James Blood Ulmer - Are You Glad To Be In America? (1980/1995)

Guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer has been heard in many contexts, covering Ornette Coleman on the fantastic, muted Music Speaks Louder Than Words, playing gritty soul blues on the aptly monikered Forbidden Blues. But this 1980 set captures Ulmer in all his glory. When hearing this, there's no doubt why Coleman was such a fan. Ulmer compresses the dual rhythms of drummers Ronald Shannon Jackson and G. Calvin Weston just as Coleman has done with his own Prime Time. Here, you also get compressed dual horns, blown alternately by David Murray and Oliver Lake or Murray and Olu Dara. They play strong melodies, a couple of them coming across as faux marches, with Ulmer string-bending his way between notes and then clustering his way through melodies. Murray plays up to the task more than anyone here, squawking and honking as if he fully grasped Ulmer's vortex-like view of jazz, blues, and all points in between. This is crucial work for the guitarist and for jazz in the post-1960s era. --Andrew Bartlett