movement” created by Ornette Coleman. He takes those fundamentals and applies them at will to any genre he pursues, from rootsy Americana, rock, hyper funk, outside electric, Hendrix-inspired cosmic blues. Blood’s music is rooted in ...

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Festival

Vision Festival 19 Welcomes Whit Dickey And James Blood Ulmer

Vision Festival 19 Welcomes Whit Dickey  And James Blood Ulmer

Source: Chris Rich

In addition to celebrations of Roy Campbell and Amiri Baraka, the creators of Vision Festival love to support under appreciated masters such as Whit Dickey. And they craft special gatherings such as a revisit of a ground breaking James Blood Ulmer unit called The Music Revelation Ensemble. Whit Dickey will lead his quartet in the opening performance and the Music Revelation Ensemble will close out the night. 7:00 Whit Dickey Quartet Whit Dickey – drums Mat Maneri – ...

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Recording

James "Blood" Ulmer - Live at the Bayerischer Hof (In+out 1994, 2011)

James "Blood" Ulmer - Live at the Bayerischer Hof (In+out 1994, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Guitarist James “Blood" Ulmer is one of the most iconoclastic musicians on the modern scene. Equally at home with free-jazz, blues and R&B, Ulmer is at his best when he combines all of the musical aspects of his personality as he does on this excellent live album.

Dubbing this band the “Blues Experience" you can tell which direction his is leaning in along with his band mates Amin Ali on electric bass, and Aubrey Dayle on drums and percussion. Beginning ...

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Music Industry

IN + OUT RECORDS Announces Exclusive U.S. National Distribution Through the Allegro Media Group with New Releases from Billy Cobham, Odean Pope and James Blood Ulmer

IN + OUT RECORDS Announces Exclusive U.S. National Distribution Through the Allegro Media Group with New Releases from Billy Cobham, Odean Pope and James Blood Ulmer

Source: Michael Ricci

IN + OUT RECORDS, one of Europe's most enterprising and acclaimed independent jazz labels, with a reputation as a producer of recordings of the highest musical and technical quality established through its twenty plus years of releasing cutting edge music created by both American and European artists. The objective of the label, which was founded by Frank Kleinschmidt in Freiburg, Germany in 1988, is to produce sound and video recordings of innovative contemporary jazz music using state-of-the-art technology. Named after ...

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Recording

James Blood Ulmer - In and out (in and Out)

James Blood Ulmer - In and out (in and Out)

Source: Master of a Small House

A rare case of record title matching record label, James Blood Ulmer's latest carries that parity over to the music by not tinkering much with the successful strategy of past outings. Fronting a trio session, Ulmer's guitar positions up front with athletic support from bassist Mark Peterson and drummer Aubrey Dayle in close proximity. Peterson plucks both electric and acoustic instruments and his corpulent lines on the former are a sturdy undercarriage to Ulmer's snaking, seething blues leads and dart-tipped ...

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Music Industry

James Blood Ulmer - In and Out (2010)

James Blood Ulmer - In and Out (2010)

Source: Something Else!

By PicoPart Sonny Sharrock, part John Lee Hooker, James “Blood" Ulmer resides in his own unique space overlapping blues, whack jazz, straight jazz, rock, funk and a smattering of other forms. His ragged vocals and jagged guitar form a trademark weathered sound that's sometimes calm, usually stormy and always unpredictable. We at SE tend to particularly like guitarists who can zig-zag around lines delineating styles of music while remaining stubbornly themselves, and Blood fits that bill better than ...

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Recording

James Blood Ulmer to Release "Bad Blood in the City" / to Appear @ Bonnaroo 2007

James Blood Ulmer to Release "Bad Blood in the City" / to Appear @ Bonnaroo 2007

Source: All About Jazz

Brooklyn, NY - Why now? The question has been raised frequently upon news of James Blood Ulmer's new album, Bad Blood In The City: The Piety Street Sessions scheduled to be released May 8, 2007 on HYENA Records. It's been almost two years since Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans. So why would James Blood Ulmer record an album addressing the storm and its aftermath at this point in time? When producer Vernon Reid and HYENA were organizing the sessions that ...

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Recording

James Blood Ulmer Goes to New Orleans to Record New Album

James Blood Ulmer Goes to New Orleans to Record New Album

Source: All About Jazz

Brooklyn, NY - James Blood Ulmer, the legendary guitarist turned elder statesman of the blues, is currently back in the studio working on a new album for HYENA Records. The as-yet-untitled recording will be built around a cycle of songs Ulmer has written dealing with Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, including titles such as “Survivors of the Hurricane," “Let's Talk About Jesus" and “Slave Master." Additionally, there will be interpretations of tunes by Junior Kimbrough, Howlin' Wolf, Bessie Smith and ...

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Award / Grant

James Blood Ulmer's Birthright Wins Blues Album of the Year in DownBeat 2005 Readers' Poll

James Blood Ulmer's Birthright Wins Blues Album of the Year in DownBeat 2005 Readers' Poll

Source: All About Jazz

New York, NY -- Earlier this year, the legendary American music iconoclast, James Blood Ulmer, released his first ever solo recording, Birthright. The album, which features Ulmer alone on vocals and guitar, quickly drew critical acclaim, garnering praise from the likes of national publications such as DownBeat, Guitar Player, Jazz Times, Jazziz, Living Blues, No Depression and Rolling Stone, while newspapers including the Chicago Sun Times, Minneapolis City Pages, Seattle Post Intelligencer and The Washington Post declared it one of ...

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Performance / Tour

James Blood Ulmer @ An die Musik Live, Baltimore this Saturday(10 Sept

James Blood Ulmer @ An die Musik Live, Baltimore this Saturday(10 Sept

Source: All About Jazz

AN DIE MUSIK LIVE 409 N.Charles St, Baltimore MD 21201 Tel 410 385 2638 Saturday, September 10th @ 8 pm & 10 pm JAMES BLOOD ULMER (guitar & vocals) (plus Lafayette Gilchrist -solo piano) Tickets $20/$18 We continue the SPIRITS ENTERING series with an exclusive performance from a true American music legend! These rare performances will sell out...BOOK EARLY!! Guitarist/singer James “Blood" Ulmer has traveled down many unusual musical pathways in his career, collaborating successfully with such diverse talents as ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Baby Talk

Trost Records
2017

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In And Out

In+out record
2010

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In And Out

Warner Bros. Records
2009

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Bad Blood in the...

Hyena Records
2008

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Bad Blood In The...

Hyena Records
2007

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Back in Time

Pi Recordings
2006

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