James Blood Ulmer

James " Blood" Ulmer ( born February 2, 1942 in St. Matthews, South Carolina) is an American jazz and blues guitarist. He stood since the late 1970s as well as Ornette Coleman and Ronald Shannon Jackson at the center of the free jazz with the jazz-rock re- merging Free Funk.

Life

Ulmer has already played as a four year old guitar; his father showed him the first chords. By breaking voice he was active in the gospel quartet The Southern Sons. In 1959 he went as a professional musician to Pittsburg, where in R & B bands like The Savoy and The Swing Kings, he initially worked, with which he toured in Canada and the Virgin Islands. Between 1964 and 1966 he played in organ -dominated soul-jazz bands. Between 1967 and 1971 he lived in Detroit, where he also composed and rehearsed with a group consisting of drums, bass, trombone and alto saxophone. Occasionally he performed with Dionne Warwick, Chuck Jackson, George Adams or John Patton. In 1971 he moved to New York City, where he spent nine months every night occurred in Minton 's Playhouse. In 1973 he was briefly at Art Blakey and played with Paul Bley, Larry Young and Joe Henderson. He took lessons with Ornette Coleman in 1974 and joined with him in Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival. He played on records in 1976 with Coleman and occurred in more performances of Coleman's Prime Time in Europe (1978). In addition, he was involved in two albums with Arthur Blythe.

From 1980 headed Ulmer his own trio (mostly Calvin Weston and drummer Amin Ali ), with whom he played compositions, which were based on the concept of harmolodischen Coleman and led the abstracts to a kind of jazz funk. Later in the 1980s he also worked with George Adams and with the Music Revelation Ensemble (including with Pharoah Sanders, David Murray and John Zorn ). In the 1990s he played a hand in the Odyssey band with violinist Charles Burnham and drummer Warren Benbrow, but also spent the findings with the harmolodischen concept clearly related to the blues ensembles, among others, Vernon Reid, Amina Claudine Myers and Bill Laswell, as documented on his album Blue Blood ( 2001). He also worked with James Carter, Jayne Cortez and the World Saxophone Quartet.

Style

Ulmer has a distinct way of playing with brittle sound and strong brand recognition. It builds on the electric blues with his distortion effects and distorted tones and occasionally exceeds the limits of tonality. The guitarist used for its intersecting played exclusively with the thumb sounds a special mood and Spezialbesaitung and treated his instrument emphasizes percussive.

Discography (selection)

  • Revealing (In Out, 1977)
  • Tales of Captain Black ( Artists House, 1978)
  • Are You Glad to Be in America? ( Rough Trade, 1980)
  • Freelancing (Columbia, 1981)
  • Black Rock (Columbia, 1982)
  • America - Do You Remember the Love? ( Blue Note, 1987)
  • Blues Allnight (In Out, 1989)
  • Black and Blues ( DIW, 1990) Drayton, Ali, Weston
  • Harmolodic Guitar with Strings (DIW, 1993)
  • Blues Preacher ( Sony, 1994)
  • Forbidden Blues ( DIW, 1996)
  • Blue Blood ( Innerhythmic, 2001)
  • Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions (M, 2001)
  • No Escape from the Blues ( M, 2003)
  • Birthright ( Hyena, 2005)
  • Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions ( Hyena, 2007)
  • In and Out (In Out, 2009)

With Odyssey

  • Odyssey (Columbia, 3-5/83 ) Charles Burnham, Warren Benbow
  • Part Time ( Rough Trade, 1983)
  • Reunion ( Knitting Factory, 1997) Burnham, Benbow
  • Back in Time (Pi, 2005) Odyssey the Band: Burnham, Benbow

Music Revelation Ensemble with

  • No Wave ( Moers, 1980)
  • Music Revelation Ensemble ( DIW, 1988)
  • Electric Jazz ( DIW, 1990)
  • After Dark (DIW, 1991)
  • In the Name of ... (DIW, 1993)
  • Crossfire (DIW, 1996)

With phalanx

  • Phalanx ( Moers, 1985)
  • Original Phalanx (DIW, 1987)
  • In Touch (DIW, 1988)

With Third Rail

  • South Delta Space Age ( Antilles, 1995)

Investments

  • Rashied Ali: Rashied Ali Quintet ( Knitting Factory, 1973)
  • Arthur Blythe Lenox Avenue Breakdown ( Columbia, 1979)
  • Arthur Blythe: Illusions (Columbia, 1980)
  • David Murray: Children ( Black Saint, 1984)
  • David Murray: Recording N.Y.C. 1986 ( DIW, 1986)
  • John Patton: Accent on the Blues ( Blue Note, 1969)
  • Jamaaladeen Tacuma: Showstopper ( Gramavision, 1982-83 )
  • Larry Young Lawrence of Newark ( Perception / Castle, 1973)

Lexigraphic entries

  • Wolf Kampmann: Reclam Jazz Encyclopedia Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-010528-5
  • Martin Kunzler: Jazz Encyclopedia Vol 2 Reinbek 2002 ISBN 3-499-16513-9
Jazz fusion George Adams (musician) Jazzfunk David Murray (saxophonist) Charles Burnham (musician) Bill Laswell James Carter (musician) Leonard Feather Integrated Authority File
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