James
Blood Ulmer
Birthright
Hyena
When James Blood Ulmer took the stage
at Milestones during the 2004 Rochester International Jazz Festival, he told
the crowd that he was a little unsure about playing solo. It was not hard to
see why; Ulmer’s long career has included stints of avant-garde jazz with
Ornette Coleman in the early 1970s and more recent collaborations with David
Murray. His two most recent albums, the highly acclaimed Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions and No Escape From The Blues: The Electric Lady Sessions, included
excellent supporting musicians like Vernon Reid and Ulu Dara. But Ulmer got
over his skittishness in a hurry. His new album, Birthright (produced by Reid), is solo from start to finish. And
Ulmer never sounded better.
The album’s title couldn’t be more
appropriate: Ulmer has clearly gone in search of his music’s roots. His guitar
style combines dissonant strums with lead lines emerging at will from the high
or low registers. His sense of phrasing recalls that of blues greats like
Mississippi John Hurt. And his songs (he wrote all but two of the tracks) are
haunting throwbacks to the raw blues of the early 20th century. Even when he
performs a blues standard, “Sittin’ on Top of the World,” he takes it back to
an era before the blues got slick. But it’s on his originals that Ulmer most
clearly demonstrates his unique approach. On the final track, “Devil’s Got To
Burn,” he dives completely over the edge, cackling over some of the most
powerful acoustic guitar chords you will ever hear.
— Ron Netsky
Platinum
Pied Pipers
Triple
P
Ubiquity
Hip-hop smoothed out on the r&b
tip with a funk, soul… control… to it! Be easy, BBD enthusiasts: I had to
change it up to describe the Platinum Pied Pipers’ debut set, Triple P. This duo of music makers
straight outta Detroit Rock City put together mostly unknown artists for a
decent compilation of coffee-shop-smooth tunes, bound to get your head bobbin’.
J Dilla blasts the “Shotgun Intro” off right, and makes another stop on “Act
Like You Know,” the hip-hop highlight of the set. On the r&b side, Zeno
makes you put on your dancing shoes with “Fever,” before the LP gets a little
stagnant with three duds in a row. But, Tiombe Lockhart helps round it out with
the sensual love song “I Got You” — my favorite track. It’s not a
straight-through listen, but the good songs are great, and that’s purely plenty
proper for me.
— jaythreeoh
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 2, 2005.
