James Blood Ulmer will be the special guest of American Routes on the episode airing the week of June 13.

Please tune in and listen to James discuss his historic career, including his critically acclaimed albums on HYENA Records.

For local radio stations and times, please visit: www.americanroutes.org

January 31, 2008

by Charlie James

from: The Arkansas Times

Blood runs thick

Legendary guitarist James Blood Ulmer performs at Hendrix.

James Blood Ulmer is a torchbearer for a fiery brand of independent jazz-blues-funk-rock that reaches into the past and the future at the same time. Over two decades and counting, the experimental guitarist has released more than 20 albums that defy classification. Greg Tate, writing in the Village Voice, called him "the missing link between Jimi Hendrix and Wes Montgomery on one hand, between P-Funk and Mississippi Fred McDowell on the other."

On Saturday, Blood Ulmer and his Memphis Blood Blues Band come to Hendrix College's Staples Auditorium for a free concert at 7:30 p.m.

Contributor Charlie James spoke to James Blood Ulmer by phone last week about his gospel background, Ornette Coleman and the roots of "Blood."

If we can go back in time for a little bit, Ornette Coleman plays on your 1978 LP, "Tales of Captain Black." How did you start playing with Ornette?

Ornette produced that record, my first record. He played on it, too. I met Billy Higgins, Coleman's drummer, in Brooklyn. Him and me went into my little studio and played all night long. He told me I had to meet Coleman, so we went to his place, on 12th Street in Manhattan. That was in '72, and I stayed with him a little over a year, living there.

How did his Harmolodic theory affect your musical outlook?

It didn't. I mean, when I played with Ornette, he told me I was a natural harmolodic player, and you can't get no better than that.

A lot of critics and musicians have struggled with the concept — creating harmony and melody at the same time.

Most music in America has been watered down, but with harmolodics, they don't know what it is, so they can't ruin it. As soon as they figure out what it is, here comes the water [much laughter]. When you take a path like I'm trying to take, there's only a few musicians who can find the same idea while you're playing. To me it's not what you're playing, it's why you're playing it. Music isn't something I had a chance to choose to do. I was kind of thrown in. My daddy started me out playing music. He acted like it was a necessity.

You have one of the most original and recognizable sounds of all the guitar greats. There's no mistaking you for somebody else. Was it the guitar from the beginning?

Well, that's very kind of you to say. Yeah, playing guitar in a gospel group, a gospel quartet called the Southern Sons. The guitar was put into my hand. My daddy started me out playing guitar. My favorite guitar player was Wes Montgomery. I wanted to emulate him for a while. One of my main things now is to put out a record of the Southern Sons from back then, but I'm getting old and I wonder if anybody's listening.

I first became aware of you when "Are You Glad to be In America" hit the shops back in 1980. That album seems a bit prophetic now, with its questioning title and Mardi Gras cover photo. Now your most recent record, "Bad Blood in The City," was recorded in 2007 in New Orleans. How did that come about, and how was the experience for you?

"Are You Glad to be In America" was one hell of a record. I was a real country boy at that time. With the recent records, Vernon Reid has been producing. You sit back and let the producer do what he does best, and when you do that you tend to perform better. You can really concentrate on what you perform. Vernon drove me crazy for about two years wanting to make a blues record. He told me my voice reminded him of those old blues singers from way back, so he wanted me to sing blues on the new record.

How did you find conditions in New Orleans?

Oh man, here were these people pretending nothing was wrong with New Orleans, when everything was wrong with it. People were trying to act like everything was all right, but it was miserable. I couldn't even think! I was really affected. I had written around 12 songs about New Orleans, and I was happy to see that five of those songs made it on the record, along with seven cover versions. I knew about the tensions and problems that were there, and some of those songs made it on the record.

When you started singing on your records, it was a revelation for me. It took this very complex and modern electric sound right back to the Delta blues in the most wonderful way. Was singing a decision you made when you signed with CBS in '81?

Yeah, I started singing on those records for CBS ["Freelancing," "Black Rock" and "Odyssey"].

You have that voice. You're a natural.

That's what Vernon said.

You've recorded all over the country, including "The Sun Sessions," from 2001. How was that experience, playing in that little room where Howlin' Wolf recorded?

I'd never seen those pictures on the wall there, with all those guys, Wolf and those guys. They had all those amps in the same room, playing at the same time. That's the way they used to do things.

Did you guys record live in that room, or were there overdubs?

Overdubs? I don't think so. We played it live.

Vernon Reid is accompanying you to Arkansas for your upcoming show at Hendrix Collage on Feb. 2. He seems like a great foil for your playing style.

I don't know anybody who plays like him. We have a good relationship playing together.

How many players are in your present band?

Seven. We've got violin, we've got organ and keyboards, harmonica, two guitars, bass, and drums.

Will you be singing?

Oh yeah. I'll be singing when I get there.

What advice would you give a young player coming up in the music business?

Oh man, I'd tell him that the music and the instrument are not the same thing. They've got to put the music in the instrument. The instrument might be wiser than the player, you know [laughter].

One last question. Where does the "Blood" in James Blood Ulmer come from?

My daddy's name was James, so I was the blood of James. James' blood. James Blood.

Well James, thank you very much for taking the time out to talk with me, and I'll see you at the show.

I'm looking forward to it.

Click here to read the full interview at The Arkansas Times.

James Blood Ulmer, Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions (Hyena)

Armed with his '56 Gibson Byrdland, Ulmer and producer Vernon Reid entered a New Orleans studio to cut a set made up mostly of deep, brooding, emotional contemplations on Hurricane Katrina and its toll. Ulmer's haunted voice and skeletal guitar are perfect for these mournful, angry dirges—offset by the sonic comic relief of his laughing phase shifter on "Dead Presidents" and his solo on "Old Slave Master," which mimics a farting cow.

FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD: "Survivors of the Hurricane"

Read full article and download other free mp3s at Gibson.com

Last Night: James "Blood" Ulmer at the Colony Theatre

Mon Oct 22, 2007 at 01:17:33 PM

James Blood Ulmer
October 20, 2007
The Colony Theatre, Miami Beach

Better Than: A back alley brawl between jazz and blues.

The Review: Back when I first moved in New York, one of the greatest musical pleasures I had was catching James Blood Ulmer get all "avant-gutbucket" at a dingy little Theatre called Squat. The cat, interminably regal even then, had been first among royals such as Ornette Coleman, Art Blakey, and Ronald Shannon Jackson, and would weave some of the most cacophonic stringwork in the kingdom of free jazz. It was adroit, it was possessed, and it was surprising – and it opened my ears to a whole new way of listening to the world.

So it was with great anticipation – and even greater pleasure – that I got to catch the cat last night at The Colony in Tigertail Productions' latest booking coup.

But though the master remains immensely free-wheeling on the fretboard, his flurry is now steeped in another even older tradition: the blues.

Seated on a low-slung stool all by his lonesome, Blood began the evening with a triptych about Katrina and the hole it tore in the soul of the Big Easy – and in our hearts. Here we heard the wind rip, felt the rain bruise, and touched the pain. But Ulmer wasn't crying the blues on behalf of a catastrophe; he was using the blues to represent the mad he feels in catastrophe's aftermath.

And to be sure his is some stirful, mournful, meaningful mad. Ulmer's voice dips from low growl to high holler, while his fingers flay a sermon of surge, even in the wake of weep. In just three songs the man managed to encompass both a terrible storm, and a terrible storming.

When he was joined onstage by bassist Mark Peterson and drummer Aubrey Dayle, Blood's mad got boiling – then it got even. Working from a repertoire that stretched from Son House to John Lee Hooker, "Hey Joe" to "Little Red Rooster," Ulmer and his trio drove the blues down the dirty back crossroad that leads straight to our secret spot, the place where all we have hidden becomes revealed.

And unburdened. Blues at its root is about unburdening the soul from the trials and tribulations of a hard life, Ulmer knows this, and he uses the tradition to his great good advantage. But it was when he stood and faced off against the band during "Babytalk" that the true transformation took place, for it was then that Blood unburdened the blues.

- John Hood

Personal Bias: I was raised between the city and the swamp, so urban muggy suits me fine.

Random Detail: Blood sports a very fine pair of snakeskin cowboy boots.

By the Way: Ulmer's latest Bad Blood In The City: The Piety Street Sessions is out now from HYENA.

Click here to read full concert review at MiamiNewTimes.com

JAMES BLOOD ULMER

Featured on the October Cover of
LIVING BLUES Magazine

Legendary American music maverick James Blood Ulmer is featured on the cover of October's Living Blues Magazine. Writer Marc Camarigg caught up with Ulmer during his trip to Bonnaroo earlier this year where he performed a crushing set of guitar freak-out blues. Their following in-depth conversation explores Ulmer's life in music.

Starting in gospel groups in his native South Carolina, James Blood Ulmer later moved to Pittsburgh to play R&B. He then went to Detroit and played jazz. During the 1970s, Ulmer played guitar with Ornette Coleman in New York City and released a string of groundbreaking albums, including Black Rock, Freelancing and Odyssey. In 2001, Ulmer was coaxed into the studio by friend and Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid for what has turned out to be a four album journey into the blues, culminating with the critically-acclaimed 2007 HYENA Records' release Bad Blood In The City: The Piety Street Sessions. The album, which was recorded in New Orleans, speaks truth to power in the light of the fallout from Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it brought to the city. It won raves from critics, including the following:

"James Blood Ulmer's contributions to the blues, in the short time he's been gracing it with his artistry, are already irreplaceable and, with this disc, approach the monumental. He is a major 21st century blues artist who transcends category, and this disc is a major work."
- David Whiteis, Living Blues

"This disc is filled with remarkable moments from an artist whose intensity, spirit, and undiluted passion make him one of the blues' most haunting modern masters."
- Hal Horowitz, Blues Revue

"This, his third album with his Memphis Blood Blues Band, is an ornery, pissed-off gem."
- Steve Klinge, Harp Magazine

"...with Ulmer's murky drawl and plangent electric guitar, Bad Blood achieves a humid immediacy."
- Nate Chinen, Vibe Magazine

"Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions continues Ulmer's electric odyssey with a handful of original compositions supplementing some choice covers, simultaneously platforms for social criticism and launching pads for some colliding guitar duels."
- Joshua Klein, PitchforkMedia.com

"...the blues album of the decade."
- Bill White, Seattle Post Intelligencer

"Packed with detail, a defiant spirit and often riveting performances, 'Bad Blood' delivers both darkness and dawn."
- Joe Gross, Austin American Statesman

"Ulmer still sings as if 20 miles of bad road lie ahead, and Vernon Reid's raw production gives this new disc an eerie, moonless-after-midnight ambiance."
- Mark Keresman, Miami New Times

"With its raw emotion, haunting sounds, and biting lyrics, 'Bad Blood,' recorded in New Orleans over three days, proves instantly infectious and thoroughly timeless. Mr. Ulmer has taken all of his anguish over the city's destruction, and conveyed urgency not heard in any recording out of the Big Easy since the hurricane hit."
- Andrew Schwartz, Washington Times

"Bad Blood in the City is a modern day blues masterpiece."
- Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com

"...pure, raw emotion, fueled by Ulmer's deep, rich voice."
- John Eyles, Dusted.com

James Blood Ulmer's other HYENA Records' releases are Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions, No Escape From The Blues: The Electric Lady Session and Birthright.

The Living Blues' cover story is available now on newsstands or by ordering direct from www.livingblues.com

Bad Blood In The City: The Piety Street Sessions is available here.

James Blood Ulmer's upcoming performances include:

Saturday, October 20 / Colony Theater / Miami, FL

Sunday, October 21 / The Shed / Ocean Springs, MS

www.hyenarecords.com/jamesbloodulmer
www.myspace.com/jamesbloodulmer

OCTOBER 2, 2007

Jazz and Blues in the Blood

James Blood Ulmer

JAMES BLOOD ULMER
Attucks Theatre
Oct. 6, 7:30 PM

Info: www.sevenvenues.com

By Andrea Rizzo

James Blood Ulmer may have grown up in the South, but this jazz and blues guitarist/vocalist made it big after a move to New York City in the '70s. It was there that he collaborated with heralded saxophonist Ornette Coleman and became a part of the prestigious Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, an ever-changing musical troupe that has brought together some of jazz's greats.

Ulmer's work from the '80s on included the Music Revelation Ensemble, a group he formed and continued to mold with musicians like Arthur Blythe and Ronald Shannon Jackson and ensembles like Phalanx and Odyssey.

Ulmer has been around to see not only the face of jazz and blues change, but music in general. What does he attribute the
change to? Ulmer sites the many clubs and venues that bands used to perform at in the '60s and '70s, places like the Knitting Factory that now have a decidingly rock and pop slant. Although the structure and club name is still intact, different people are in charge, so the genre of bands and fans have changed as well.

"I think it's the people who change [versus the music itself]," he says. "Like in my neighborhood—I've been living in my neighborhood for 30 years…and the streets are full of people, and I don't know nobody. Is that because things are changing or because it's new people?"

Bad Blood in the City, Ulmer's latest offering, was primarily written during the wave of news events after Hurricane Katrina. Like many of us, Ulmer was glued to the television set as the devastation unfolded. But he sees a bigger, underlying problem with the city of New Orleans, and that is what Bad Blood addresses. "It was a story that would need to be told forever, it had no time to it," remembers Ulmer. "I thought I would write [songs] that would address things that I don't know could be resolved in two years or not. It took longer than that to create the trouble.

"You have to tell the story many times to get anything out of it," he adds. During the recording of Bad Blood, Ulmer was joined at the Piety Street Studios in New Orleans by the Memphis Blood Blues Band, a backing outfit he has played with for many years, some as far back as a few decades.

The seven-piece ensemble included Vernon Reid on guitar, who has also served as producer on Ulmer's last four albums. Reid was responsible for picking the six cover tunes on the album, from Willie Dixon's "Dead Presidents" to Bessie Smith's "Blackwater Blues." The songs have common themes such as disastrous storms and unjust conditions that have yet to be resolved.

"I trust [Vernon Reid]…and I like the idea of being produced," explains Ulmer. "I think he did a good job—I don't think I could have done a better job than that."

Besides releasing Bad Blood, 2007 has been quite a prolific year for Ulmer. This was Ulmer's first shot at the Bonnaroo Festival—Manchester, Tennessee's burgeoning musical event, which brings together hundreds of groups of all different genres every June. At Bonnaroo, Ulmer primarily played the blues, a first for him in a festival setting.

"It was like a new beginning," he says.

Like many celebrated jazz and blues musicians, Ulmer frequents the European tour circuit and will be performing there this November. After years of creating and continuously developing as a musician, Ulmer has quite the catalogue of tunes to deliver. He is also one of the only celebrated musicians that can dip into both the blues and jazz fields with equal vigor. Of course there have been many high points over the last several decades, but Ulmer is always moving forward.

"I'm looking for some highlights right now, you know what I'm saying?" he says, chuckling. "It's hard when you play music, and you keep going and keep going, never really looking back. You never want to give up on a new idea. Then you realize that once you go through [numerous] ideas, then it's time to harvest them all. I really enjoy harvesting, meaning going over all of the different things that
I've done and trying to make them better."

Ulmer will be appearing at the Attuck's Theatre as part of the Blues Discovery Series, performing as a one-man act. He will be playing from both Bad Blood and Birthright, his previous electric solo album. Ulmer's looking forward to this solo stint: "Anytime I play by myself, I feel like a politician with a
guitar."

Albums:

Bad Blood In The City: The Piety Street Sessions

Birthright

Memphis Blood

No Escape From The Blues

Links:

http://www.HYENArecords.com

HYENA Records (MYSPACE)

JAMES BLOOD ULMER (MYSPACE)

Check out the new James Blood Ulmer video section at HyenaRecords.com...

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