Jazz
The memorial for James Blood Ulmer was held on 29 September at Saint Peter’s Church in Manhattan, the church that has served for decades as New York’s jazz parish. Eva Mikusch, his partner of seventeen years, organised it, with Vernon Reid as musical director. It sold out and was streamed on YouTube.
David Murray, Marc Ribot, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Calvin Weston, Melvin Gibbs and Brandon Ross all played, as did the guitarist’s son, Michael Mustafa Ulmer, with his own band. Denardo Coleman played “Tales Of Captain Black” and Reid played “Memphis Blood”.
The two pieces come from two particular moments. Tacuma and Denardo Coleman were the rhythm section on “Tales Of Captain Black”, the 1979 album Ulmer recorded with Ornette Coleman on alto and which took harmolodics onto an electric guitar. Reid produced “Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions”, fourteen blues standards cut at Sun Studio in Memphis in 2001.
Murray had co-led the Music Revelation Ensemble with Ulmer since 1980. Ulmer died in New York on 3 June, aged 86.
Text by Aina Torrents