Live at the Bayerischer Hof The James Blood Ulmer Blues Experience

• 1 Burning Up 07:10
• 2 Church 09:03
• 3 Crying 07:09
• 4 Let Me Take You Home 04:56
• 5 Boss Lady 08:10
• 6 Street Bride 05:57
• 7 Timeless 05:44
• 8 Make It Right 11:09
• Total Runtime 59:18

Info for Live at the Bayerischer Hof

What makes James „Blood“ Ulmer such an unusual and distinctive performer is that his music is a powerful synthesis of musical genres, the product of more than 30 years of playing in a wide variety of contexts. On this recording, Ulmer's first live album in ten years, he is featured with what he regards as his definitive trio, playing at the peak of their musical power in Munich's celebrated Bayerischer Hof Hotel. Says Ulmer: 'The trio was in great form on this particular night.We were burning up! I think this is the best damn' record I ever made - it's certainly the best attempt I've made yet at putting all the strains of my music together on one album.'

James Blood Ulmer says: As far as I can recall this was my 21st recording and, to tell you the truth, I think it s the best damn record I did up to that point because we where really making music that night. The vibes where right, the inspiration was there and it was just one of those rare nights where you can feel the electricity in the air.

„The 21st album from Ulmer, who was working here with new arrangements of material, a new lineup for the Blues Experience (with bassist Amin Ali returning and drummer Aubrey Dayle replacing Grant Calvin Weston) and a brand-new 24-bit digital recording system based around a Mac Quadra hard disc recording system. Engineer Winnie Leyh's live mix to two-track is outstanding, and the performances are very fine indeed. Ulmer's vocal style is engagingly rough and heartfelt, pure blues all the way; this provides an effective contrast to his convoluted guitar work (and the band's support). Ulmer's guitar work is outstanding, transcending the blues label and heading for the outer territories of jazz at quite a rate of knots.“ (Steven McDonald, AMG)

'You just can't shake the feeling that James Blood Ulmer is the funkiest man alive....[the band moves] easily between free jazz, rock, funk and blues as if they were all part of one big, boogeying organism (which they are)....this disc will get all but the most resolute wallflowers going.' (JazzTimes)

James Blood Ulmer, guitar, vocals
Amin Ali, electric bass
Aubrey Dayle, drums

Recorded live April 25th 1994 at The Bayerischer Hof Club, Munich
Engineered by Winnie Leyh
Produced by James Blood Ulmer, Frank Kleinschmidt

Digitally remastered

James „Blood“ Ulmer
South Carolina-born electric guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer (1942) relocated to New York in 1971. After playing with Ornette Coleman (1972-74), he developed an aggressive, edgy, jangled, dissonant style at the instrument that transposed Coleman's "harmolodic" free jazz coupled with Jimi Hendrix's psychedelic funk-blues-rock fusion (and loud amplification).

Revealing (1977), in a quartet with tenor saxophonist George Adams, bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Doug Hammond, contained four lengthy jams (particularly Revealing and Overtime). Ulmer used the same kind of quartet, but with Ornette Coleman on alto saxophone and Jamaladeen Tacuma on bass, on the more famous but less adventurous Tales From Captain Black (december 1978), containing eight short pieces. The difference was not so much Coleman, but Tacuma, thanks to whom the sound became visceral and funky. Are You Glad To Be In America (january 1980), with the formidable rhythm section of drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson and bassist Amin Ali, was structured again as a series of (ten) demonstrations (notably Lay Out and Time Out) of Ulmer's potential, somewhere between the Pop Group and Bill Laswell's Material.

Ulmer returned to the extended free-jam format of Revealing with the Music Revelation Ensemble, a quartet with tenor saxophonist David Murray, bassist Amin Ali and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. No Wave (june 1980) contained four energetic pieces, particularly Time Table, Big Tree and Baby Talk.

But the albums under his own name valued instead structure and brevity. Increasing the ferocity of his attack via Free Lancing (1981), whose Timeless was almost punk-rock, Ulmer achieved the brutal peak of Black Rock (1982), debuting flutist Sam Sanders and coupling Ali's bass with drummer Grant Calvin Weston, a collection that ran the gamut from hardcore (Open House) to free-jazz (We Bop) and focused on the middleground, a radio-friendly fusion of hard-rock and funk music (Black Rock). The idea was ready for mass consumption, and Ulmer, accompanied only by violin and drums, and relying ever more on his vocals, found a huge audience with Odyssey (may 1983),

Ulmer teamed up with tenor saxophonist George Adams and created the quartet Phalanx. Their Got Something Good For You (september 1985) featured Ali and Weston, whereas Original (february 1987) and In Touch (february 1988) boasted bassist Norris "Sirone" Jones and drummer Rashied Ali.

America Do You Remember the Love? (september 1986) was a jazz-rock quartet session with guitarist Nicky Skopelitis, bassist Bill Laswell and Ronald Shannon Jackson, heavily influenced by Laswell's ambient/world philosophy.

Blues Allnight (may 1989) was a detour into blues-rock.

Ulmer finally resurrected the Music Revelation Ensemble (with Jamaaladeen Tacuma replacing Ali) for Music Revelation Ensemble (february 1988), indulging in six free-form jams (notably Body Talk, Playtime, Nisa). The rhythm section changed (Amin Ali and drummer Cornell Rochester) for Elec Jazz (march 1990), that had the free-jazz workout Big Top (in two parts), Exit (also in two parts), the eight-minute ballad No More and the ten-minute Taps Dance. After Dark (october 1991) contained Maya, the 12-minute avant-ballad Never Mind, and After Dark, his first experiment with a string quartet. Basically, as Ulmer moved away from free jazz in his albums, he moved back into free jazz with the Ensemble.

Ulmer's most ambitious album, Harmolodic Guitar with Strings (july 1993) contained three multi-movement suites for guitar and string quartet (Arena, Page One, Black Sheep), each movement being very short.

With Murray replaced by guest saxophonists (Arthur Blythe on alto in Non-Believer, Hamiet Bluiett on baritone in The Dawn, or Sam Rivers on soprano in In Time, on tenor in Help and on flute in Mankind), the Music Revelation Ensemble rode the cacophonic maelstrom of In The Name Of (december 1993). The funkier Knights of Power (april 1995) was less terrifying, but still contained powerful pieces such as Convulsion (with Bluiett) and The Elephant (with Blythe). Cross Fire (december 1996), with bassist Calvin Jones replacing Ali, used Pharoah Sanders' tenor saxophone (notably in My Prayer) and John Zorn's alto saxophone. These Ensemble albums were also vehicles for Ulmer to showcase his supernatural technique at the guitar, freed from the song-oriented constraints of his solo albums.

The albums recorded under his own name since the mid 1990s were mostly uninspired ventures into blues music (and his vocals did not help). The best ones, the oddly psychedelic Memphis Blood (april 2001), No Escape From the Blues (april 2003) and Bad Blood In The City - The Piety Street Sessions (december 2006), were collaborations with rock guitarist Vernon Reid.

Birthright (2005) was a solo album. In And Out (august 2008) featured a quartet with flute. Live at the Bayerischer Hof documents a collaboration with bassist Amin Ali and drummer Aubrey Dayle.

This album contains no booklet.