Over three days in April 2001,
James "Blood" Ulmer and producer/guitarist
Vernon Reid (yes, of
Living Colour fame) went into the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis and kicked out some of the greasiest, knottiest, most surreal blues music ever. The blues have always been part of
Ulmer's iconography, even when deeply entrenched in the harmolodic theory he helped to develop with
Ornette Coleman. Over the years on his albums for DIW,
Ulmer has with mixed results attempted to dig into the blues wholesale, but until now, with the aid of
Vernon Reid and a cast of stellar if not well-known musicians,
Blood hasn't been able to indulge his obsession to the hilt. All 14 songs on
Memphis Blood are covers, many of them blues classics from the canon, with a few from
Ulmer's own shrine book. The set opens with
Willie Dixon's "Spoonful." There's a trace about 12 notes coming from the harmolodic E to the fore before
Reid and
Ulmer kick it in with harmonica player
David Barnes, whose blowing in this album is so meaty, tough, and oily that he must have learned how to play in a Memphis rib joint. Also getting down into the pit of the blue-black mass is
Ulmer's running partner, violinist
Charles Burnham, who puts a wah-wah on his axe in "Little Red Rooster."
Burnham reveals that there is more than swing to blues violin chops; he could have taught Sugarcane Harris or
Papa John Creach plenty.
Burnham's sense of dynamic and timing is phenomenal, as he underlines each line of
Ulmer's lyric with a phrase that moans and snakes as the singer wails. On
Otis Rush's "Double Trouble,"
Reid gets his turn to shine, and he does explosively, but in the vernacular. He doesn't give us his standard thousand-note run, but instead blistering attacks on the minor-key side of the tune; he's all edges and cutting, spitting notes and fury. As for
Ulmer, he's never sounded more at home in his role as singer and guitarist, funking it up just enough with those edgy chords and strangled, single-note runs. He allows
Reid to run the musical proceedings and settles in to front the band. The music, as a result, is fiery, loose, and full of drunkenly spirited, explosive delight. It's a careening, side-railed music that tells a story only insofar as these cats are all imagining their own stories while playing in this studio, which has housed every great they play tunes by. As tired as the blues genre is,
Memphis Blood is a fresh injection of blues truth; this is Saturday night drink, dance, and sex music. This is the music to do stuff by that you're gonna have to repent for on Sunday morning without pose, primp, or preen. If any man or woman doubts that this is the blues album of 2001, let her or him listen no further than
John Lee Hooker's "Dimples," and then shake 'em on down.
Ulmer delivers here, big time. ~ Thom Jurek