Jazz Articles about James Blood Ulmer

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Mal Waldron, Bria Skonberg, and James Blood Ulmer (RIP)

by Jerome Wilson
June 24, 2026

This episode features a tribute to the late guitarist James Blood Ulmer. It also contains music from Mal Waldron, Bria Skonberg, Leigh Pilzer and others. Due to technical difficulties, the recording begins in the middle of the first selection.Playlist Andrew Hill “Cantarnos" from Black Fire (Blue Note) 00:00 Paul Hecht “Wayne" from Pyrography II (ears&eyes) 4:54 Host Speaks 13:14 Benji Kaplan “Bryant Park" from Chorando Sete Cores (Big Apple Batucuda) 14:32 Sarah Wilson “Incandescence" from Incandescence (Brass tonic) ...

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Remembering James Blood Ulmer: The Incognito Bluesman

by Ian Patterson
June 15, 2026

James Blood Ulmer, the pioneering electric guitarist and singer who first came to prominence in New York in the early '70s, has died at the age of 86. His extraordinarily visceral guitar style--ragged, choppy, spluttering yet deeply emotive--was instantly recognizable. Post-Jimi Hendrix, Ulmer was one of just a handful of guitarists to alter the language of the electric guitar in jazz, blues and funk. Nobody, however, sounded remotely like James Blood Ulmer, whose gravelly vocals were also as distinctive as ...

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Archie Shepp's The Magic of Ju-Ju, Serbian Improvisors + New Releases from Caroline Davis, Ishmael Ali, Phil Haynes, Rodrigo Amado and others

by Jon Greenbaum
May 10, 2026

Creative improvisors from Chicago to Brooklyn to Serbia.Playlist 8 Bold Souls “Chapel Hill" from 8 Bold Souls (Sessoms) 00:00 Archie Shepp “The Magic of Ju-Ju" from The Magic of Ju-Ju (Impulse) 12:31 Ishmael Ali “Anathema" from Burn The Plastic, Sell The Copper (Amalgam) 32:04 São Paulo Underground “Evetch" from Beija Flors Velho E Sujo (Cuneiform Records) 36:47 Von Freeman / Misha Mengelberg / Han Bennink “Confirmation" from The Bottle Tapes (Corbett vs Dempsey) 40:07 Caroline Davis “Mars" from ...

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James Blood Ulmer: Family Affair

by Ian Patterson
July 4, 2024

Nobody does blues, funk or jazz quite like singer/guitarist James Blood Ulmer. “Family Affair," from Black Rock (Columbia, 1982), is a slow-grooving, soulful delight. Vocalist Irene Datcher's honeyed tones combine with Ulmer's gravelly blues to wonderful effect, while the guitarist's inimitable knotty playing growls and sparks over Amin Ali's churning bass ostinato and drummer Calvin Weston's back beat. Of course, it would not be Ulmer without explosive release, but on an album of searing jazz-funk, angular and punkish, with splashes ...

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

by Patrick Burnette
August 3, 2023

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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James Blood Ulmer trio at the 2018 GetCloser Festival

by Roberto Cifarelli
April 29, 2018

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James Blood Ulmer and the Thing at Bochum Art Museum

by Phillip Woolever
April 17, 2018

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 ...