Jazz Articles about James Blood Ulmer

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 ...

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 ...

James Blood Ulmer trio at the 2018 GetCloser Festival

by Roberto Cifarelli
April 29, 2018

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 ...

James Blood Ulmer: Baby Talk

by Mark Corroto
August 14, 2017

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 ...

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

by Martin Longley
July 7, 2015

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 ...

James Blood Ulmer: In And Out

by Dan Bilawsky
May 20, 2010

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 ...