Size: 113,4 MB
Time: 48:58
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2003
Styles: Modern Electric Blues, Memphis Blues, Jump Blues
Art: Full
01. Goin' To New York (4:25)
02. The Hustle Is On (2:39)
03. Who's Been Talkin' (3:25)
04. Ghetto Child (5:51)
05. Are You Glad To Be In America? (4:01)
06. You Know, I Know (4:16)
07. Come On (Let The Good Times Roll) (4:12)
08. Bright Lights, Big City (Feat. Olu Dara) (6:03)
09. No Escape From The Blues (3:32)
10. Satisfy (Story Of My Life) (2:02)
11. Trouble In Mind (4:43)
12. The Blues Had A Baby And Called It Rock N Roll (3:44)
What a glorious mess this album is. No Escape From the Blues assembles the same team that issued the brilliant and soulful Memphis Blood for a second chapter, assembling in the legendary Electric Lady Studios in New York. In making their second stop on the legendary studio tour -- Memphis Blood was recorded at Sun -- Ulmer and company move through a program of blues standards and originals that come off as mysterious and oddly organic considering the numerous textures and sounds in the home of Hendrixian adventure. The band includes Vernon Reid (who act as co-lead guitarist and producer), Odyssey violinist Charles Burnham, pianist and keyboard whiz Leon Gruenbaum, harmonica player David Barnes, and the rhythm section of Mark Peterson and Aubrey Dayle, as well as guests like Olu Dara, vocalist Queen Esther, tap dancer Maya Smullyan Jenkins, and John Kruth. Opening with a laid-back country rag blues tune like Mary Lee Reed's "Goin' to New York" with Reid on banjo already makes the listener look twice, but to follow it with Eddy H. Owens' Chicago-style piano stride blues "The Hustle Is On" done in T-Bone Walker fashion is even more bizarre -- especially with Reid's screaming electric guitar solo in the break -- is a freak out. Surprises like this keep the entire album experience off-kilter for the listener. Arrangements are unique and mix and match from the many blues subgenres, from juke joint to jump. Burnham's wah-wah violin on "Who's Been Talkin'" keeps the deep-talking blues from sounding maudlin or comical. The read of Johnny Copeland's "Ghetto Child," with Ulmer's guitar and Gruenbaum's spooky keyboards, echoes the Animals version of "House of the Rising Sun," and Burnham makes the ghost factor rise by ten. The nearly acoustic Delta blues take of "Are You Glad to Be in America" is one of the more startling versions of the song Ulmer has recorded. The most rollicking track on the set has to be Earl King's "Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)," which evokes both King's intention and Jimi Hendrix's spirit in Reid's guitar playing twinned with Burnham's wah-wah rave up. Interestingly, these loose, party blues that goes way over the acid rock top is a beautiful tribute to King, to whose memory the album is dedicated. The gorgeous version of Muddy Waters' "No Escape From the Blues," and the haunted, lonely version of "Trouble in Mind" (complete with fills by Reid on electric sitar and Gruenbaum on Fender Rhodes piano) set up for a killer finish, with a barrelhouse read of "The Blues Had a Baby and Called It Rock N Roll." No Escape From the Blues features Ulmer in a unique role, that of the blues singer and shouter. Never has he sounded so expressive, emotionally compelling, or convincing vocally; and his guitar playing, while less present here than on his other recordings, is still there, snaking its way through this weird yet wonderful set. Highly recommended. This recording is indeed "future blues." ~Review by Thom Jurek
No Escape From The Blues
Size: 150,5 MB
Time: 64:50
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2011
Styles: Blues Rock
Art: Front
01. Spoonful (2:56)
02. I Want To Be Loved (3:13)
03. Little Red Rooster (4:21)
04. Dimples (3:29)
05. I Just Want To Make Love To You (3:28)
06. Evil (2:49)
07. Money (3:33)
08. Love The Life I Live (3:30)
09. Double Trouble (4:56)
10. I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline) (8:25)
11. Back Door Man (3:17)
12. Ghetto Child (5:48)
13. This Land Is Nobody’s Land (5:15)
14. Sad Days, Lonely Nights (5:59)
15. I Ain’t Superstitious (3:42)
Free jazz has not produced many notable guitarists. Experimental musicians drawn to the guitar have had few jazz role models; consequently, they've typically looked to rock-based players for inspiration. James "Blood" Ulmer is one of the few exceptions -- an outside guitarist who has forged a style based largely on the traditions of African-American vernacular music. Ulmer is an adherent of saxophonist/composer Ornette Coleman's vaguely defined Harmolodic theory, which essentially subverts jazz's harmonic component in favor of freely improvised, non-tonal, or quasi-modal counterpoint. Ulmer plays with a stuttering, vocalic attack; his lines are frequently texturally and chordally based, inflected with the accent of a soul-jazz tenor saxophonist. That's not to say his sound is untouched by the rock tradition -- the influence of Jimi Hendrix on Ulmer is strong -- but it's mixed with blues, funk, and free jazz elements. The resultant music is an expressive, hard-edged, loudly amplified hybrid that is, at its best, on a level with the finest of the Harmolodic school.
Ulmer began his career playing in funk bands, first in Pittsburgh (1959-1964) and later around Columbus, OH (1964-1967). Ulmer spent four years in Detroit before moving to New York in 1971. He landed a nine-month gig at the famed birthplace of bop, Minton's Playhouse, and played very briefly with Art Blakey. In 1973, he recorded Rashied Ali Quintet with the ex-John Coltrane drummer on the Survival label. That same year, he hooked up with Ornette Coleman, whose concept affected Ulmer's music thereafter. The guitarist's recordings from the late '70s and early '80s exhibit a unique take on his mentor's aesthetic. His blues and rock-tinged art was, if anything, more raw and aggressive than Coleman's free jazz and funk-derived music (a reflection, no doubt, of Ulmer's chosen instrument), but no less compelling from either an intellectual or an emotional standpoint. In 1981, Ulmer led the first of three record dates for Columbia, which helped to expose his music to a wider public. Around this time Ulmer began an association with tenor saxophonist David Murray, Bassist Amin Ali, and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. As the Music Revelation Ensemble, this intermittent assemblage (with various other members added and subtracted) would produce a number of intense, free-blowing albums over a span of almost two decades.
Ulmer's work has varied in quality over the years. In 1987, with the cooperative group Phalanx (George Adams, tenor sax; Sirone, bass; and Rashied Ali, drums), Ulmer drew successfully on the free jazz expressionism that made his name. Generally, however, Ulmer's interest in out jazz waned in the '80s and '90s, to the extent that his music became progressively more structured, rhythmically regular, and (arguably) less inventive. Much of his later work bears scant resemblance to the edgy free jazz he played earlier. Nevertheless, '90s recordings with the Music Revelation Ensemble showed him still capable of playing convincingly in that vein.
Blood dug deeply into an investigation of the blues as the century turned. First he recorded Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions with guitarist Veron Reid both performing and producing. The album also starred veteran Ulmer sideman Charles Burnham on violin. In 2003 he issued No Escape From the Blues, recorded at Electric Lady studio. A thorouhgly psychedlic funky take on the genre, Reidand Burnham were present in the same roles once more, and old friend Olu Dara stopped into to contribute as well. In 2005 Blood released Birthright, on Joel DOrn's Hyena label. It is easily his most intimatre recording. Completely solo in the studio (Reid once again produced) it contains 10 orignals and two covers of classic reportoire and takes Blood's blues jounrey to an entirely new level. ~Bio by Chris Kelsey
Ulmer began his career playing in funk bands, first in Pittsburgh (1959-1964) and later around Columbus, OH (1964-1967). Ulmer spent four years in Detroit before moving to New York in 1971. He landed a nine-month gig at the famed birthplace of bop, Minton's Playhouse, and played very briefly with Art Blakey. In 1973, he recorded Rashied Ali Quintet with the ex-John Coltrane drummer on the Survival label. That same year, he hooked up with Ornette Coleman, whose concept affected Ulmer's music thereafter. The guitarist's recordings from the late '70s and early '80s exhibit a unique take on his mentor's aesthetic. His blues and rock-tinged art was, if anything, more raw and aggressive than Coleman's free jazz and funk-derived music (a reflection, no doubt, of Ulmer's chosen instrument), but no less compelling from either an intellectual or an emotional standpoint. In 1981, Ulmer led the first of three record dates for Columbia, which helped to expose his music to a wider public. Around this time Ulmer began an association with tenor saxophonist David Murray, Bassist Amin Ali, and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. As the Music Revelation Ensemble, this intermittent assemblage (with various other members added and subtracted) would produce a number of intense, free-blowing albums over a span of almost two decades.
Ulmer's work has varied in quality over the years. In 1987, with the cooperative group Phalanx (George Adams, tenor sax; Sirone, bass; and Rashied Ali, drums), Ulmer drew successfully on the free jazz expressionism that made his name. Generally, however, Ulmer's interest in out jazz waned in the '80s and '90s, to the extent that his music became progressively more structured, rhythmically regular, and (arguably) less inventive. Much of his later work bears scant resemblance to the edgy free jazz he played earlier. Nevertheless, '90s recordings with the Music Revelation Ensemble showed him still capable of playing convincingly in that vein.
Blood dug deeply into an investigation of the blues as the century turned. First he recorded Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions with guitarist Veron Reid both performing and producing. The album also starred veteran Ulmer sideman Charles Burnham on violin. In 2003 he issued No Escape From the Blues, recorded at Electric Lady studio. A thorouhgly psychedlic funky take on the genre, Reidand Burnham were present in the same roles once more, and old friend Olu Dara stopped into to contribute as well. In 2005 Blood released Birthright, on Joel DOrn's Hyena label. It is easily his most intimatre recording. Completely solo in the studio (Reid once again produced) it contains 10 orignals and two covers of classic reportoire and takes Blood's blues jounrey to an entirely new level. ~Bio by Chris Kelsey
Rock In Blues
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Thank you!
No Escape From The Blues: The Electric Lady
http://www57.zippyshare.com/v/w5MLvVVr/file.html
Rock In Blues
http://www9.zippyshare.com/v/jLquPZjf/file.html
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