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James "Blood" Ulmer

James "Blood" Ulmer

27 articles

Audio interviews

James Blood Ulmer (1984)

Interview by Steve Roeser, Rock's Backpages audio, 1984

The out-there guitarist talks about his early musical life; his association with Ornette Coleman; the ups-and-downs of his Columbia Records deal, and his adoption by the New Wave clubs in New York and elsewhere.

File format: mp3; file size: 37.2mb, interview length: 40' 40" sound quality: **

List of articles in the library

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James Blood Ulmer: Tales Of Captain Black (Artists House)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 26 January 1980

IT WON'T be long, I guess, before someone describes James "Blood" Ulmer as "the new Hendrix", so you might as well be forewarned. ...

Public Image Limited, James "Blood" Ulmer: Palladium, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 14 June 1980

NOBODY EXPECTS Public Image Limited to sell massive amounts of vinyl to the American public. So to see the "Sold Out" sign on the Palladium ...

James Blood Ulmer: 9:30 Club, Washington DC

Live Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 28 July 1980

WHEN JAMES "Blood" Ulmer and his three fellow musicians climbed onto the 9:30 club's stage Saturday night, the electricity plugged itself into the musicians. Guitarist ...

James Blood Ulmer and Ornette Coleman: The Adventures of Captain Blood

Interview by Vivien Goldman, New Musical Express, 25 October 1980

"Being poor is not because money doesn’t exist and being rich doesn’t mean you know everything. But in America, art has more to do with ...

James "Blood" Ulmer, Chico Freeman: Camden Jazz Week, the Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 3 November 1980

JAMES "BLOOD" Ulmer put the cat among the pigeons with gratifying forthrightness at the Camden Jazz Week on Friday evening. An American guitarist who appeared ...

James Blood Ulmer: Blood in the Grooves

Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, October 1981

1. A LOT OF different people are going to like Free-Lancing, the new album by James Blood Ulmer. ...

Will Punk Jazz Replace The Sounds Of Funk?

Overview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 15 November 1981

PUNK JAZZ? It's hard to imagine a more unlikely musical combination. Punk rock favors short, fast songs and disparages musical technique in favor of "anyone-can-do-it" ...

Jazz Gets a Blood Transfusion: James Blood Ulmer

Interview by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 28 November 1981

JAMES BLOOD ULMER seemed faintly bemused by it all. Sat square in his little hotel chair like some Great Panjandrum surprised by a person of ...

James Blood Ulmer: Streets, Boston MA

Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 19 January 1982

Ulmer builds a pressure cooker ...

James Blood Ulmer: Free Lancing (Columbia)

Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, February 1982

ULMER IS A 39-year-old guitarist who's come up thru' blues bands and organ/guitar trios, thru the Del Vikings and Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars, thru ...

James Blood Ulmer: Guitarist Ulmer At Club Lingerie

Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 22 July 1982

NEW YORK-BASED guitarist James (Blood) Ulmer has become a cause celebre in hip jazz and rock circles over the past few years. Several Big Apple ...

James Blood Ulmer: Black Rock (CBS)

Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 13 November 1982

BLACK AND BLOOD! ...

James Blood Ulmer: The Bottom Line, New York

Live Review by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 5 February 1983

DEMOLITION BLUES ...

James Blood Ulmer: Jonathan Swift's, Cambridge MA

Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 11 February 1983

Blood Ulmer lets his guitar do the talking ...

1982 Black Music Report

Overview by Paul Yamada, Coolest Retard, March 1983

THE PAST FEW years have brought much that is new or at least different to contemporary black music, and though both white and black tastes ...

James Blood Ulmer: Ace, Brixton, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 9 July 1983

A PROTÉGÉ of Ornette Coleman and disciple of Coleman's theory of harmolodics — a musical system of such devious complexity that possible only Coleman and ...

James Blood Ulmer: Brixton Ace, London

Review by Vivien Goldman, New Musical Express, 16 July 1983

Sound and loving fury from Blood, ambling aimlessly about the stage, like a giant teddy bear who’s somehow laid his paws on a guitar. Big, ...

James Blood Ulmer: Odyssey (CBS)

Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 21 January 1984

WITH THE unprecedented challenges of his earlier records taken up by nobody, and with his own position of fringe acclaim at a nebulous standstill, Blood ...

James Blood Ulmer: The Venue, London

Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 4 August 1984

IF, AS IT'S often noted, a week is a long time in pop, how long is four years in avant-jazz-funk? ...

James Blood Ulmer: the Venue, London

Live Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 18 August 1984

HIGHLY STRUNG ...

The 'Harmolodics' Of James Ulmer

Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 1985

NEUTRAL GROUND doesn't seem to exist when it comes to James (Blood) Ulmer's music. ...

James Blood Ulmer: Pied Bull, Islington, London

Live Review by Jack Barron, New Musical Express, 30 April 1988

DRUNK ON BLOOD ...

James "Blood" Ulmer: Knitting Factory, New York; John Zorn: Puck Building, New York NY

Live Review by Nick Hasted, New Musical Express, 27 January 1990

IF THE Who were Prince's band at the apocalypse, they would make this noise. It's an almost psychedelic, thumping mash. The drummer is driven by ...

When Guitars Speak: Innovations From Ulmer, Torn and Moore

Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 25 June 1995

IT'S EASY to understand why so many jazz and pop musicians have gravitated toward the buzzing, grinding and squealing of guitar distortion, even if those ...

James Blood Ulmer

Interview by Jason Gross, Perfect Sound Forever, April 1998

THOUGH THERE'S BEEN hundreds and thousands of hotshots who vowed to take the guitar to the next level after Jimi Hendrix broke the doors open, ...

James Blood Ulmer: No Escape From the Blues

Interview by John Swenson, Offbeat, 1 November 2003

THE SEPTEMBER release of James Blood Ulmer’s No Escape From the Blues: The Electric Lady Sessions is a milestone event in this centennial Year of ...

see also Ornette Coleman

see also Punk-Funk All Stars

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