New Stuff: James Blood Ulmer & The Thing

New Stuff: Music Revelation Ensemble

Rarely Heard: James Blood Ulmer - Are You Glad to be in America?

James 'Blood' Ulmer, one of the heroes of my youth! At times like these in the States I always come back to this song, a question ringing in my mind: "Are You Glad to be in America?" and feel glad I don't live there aynmore. I still have his early collaboration with Ornette Coleman (another hero of mine!), Tales of Captain Black, and my favourite album of his with the Music Revelation Ensemble: No Wave. I recently went through some pain trying to get his 'hit' album Are You Glad to be in America? on cd, it's being sold at unreasonable prices. At the time (late 70s/early 80s) I was so keen to see him live, but always missed the opportunities, and most of my friends did not share my passion for his music. Nowadays, Ulmer is playing straight blues, but he's still a fanatstic guitarist, and you will always be able to recognize the sound of his guitar playing, be it free jazz or blues.

Just so thoughts

Coming home from work last Sunday I noticed a poster for an upcoming concert organized by our local Jazz Club, which rarely brings interesting artists to Regensburg. But this time - to my great astonishment - it'll be James 'Blood' Ulmer, one of the heroes of my youth! I still have his early collaboration with Ornette Coleman (another hero of mine!), Tales of Captain Black, and my favourite album of his with the Music Revelation Ensemble: No Wave. I recently went through some pain trying to get his 'hit' album Are You Glad to be in America? on cd, it's being sold at unreasonable prices. At the time (late 70s/early 80s) I was so keen to see him live, but always missed the opportunities, and most of my friends did not share my passion for his music. Nowadays, Ulmer is playing straight blues, but he's still a fanatstic guitarist, and you will always be able to recognize the sound of his guitar playing, be it free jazz or blues. So, on January 24, 2012 I'll finally get to see James 'Blood' Ulmer live in concert.

New Stuff: James 'Blood' Ulmer

This is one of my all-time favourite albums, and I finally got it on cd now.