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 newly merging Free Funk .
Life
Ulmer played the guitar at the age of four; his father showed him the first handles. Until his voice broke, he was active in the gospel quartet The Southern Sons . In 1959 he went to Pittsburg as a professional musician, where he initially worked in R&B bands such as The Savoys and The Swing Kings , with whom he also made guest appearances in Canada and the Virgin Islands. Between 1964 and 1966 he played in organ- dominated soul jazz bands and recorded with Hank Marr's organ trio . 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 performed every night at Minton's Playhouse for nine months . In 1973 he was briefly with Art Blakey and played with Paul Bley , Larry Young and Joe Henderson . He took lessons from Ornette Coleman and performed with him at the 1974 Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival . He played on records with Coleman in 1976 and appeared in other appearances of Coleman's Prime Time in Europe (1978). He was also involved in two albums with Arthur Blythe .
From 1980, Ulmer led his own trio (mostly Calvin Weston and Amin Ali ), with whom he played compositions that were based on Coleman's harmonious concept and that led to a kind of abstract jazz radio . In the further course of the 1980s he also worked with George Adams and with the Music Revelation Ensemble (including Pharoah Sanders , David Murray and John Zorn ). In the 1990s he played on the one hand in the Odyssey Band with violinist Charles Burnham and drummer Warren Benbow , but also applied the knowledge gained with the harmonic concept in ensembles more clearly related to the blues, including 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 an independent way of playing with a brittle sound and strong recognition value . It builds on the electric blues with its distortion effects and warped tones and occasionally pushes the boundaries of tonality. The guitarist uses a special tuning and special strings for his cutting sounds, which are played exclusively with the thumb, and treats his instrument in an emphatically percussive manner.
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)
- Live at the Caravan of Dreams (Caravan of Dreams, 1986)
- America - Do You Remember the Love? (Blue Note, 1987)
- Wings (1988)
- Blues Allnight (In + Out, 1989)
- Black and Blues (DIW, 1990) Drayton, Ali, Weston
- Harmolodic Guitar with Strings (DIW, 1993)
- Live at the Bayerischer Hof ( In + Out , 1994)
- 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)
- James Blood Ulmer & The Thing: Baby Talk (Trost, 2017)
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
With Music Revelation Ensemble
- No Wave (Moers, 1980)
- Music Revelation Ensemble (DIW, 1988)
- Electric Jazz (DIW, 1990)
- After Dark (DIW, 1991)
- In the Name of ... (DIW, 1993)
- Knights of Power (DIW, 1996)
- Cross Fire (DIW, 1997)
With phalanx
- Phalanx (Moers, 1985)
- Original Phalanx (DIW, 1987)
- In Touch (DIW, 1988)
With third rail
- South Delta Space Age (Antilles, 1995)
Holdings
- 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 NYC 1986 (DIW, 1986)
- John Patton : Accent on the Blues (Blue Note, 1969)
- Jamaaladeen Tacuma : Show Stopper ( Gramavision , 1982–83)
- Larry Young : Lawrence of Newark (Perception / Castle, 1973)
Radio plays
- 2004: Andreas Ammer / FM Einheit : Lost & Found: Das Paradies (also speaker) - Director: Andreas Ammer / FM Einheit (pop radio play - BR )
Lexigraphic entries
- Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
- Wolf Kampmann (Ed.), With the assistance of Ekkehard Jost : Reclams Jazzlexikon . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-010528-5 .
- Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 2: M – Z (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16513). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16513-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ulmer himself gives his year of birth as 1940. He celebrated his 70th birthday in Vienna on February 2, 2010, cf. James Blood Ulmer 70th Birthday Concert
Web links
- James "Blood" Ulmer: Harmolodics & Blues - a biography
- interview
- James Blood Ulmer at Allmusic (English)
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Ulmer, James Blood |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ulmer, James (real name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American blues and jazz guitarist |
DATE OF BIRTH | February 2, 1942 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Matthews , South Carolina |