Archive Review: James Blood Ulmer’s Blues Preacher (1994)

A veteran of over two decades in the business of music, James Blood Ulmer sums it up best in the liner notes to Blues Preacher, the latest milestone in an already not insignificant musical career. “See, we have rappers and we have R&B, we have blues singers, and jazz singers and classical singers. But what I call this is ‘blues preaching.’ This isn’t actually singing, it’s preaching. It’s like putting music to a Baptist minister’s sermon....”

To be perfectly honest, Blues Preacher is a mix of old-time religious fervor, classic jazz improvisation, traditional blues riffs, and soulful rhythm and blues. Above it all, though, there’s a sort of prophetic musical interplay that takes the best of all the aforementioned styles and takes it into a futuristic musical landscape. Ulmer has assembled a strong, diverse band for Blues Preacher: the rhythm section of bassist Mark E. Peterson and drummer Aubrey Dayle providing a funky undercurrent to the material while Ulmer’s raw guitar work is matched lick for lick by Ronnie Drayton’s razor-sharp six-string finesse. 

This tense contradiction of styles works to the album’s advantage, breathing life and energy into cuts like “Justice For Us All,” “Jazz Is The Teacher” and “Angel.” If you find yourself bored to tears with the Hot Hundred or formulaic FM radio, plug into Blues Preacher for a taste of something at once old and new, different and familiar. (DIW/Columbia Records, released 1994)

Review originally published by R.A.D! zine, July 1994

Also on that Devil Music: James Blood Ulmer’s Birthright CD review