JAMES "BLOOD" ULMER

James "Blood" Ulmer, born 2 February 1942 in St. Matthews, South Carolina is an American jazz and blues guitarist and singer. Ulmer's distinctive guitar sound has been described as "jagged" and "stinging." His singing has been called "raggedly soulful." 

Ulmer began his career playing with various soul jazz ensembles, and first recorded with organist John Patton in 1969. After moving to New York in 1971, Ulmer played with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Joe Henderson, Paul Bley, Rashied Ali and Larry Young. 
In the early 1970s, Ulmer joined Ornette Coleman; he was the first electric guitarist to record and tour extensively with Coleman. He has credited Coleman as a major influence, and Coleman's strong reliance on electric guitar in his fusion-oriented recordings owes a distinct debt to Ulmer. Bands who cite Ulmer as an influence in their turn include Man Jumping.

He formed a group called the Music Revelation Ensemble with David Murray and Ronald Shannon Jackson, with whom he recorded throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Different incarnations of the group also featured Julius Hemphill, Arthur Blythe, Sam Rivers, and Hamiet Bluiett on saxophones and flutes. In the 1980s he co-led, with saxophonist George Adams, the ensemble Phalanx.

1983's Odyssey, with drummer Warren Benbow and violinist Charles Burnham, was described as "avant-gutbucket," leading writer Bill Milkowski to describe the music as "conjuring images of Skip James and Albert Ayler jamming on the Mississippi Delta."

Ulmer has recorded many albums as a leader, including three recent acclaimed blues-oriented records produced by Vernon Reid.
Selected Discography

As leader:

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)
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 (Hyena, 2003)
No Escape From The Blues (M, 2003)
Birthright (Hyena, 2005)
Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions (Hyena, 2007)

with Odyssey the Band

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)
Cross Fire (DIW, 1996)

with Phalanx

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

with Third Rail
South Delta Space Age (Antilles, 1995)

As sideman
Hank Marr: Sounds from the Marr-ket Place (King, 1967, rec.1964)
John Patton: Accent on the Blues (Blue Note, 1969)
Larry Young: Lawrence of Newark (Perception/Castle, 1973)
Rashied Ali Quintet: Rashied Ali Quintet (Survival/Knitting Factory, 1973)
Arthur Blythe: Lenox Avenue Breakdown (Columbia, 1979)
Arthur Blythe: Illusions (Columbia, 1980)
Jamaaladeen Tacuma: Show Stopper (Gramavision, 1982-83)
David Murray: Children (Black Saint, 1984)
David Murray: Recording N.Y.C. 1986 (DIW, 1986)

TV Appearances

SOLOS: the jazz sessions (Bravo! Canada 2004)

References

Philippe Carles, André Clergeat, and Jean-Louis Comolli, Dictionnaire du jazz, Paris, 1994.
 James Blood Ulmer at the Trouser Press website
 Odyssey the Band at Allmusic
 Music Revelation Ensemble at Allmusic

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"The blues - ancient and modern, from Blind Willie McTell to Ornette Coleman - have always run deep in this South Carolinian's black rock and future jazz. But on Birthright, there is nothing but blues: just Ulmer's subterranean rock-slide moan and spider dance guitar improvisations, in stark, original memoirs...Ulmer has taken the long road home...But he sounds like he never left"
-- David Fricke, Rolling Stone

"The most authentic and important blues preacher since the Rev. Gary Davis. This album is a modern milestone in the story of the blues."
-- Bill White, Seattle Post Intelligencer

"Ulmer's new CD, 'Birthright,' cements his standing as a leading interpreter of the blues. Reminiscent in spirit of blues legend Robert Johnson's seminal 1930s recordings, 'Birthright' offers a transcendent and edgy performance by the guitarist."
-- Andrew Schwartz, Washington Post

"The number of bonafide original contributions to the musical language of the blues in the last 30 years are as scarce as hair on a Mississippi bullfrog. Junior Kimbrough's All Night Long and Otis Taylor's Respect the Dead come immediately to mind. One must now add James Blood Ulmer's Birthright to this short list and it may be the most groundbreaking of all."
-- Dave Rubin, Guitar Player Magazine

"James Blood Ulmer returns to the music of his forebears with a stunning testimonial to the spiritual, psychic, social and existential intensity that's been at the heart of the blues expression since the beginning and continues to inform the true living blues tradition.”
-- David Whiteis, Living Blues

"...a solo delta blues disc that is both intimate and epic in scope, with 10 frequently extraordinary original compositions among its dozen songs. Ulmer's acoustic guitar playing is jagged, subtle, multi-textural, and unpredictable. His vocals are tremulous, conversationally grave, and emotionally forthright. Dovetailed together--song, guitar, voice--it was a resonant and arresting thing to listen to even before New Orleans was laid to waste."
-- Britt Robson, Minneapolis City Pages

"Whether Ulmer has been reinvented or merely unmasked as a blues artist is immaterial. The genre has its most original voice since the rediscovery of R.L. Burnside. Let's pay attention."
-- Lee Mergner, Harp Magazine