NEW YORK CITY — James Blood Ulmer died on June 3 at the Upper Eastside Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. He was 86 years old. A family representative said, "His music was fearless, and so was his spirit."
Ulmer was born Willie James Ulmer on February 8, 1940, in St. Matthews, South Carolina, and was the eldest of eight children. His father, James David Ulmer, a Baptist preacher, gave him his first guitar at age four, and he performed with his father in the Southern Sons Quartette. After high school, he relocated to Pittsburgh, where he played guitar for R&B groups including the Savoys and the Del Vikings. He worked in Columbus, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, before moving to New York City in 1971. In New York, he spent approximately one year performing in the house band at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem.
In the early 1970s, Ulmer began collaborating with musician Ornette Coleman, applying Coleman's Harmolodics concept by tuning all six strings of his guitar to the same note. He performed with saxophonist David Murray and drummers Ronald Shannon Jackson and G. Calvin Weston. In 1979, critic Robert Palmer reviewed a performance by Ulmer's ensemble. In 1981, critic Greg Tate published an essay on Ulmer titled Knee Deep in Blood Ulmer. Tate wrote, "Blood doesn't play sensuous, explosive space-blues lines like Hendrix. What he does play is shrill, disjointed fragments, nervous bits and rickety pieces tied together by a staggered but wryly swinging thematic sensibility."
Ulmer released the album Free Lancing in 1981, followed by Black Rock in 1982, and Odyssey in 1983. The album Odyssey featured a band with violinist Charles Burnham and drummer Walter Benbow. The song "Are You Glad to Be in America?" was originally recorded in 1980 for the Rough Trade record label. He later released more than 24 albums after his tenure with Columbia Records, including Harmolodic Guitar with Strings in 1993.
In the early 2000s, Ulmer recorded blues albums produced by Vernon Reid, including Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions (2001) and No Escape from the Blues: The Electric Lady Sessions (2003). In 2023, he performed a two-night solo guitar and vocal residency at Solar Myth in Philadelphia. He performed at the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2024 and retired from performing shortly after the festival due to declining health.
No independent assessment of James Blood Ulmer’s claims was available.