Music <\/p>\n
James Blood Ulmer, the avant-garde jazz, funk, and blues guitarist, died on June 3 at the age of 86, reports NPR<\/a>. In a statement, Ulmer\u2019s family said his \u201cmusic was fearless, and so was his spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n Born Willie James Ulmer in St. Matthews, South Carolina in 1940, Ulmer received his first guitar at the age of four, and later got his start playing in funk and R&B bands. Following stints in Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Detroit, he made his way to New York City, where he was hired by the house band at legendary jazz club Minton’s Playhouse. He eventually connected with saxophonist Arthur Blythe, leading to appearances on Blythe\u2019s albums Lenox Avenue Breakdown<\/em> and Illusions<\/em>. By 1973, Ulmer had become a mentee of Ornette Coleman, learning the latter\u2019s free-jazz system of harmolodics, which quickly informed Ulmer\u2019s unique approach to tuning.<\/p>\n \u201cI had this dream about this tuning, where I tuned all of the strings to the same note,\u201d he recalled to Bandcamp<\/a> in 2017. \u201cI went to Coleman\u2019s room\u2014he was sleeping\u2014and I said, \u2018Wake up, listen to this.\u2019 I started playing, and he got his horn and started playing. He said, \u2018Give me C,\u2019 and I said, \u2018I ain\u2019t got no C, I ain\u2019t got no F, I ain\u2019t got no G, I ain\u2019t got none of them chords\u2014I can\u2019t make chords because I ain\u2019t got but one note, really.\u2019 That tuning freed me\u2026 I could play without following or copying anybody. It was great.\u201d<\/p>\n Ulmer released dozens of solo albums across nearly five decades, including Black Rock<\/em> and Odyssey<\/em> on Columbia. He also formed the Music Revelation Ensemble in the 1980s, with saxophonist David Murray, bassist Amin Ali, and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. By the 2000s, Ulmer had recorded a series of blues albums produced by Vernon Reid. He played his final concert in 2024 before retiring.<\/p>\n \u201cMusic is not for judgin\u2019,\u201d Ulmer told Wax Poetics<\/a> in 2004. \u201cYou listen to it and take what you can get from it. Put it in your pocket and keep movin\u2019.<\/p>\n Revisit our 2007 review of Ulmer\u2019s Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n