Nowadays James Blood Ulmer is making blues albums, produced by Vernon Reid, and they're pretty good. But it's his albums for Columbia in the 1980s that I love the most: the upbeat tempos, Ulmer's growling voice and singular guitar soloing, Ronnie Drayton's angular rhythm guitar, and Amin Ali's funky bass-slapping all swirling together in a melange of rock, funk, and jazz, it all makes me want to shout and jump around. The frenzied "Black Rock" could be considered the manifesto of that phase of Ulmer's musical career:
(Drums on that track are by G. Calvin Weston.) I saw James Blood Ulmer in 1991 (roughly) at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History, of all places, in the Baird Auditorium. The opening act was the Ritual Trio, who played a lively and enjoyable world-jazz set, but I never followed up on them. Ulmer's band was a trio for this occasion, with Amin Ali on bass (I think) and ... maybe ... Cornell Rochester on drums? About four or five songs in, as Ali was just starting to bust out some bass-slapping, Ulmer abruptly ended the show, saying, "There are people who don't want you to hear this music!" I assume the show was too loud for someone at the museum, who must have complained and got the show shut down; but I never found out for sure. That was a bummer.
Matthew Brown has written a meaty musical biography of Ulmer at Musicianguide.com. I wish such detailed information was easily accessible for every musician and band, instead of the hit-or-miss content on Allmusic and Wikipedia. Maybe someday...
Tonight I'm off to The Haunt for the first time since moving to Ithaca a year ago; Bootsy Collins protege Freekbass is playing, with local opening acts the Rozatones and Monkmeat. It should be a funky good time!
1/11/08 update: New! Demand James Blood Ulmer in your city! I did, and that makes one of us! I don't know if it actually works, but it certainly won't if nobody uses it.
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