03/08 8:00 PM & 10PM - $30.00

James Blood Ulmer & David Murray Blues Big Band

TIME OUT NY quote “expect a raucous good time”.
newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/music/2672909/david-murray-big-band-with-james-blood-ulmer

photo by: Roberto Cifarelli

David Murray began writing for big band in 1978 in preparation for a concert at the Public Theatre in New York. At this time Loft Jazz was in full swing and David had surfaced as one of the progenitors of the new phenomena that had captured the downtown music scene.The compositions were a more complex and extended version of many trio and quartet songs that we heard in the lofts but with more textures and counter melodies and harmony.

Mr.Murray engaged most of the leading players of that time like Julius Hemphill, John Carter, James Newton, Henry Threadgill, Fred Hopkins, Steve McCall, Joe Bowie, Bobby Bradford, Baikida Carrol, Pat Patrick and the legendary Jackie Byard. Amiri Baraka was the guest poet, Irene Datcher the vocalist and it was conducted by Lawrence Butch Morris. The concert was a success and inspired him to begin his Octet that year at a festival organized by his (then) manager Kunle Mwanga. There were several gigs in the U.S. and some tours in Europe at major festivals that helped the band to develop.

The 80′s arrived and we found the big band performing at Sweet Basil’s on Monday nights which went on for a stint with many new and younger players like Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Rassul Sidik, Don Byron, Steve Coleman, Craig Harris, Bob Stewart, Vincent Chancey and others. Murray’s recordings include two big band discs from this time, “ Live at Sweet Basil’s “ volumes1&2 for Black Saint Records. Towards the end of the 80′s he released “ South of The Border “ then “ David Murray Big Band Conducted By Butch Morris “ on DIW (a Japanese company) to begin the new decade.

His big band became a workshop in the early 90′s at the Knitting Factory on Monday. The workshop would begin at 4′oclock and everyone was welcome to play through the old and new compositions that David, Butch, Craig and others wrote. It was open to the public and quite a fascinating and an interesting time for composers and young players to work with seasoned musician. Many things were accomplished during the four hours before the concert at 8p.m. There was anxiety over who would be allowed to play that night, but as the weeks passed some who may not have been ready developed into some of our great players in New York today!

David Murray celebrated Duke Ellington with a special concert in Paris at Cité de la Musique in 1997 with big band and 20 strings including the World Saxophone Quartet, Slide Ride, Dr.Art Davis, James Newton, Regina Carter, Carmen and Bobby Bradford, Hilton Ruis and Andrew Cyrille. They performed Strayhorn, Ellington with Murray’s rearrangements of the great works. Paul Gonsalves’ famous solo on “ Dimuendo and Crescendo “ in Blue was orchestrated for this occasion. This gave Murray the insight into another world as he studied the scores of the masters and discovered the hidden intricate landscapes of Ellingtonia.

2002 took David to Havana, Cuba to prepare for his latest big band recording “ Now is Another Time “ for Justin Time Records (Canadian). There he had the choice of the finest young players in Cuba who really cherished the opportunity to work and study his charts and rehearse endlessly for perfection. The disc was a hit and the band toured Europe on a successful run of festivals, but not in the U.S.

David Murray brings a new book of big band material to Birdland January 18-22, which represents his development as composer, arranger and orchestrator. Since 1997 Murray has lived in Paris and has written two operas, “The Alexander Pushkin Suite” and “The Sysiphus Syndrome” with Amiri Baraka, “Tongues on Fire” a revolutionary tribute to the Black Panthers with poetry of The Last Poets performed by Living Colour and The Roots among many records and projects. Most recently he has recorded, performed and co-produced (with Valérie Malot) “David Murray plays Nat King Cole en Español” with Omara Portuondo, 12 strings and 10 Cuban ensemble.

David’s concentration on writing for large ensemble has become his latest obsession as he is constantly searching for textures, harmony, structures and orchestrations to express himself through his saxophone and bass clarinet. He is eager to spread this enthusiasm, experience and knowledge to his fellow musicians and touch another generation.

James Blood Ulmer

James Blood Ulmer was once described by the omnipotent Village Voice music critic and co-founder of the Black Rock Coalition, Greg Tate, as: “…the missing link between Jimi Hendrix and Wes Montgomery on one hand, between P-Funk and Mississippi Fred McDowell on the other.” indeed, the (70) year old guitarist, vocalist and composer hovers atop the pantheon of American music mavericks. Forging an unyielding synthesis of musical styles, vision and virtuosity, Ulmer has left an indelible mark on those keen ears who’ve dared to follow him to that great nether where the fiercest, most holy music occurs. Too primitive for sophisticated jazz audiences; too funky for the four-bar blues crowd; too country for the urban funk kind; too psychedelic for straight-ahead rock fans; his audience, like many of the great artists of the 20m century, is small yet rabid, proving him a cult icon of the truest nature. As Blood once declared, “I have the same audience, it seems to me, wherever I go. I’m not hooked up to no commercial audience, but everyplace I’ve played seems to know my music.”

The first of nine children, James Blood Ulmer was born in 1940 in rural St. Matthews, South Carolina to God-fearing parents who gave him a strict Baptist upbringing. His father, a preacher at the local ministry, gave his son his first guitar at the age of four in order to prepare him for the gospel life. “My Daddy started me playing the guitar when I was four. He would be playing the upper part and have my fingers strumming, I got into it like that.” Raised on the music of the church and exposed at a young age to national touring gospel acts, including The Five Blind Boys From Alabama, The National Clouds of Joy and The Dixie Hummingbirds, it was the Lord’s music that inspired him most in the formative years. While still in elementary school he joined The Southern Sons, a vocal quartet modeled after his earliest gospel influences. He remained with the group, gigging around the south, for the next seven years.

While gospel may have sparked Blood’s passion for music, the flames quickly spread as he discovered new sounds and styles. On the radio, early rock & roll, country & western and blues reigned, and Blood loved it. Mornings, while dressing for school, he often tuned into a show that featured Chuck Berry’s “School Days” as its theme. The blues, however, was a different story. It was alternately alluring and frightening, a struggle for him that still exists to this day. Viewed as the devil’s music by his parents, he’d often have to sneak the music behind their back. “This here’s the music that got me thrown out of the house by my mamma,” remembers Blood. “I broke every law in the book to listen to some blues. She used to beat my butt if I want to do a blues straight out: ‘Oh, Ba-by take me down, down.’ We came from the church. We couldn’t play no stuff like that.”

In 2005, James Blood Ulmer reinvented himself once again with Birthright, his first ever solo album. Captured alone on vocals and guitar featuring nearly all original compositions, it’s his most stark, personal and iconoclastic album to date. On songs like “Geechee Joe,” “Take My Music Back To The Church” and “White Man’s Jail,” Ulmer deals directly with the proverbial hellhounds on his trail, including religion, racism and failed relationships. The results were riveting. Guitar Player magazine called it: “A groundbreaking performance with roots that go back to Africa and beyond ! ” Rolling Stone Magazine declared: “The blues – ancient and modern, from Blind Willie McTelI to Ornette Coleman – have always run deep in this South Carolinian’s black rock and future jazz. But on Birthright, there is nothing but blues: just Ulmer’s subterranean rock-slide moan and spider dance guitar improvisations, in stark, original memoirs…Ulmer has taken the long road home… But he sounds like he never left.”

Whether it’s art imitating life or life imitating art, the trials of James Blood Ulmer’s career have only made his art that much more potent. It appears he’s capable of channeling life’s experiences through his soul In order to lay it bare in the music. If he were never to record again, his reputation as an American music pioneer Is already cemented in stone. One would think, however, that there’s a great deal more to come, because Blood lives the music, and is the music and he’ll grow old bringing the music. And as always, that devout audience with big ears and keen instincts will be taking it all in. And perhaps a new generation will show-up, glad to be in America, digging James Blood Ulmer.

TIME OUT NY  quote “expect a raucous good time”.
newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/music/2672909/david-murray-big-band-with-james-blood-ulmer