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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.

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) ...

Big Band in the Sky

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 ...

Radio & Podcasts

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 ...

Play This!

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 ...

Radio & Podcasts

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 ...

In Pictures

James Blood Ulmer trio at the 2018 GetCloser Festival

by Roberto Cifarelli
April 29, 2018

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

Live Review

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 ...

Obituary

James Blood Ulmer: February 8, 1940 - June 3, 2026

Source: Lydia Liebman Promotions
June 8, 2026

With deep sorrow and profound love, we announce the passing of James Blood Ulmer, a boldly innovative guitarist, singer, composer, and beloved family member. James died peacefully on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, at the age of 86. Born on February 8, 1940, the eldest of eight children, Blood grew up in rural, deeply segregated St. Matthews, South Carolina. His father, a Baptist preacher, gave him his first guitar when he was four years old. Raised on church music, James’s first ...
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Event

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

Source: Mary Curtin Productions
October 26, 2023

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

Source: Chris Rich
June 13, 2014

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)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
June 7, 2011

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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134

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

Source: Michael Ricci
July 26, 2010

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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136

Recording

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

Source: Master of a Small House
June 8, 2010

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)

Source: Something Else!
May 15, 2010

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

Source: All About Jazz
February 14, 2007

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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144

Recording

James Blood Ulmer Goes to New Orleans to Record New Album

Source: All About Jazz
January 12, 2007

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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249

Recording

Odyssey the Band featuring James "Blood" Ulmer, Charles Burnham, and Warren Benbow Releases "Back in Time" on Pi Recordings

Source: All About Jazz
March 30, 2006

The role of the guitar in jazz has not mirrored its role in other modern musics. Few have risen to prominence on the instrument or grown out of the supporting role it has typically played in jazz. Of those who have, one of the most notable is James “Blood" Ulmer. From his first days as Ornette Coleman's Harmolodic guitarist in Prime Time, “Blood's" path to guitar innovator was a rather fast one. In the ten year period between '73, when ...
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