James 'Blood' Ulmer - Mephis Blood: The Sun Sessions. Yay or Nay?

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I've been enjoying this a lot. I really like Ulmer's deep, rough, wavering vocal. And the interplay between him and Vernon Reid is quite good, I thought, with Reid's compressed, higher-end snakiness (sometimes almost blending in with the harmonica!) a good foil for Ulmer's rougher percussive approach. Standout moments include the solo on "Double Trouble", the little rhythmic turnabouts on "Too Lazy to Work, Too Nervous to Steal" and the feedback on "I Asked for Water".

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Monday, 7 June 2004 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Aargh. Memphis Blood.

Did anyone hear No Escape From the Blues? Is it similar?

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Monday, 7 June 2004 02:49 (twenty-one years ago)

i have memphis blood and i dont listen to it that often. i was sort of taken aback by how much of a blues blues album it is. ill have to try it again.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Monday, 7 June 2004 06:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I've wondered about this. Are there any traces at all of his free-jazzier stuff?

xpost - does that answer my question ?

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Monday, 7 June 2004 06:52 (twenty-one years ago)

James Blood Ulmer

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 7 June 2004 06:59 (twenty-one years ago)

yay--really good album

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Monday, 7 June 2004 07:48 (twenty-one years ago)

someone wrote this

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Monday, 7 June 2004 15:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Reid framing a blues context that works is dandy and all, but the miracle is that Ulmer's vocals are arresting rather than bad enough to get him arrested.

― Dock Miles (Dock Miles), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 12:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Are there any traces at all of his free-jazzier stuff?

Well, they stick pretty faithfully to the structures of the songs but there's a lot of feedback thrashing in the guitars. "I Asked For Water" in particular ends with a glorious wall of shriek. It's more like an opportunity to hear Ulmer's and Reid's distinctive approaches to the guitar applied to a blues song contest.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 02:36 (twenty-one years ago)

this album never really caught me at all but that was when i was on a sleepless ulmer kick and id been thinking in harmolodics for hours. so maybe ill revisit it.

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 03:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I want to buy this for my dad and then borrow it.

I think he would like it you know

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 04:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I like it OK, but I'm not a big fan of his blues stuff, still prefer the earlier things like "Are You Glad" and esp. "Black Rock." I dig the cover of Bob Carter Trio's "Too Lazy to Work" quite a bit. I think it's a bit odd that it's mostly an album of Chicago blues covers, though.

Has anyone heard his "Harmolodic with Strings" album?

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

nine years pass...

Listening to Part Time on Spotify -- Odyssey band live. Good stuff

― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 26 June 2013 11:25 (twelve years ago)

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