In the press release for this CD, Hyena rather puckishly refers to it as “James Blood Ulmer’s first solo album,” possibly confusing those who aren’t familiar with this groundbreaking guitarist’s legacy of rocked-up, amped-up free jazz or his more recent return to roots with albums like the urban blues tribute No Escape From The Blues or the self-explanatory Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions.
Still, it’s easy to see their point: this is the first time producer Vernon Reid (or anyone else) has just turned on the machines and let Ulmer be Ulmer, alone, with nothing but his slightly amped, undistorted Gibson Birdland guitar. This is, therefore, a return to the blues, again, but this is Blood’s blues—although the instrumental “South Carolina Snake” harkens back to his other roots in harmolodic jazz, most of these dozen tracks sound like they were played by the holy offspring of Chuck Berry and Robert Johnson. Ulmer is rigidly rhythmic and urban, but the soul is straight from the Delta. And when he wanders, like Johnson, he wanders with a purpose.
Ulmer’s new remake of his own “Where Did All The Girls Come From,” circa 1981, speaks volumes about how far he’s progressed through regression, and not just with his guitar: the original reveled in the sexual buffet laid before him, but this version sounds more grounded, as if James knew exactly what these ladies wanted of him, and how disappointed everyone was bound to end up. Elsewhere, Ulmer continues his contentious love-hate relationship with the land of his birth in songs like “White Man’s Jail” and “Geechee Joe,” a tribute to an equally cantankerous ancestor. Anyone who’s heard his recent recordings won’t be surprised at how well he handles the blues (including a cover of the deathless “I Ain’t Superstitious,” which is a rhythmic wonder to behold), but this is by far the most personal blues album the guitarist has ever recorded. And, by extension, his most personal album, period.