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James Blood Ulmer "Free Lancing"

Eric

By Eric
in Re-issues

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JSngry Grand Master

JSngry

Posted
Posted

Has Odyssey seen reissue at any point? That one really gets me, Charles Burnham, one big Harmelodic Hoedown, I'm a fan.

Hopefully WB gets to all three of 'em, they're all worthy.

danasgoodstuff Rising Star

danasgoodstuff

Posted
Posted
18 hours ago, JSngry said:

Ulmer did three Columbias,  correct? I'd like to see them available together at least once, just to give people that chance.

 4 - Free Lancing, Black Rock, Blues Preacher (DIW/Columbia) and Odyssey.  And I agree that Odyssey is the shit, largely because of Burnham.

kh1958 Mentor

kh1958

Posted
Posted
22 hours ago, JSngry said:

Has Odyssey seen reissue at any point? That one really gets me, Charles Burnham, one big Harmelodic Hoedown, I'm a fan.

Hopefully WB gets to all three of 'em, they're all worthy.

Yes, I have Odyssey on CD.

JSngry Grand Master

JSngry

Posted
Posted
45 minutes ago, kh1958 said:

Not sure (I would have to find it first), but it is available now.

http://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-ULMER-JAMES-BLOOD/dp/B00THZLRME/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462370281&sr=8-1&keywords=James+Blood+Ulmer+Odyssey

 

I see where the always revered Johnny Hodges informs us:

This masterpiece, criminally out of print for years, reappears through the auspices of "Music on CD" in the Netherlands. Licensed by Sony, the disc has been remastered and sounds a little better than the original.

  • 5 weeks later...
robertoart Newbie

robertoart

Posted
Posted
On 3 May 2016 at 0:44 AM, JSngry said:

Has Odyssey seen reissue at any point? That one really gets me, Charles Burnham, one big Harmelodic Hoedown, I'm a fan.

Hopefully WB gets to all three of 'em, they're all worthy.

Odyssey got reissued a couple of times, first in Japan of course, but also by Sony US. The US release has great liner notes by Bill Mikowski (?) that is a really great read. He writes at some point 'this kind of Jazz guitar playing is not about arpeggio running the changes of Stella By Starlight" :g Odyssey is an exceptional album. I love the tune Swing And Things, there is one short pithy phrase Ulmer pulls out of the hat that has stayed in my head for years and years. A kinda supernatural Country Blues line that is just so sweet and unreal. Odyssey has also recently been released on Vinyl in a two LP 45rpm edition. That must sound heavenly. It's not just the wonderful Charles Burnham that makes this album so very special. Only the great James Blood Ulmer could have envisaged this music. 

David Ayers Newbie

David Ayers

Posted
Posted

Strange thing about Odyssey - I bought it on release and never 'liked' it, compared to the previous albums which I knew well. But the music has stayed in my mind and I can't help thinking that the 45 would maybe settle the problem I have with the sound being so gated. That said, the absence of bass leaves a hole for me, which is not offset by the tuned-down sixth string on some numbers (I remember re-checking the liner notes for the name of a bassist when I first played the LP and I heard the odd note below E...).

 

Bit more clout in the drums and bite in the string instruments would be very welcome. 

JSngry Grand Master

JSngry

Posted
Posted

Maybe it's a "country" thing, but it doesn't bother me in the least on that record. I've heard bands out in the country (and played with one or two) without a bass player, occasionally by design, occasionally due to the guy just not showing up, and once because the electricity went out. In no case were the people who were there to drink and dance do anything other than drink and dance, and in no case did the bands have difficulty providing the music for them to do so.

 

  • 1 month later...
robertoart Newbie

robertoart

Posted
Posted
On 5 June 2016 at 1:45 AM, David Ayers said:

Strange thing about Odyssey - I bought it on release and never 'liked' it, compared to the previous albums which I knew well. But the music has stayed in my mind and I can't help thinking that the 45 would maybe settle the problem I have with the sound being so gated. That said, the absence of bass leaves a hole for me, which is not offset by the tuned-down sixth string on some numbers (I remember re-checking the liner notes for the name of a bassist when I first played the LP and I heard the odd note below E...).

 

Bit more clout in the drums and bite in the string instruments would be very welcome. 

I think the reason I loved it so much when I first heard it was because I was listening to as much Blues at the time as I was Free Jazz. This album really seemed to come out of nowhere to me (in an amazing way). I heard the first run of Ulmer albums probably about 85-86 - but did find and hear them almost as they would have been heard chronologically as first released. Are You Glad To Be In America is the album I think seems to have been forgotten by time. Maybe it's just too harsh and abrasive to be retrospectively appreciated as something truly unique and brilliant. That album encapsulates so much incredible energy, power and African American musical life-force, yet I wonder if it was ever truly appreciated for what it is, as opposed to being consumed up into a Post-Punk European ethos of the time perhaps? 

On 5 June 2016 at 6:55 AM, JSngry said:

Maybe it's a "country" thing, but it doesn't bother me in the least on that record. I've heard bands out in the country (and played with one or two) without a bass player, occasionally by design, occasionally due to the guy just not showing up, and once because the electricity went out. In no case were the people who were there to drink and dance do anything other than drink and dance, and in no case did the bands have difficulty providing the music for them to do so.

 

I adored this album from the first moment my needle hit the grooves. I was as much Blues as I was Jazz back then, and the album seemed on first hearing as totally logical but 'impossible to conceive of' without it 'being conceived', if that makes sense. Now that I have a stronger understanding of Rural Blues, or what's now understood as 'Hill Country' Blues, the album is even more loved by me if that could be possible. 

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