James Blood Ulmer, adventurous US guitarist and vocalist, dies aged 86 | Experimental music
American guitarist James Blood Ulmer, known for his avant-garde combination of jazz, blues and funk, died at the age of 86.
In the statement made on social media, it was stated that he died on June 3. “His music was fearless, and so was his spirit,” his family added in another statement.
Born Willie James Ulmer in South Carolina in 1940, Ulmer’s musical career began in funk bands, shuttling from Pittsburgh to Columbus to Detroit before settling in New York in the early 1970s, supporting musicians such as Jewel Bryner and Hank Marr. “I didn’t think anyone could make money playing free music,” he later said. “So I always played structured blues, rhythm playing, dance music or something like that. And I dropped that! When I came to New York, it was like… I went a whole other way.”
In addition to playing there with Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, and Rashied Ali, Ulmer was also mentored by Ornette Coleman, who schooled him in the theory of “harmolodic”: avoiding regular tones and harmonics in favor of a freer approach to sound. This spirit would shape Ulmer’s entire career from then on; Even when Ulmer began to embrace songwriting, it was characterized by instinctive, unrestrained playing.
Coleman co-produced Ulmer’s debut album, Tales of Captain Black, and Ulmer released his next album, Are You Glad to Be in America?, on the UK’s Rough Trade label: the lively social commentary on the title track made it a signature song, and he eventually began supporting punk and rock bands such as Public Image Ltd and Captain Beefheart. He later said of the crowds at these concerts: “I would stand up at the microphone and tell them to shut up. They had five minutes to get into it or get the hell out!”
He collaborated with jazz saxophonist Arthur Blythe, contributing to his albums Lenox Avenue Breakdown (1979) and Illusions (1980): these sessions, released on Columbia, earned Ulmer his own Columbia record deal. The three albums he released with Columbia between 1981 and 1983—Free Lancing, Black Rock, and Odyssey—were remarkably progressive for a major label, though not devoid of commercialism, as Ulmer paired virtuoso blues guitar with tight funk arrangements and soulful songs. Free Lancing hailed him in Rolling Stone as “the most original electric guitarist to emerge since the late Jimi Hendrix.”
Ulmer also formed a separate group called Music Revelation Ensemble, consisting of saxophonist David Murray, bassist Amin Ali, and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. Jackson released their debut album No Wave in 1980 and would eventually release six more albums. Another group, Phalanx, reconnected him with Ali.
After his Columbia years, Ulmer starred in 1987’s America – Do You Remember the Love? and continued to release studio albums throughout the 1990s and 2000s as he focused less on jazz and more on blues. Blue Blood (2001) featured an impressive lineup including Bill Laswell, Amina Claudine Myers, and Funkadelic’s Bernie Worrell; Released the same year, Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions earned Ulmer his only Grammy nomination for best traditional blues album.
He has also been called upon by others to add his unique guitar-playing talent: He has appeared on recordings including Ry Cooder’s score for Wim Wenders’ 1997 film The End of Violence, and on the hip-hop group Roots’ song Phrenology.
He eventually retired in 2024, playing his last concert at that year’s Detroit jazz festival.
