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
There’s no doubt in my mind that James Blood Ulmer is one of the most
ground-breaking, earth-shaking musicians to ever strap on a guitar and make the
six-string beast talk. Best known as a “free jazz” artist and an acolyte of
Ornette Coleman’s Harmolodic theory, Ulmer has been kicking around since the
early ‘60s, first playing with folks like Art Blakely and Coleman and, later,
with Ronald Shannon Jackson, through whom he met Living Colour guitarist Vernon
Reid. Ulmer has enjoyed a lengthy solo career as well, recording his debut in
’77 and nearly two dozen albums since, the artist’s work gradually redefining
the role of guitar in both jazz and contemporary rock music.
James Blood Ulmer’s Birthright
Heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Ulmer has always incorporated
elements of rock and blues into his jazz experiments, but it was Reid who
convinced the guitarist to rediscover the blues at length. Beginning in 2001
with Memphis Blood, a stellar collection of blues classics recorded
with Reid in Sun Studios in Memphis, through
No Escape From the Blues two years later, Ulmer has embraced and
sharpened his understanding of the blues. With Birthright, Ulmer
completes his journey into the heart of the blues. Recording unaccompanied,
again with Reid at the board, Ulmer turns the blues into a sort of spiritual
journey from which no one returns unscathed.
If previous albums in this loose-knit trilogy mixed traditional blues with
scraps of guitar rock, psychedelia and funk with full band accompaniment,
Birthright strips the music down to the bone. Raw, fiery and unadorned
by modern trappings, Ulmer takes the blues back to its Delta roots (and maybe
even further back, to Africa) with a stark and dark-hued collection of songs
and performances. Ten of the twelve songs are Ulmer originals, but they
successfully channel the cold presence of ghosts long passed. The
Gospel-tinged “Take My Music Back To the Church” evokes the haunting sound of
Blind Willie Johnson while “The Evil One” is a musically hypnotic dirge with
eerie black cat moan vocals. A cover of Willie Dixon’s classic “I Ain’t
Superstitious” is transformed into a plea for divine intervention supported by
forceful six-string work. “Devil’s Got To Burn” offers a complex soundtrack of
guitar rhythms behind Ulmer’s gleefully diabolic vocals.
Along the lengthy musical sojourn that is Birthright, Ulmer makes
his guitar scream, cry, dance and sing with the skill that only a master can
bring to bear. Ulmer’s mournful, weathered vocals perfectly embrace the lyrics
with a combination of soul, pathos, fear and passion. Birthright is a heady
musical elixir, an incredible musical effort that could only be created by an
artist that threw away the textbook long ago. Musically and intellectually
challenging, Birthright may prove too difficult for some, though it is
well worth the journey for the adventurous listener.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Underrated and overlooked by all but a handful of aficionados, one day
in the not-too-distant future academics and musical historians will recognize
James Blood Ulmer for the genius that he is and Birthright as a shining
example of Ulmer’s incredible talents and far-seeing vision. (Hyena Records,
2005)
Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine
