Arthur Blythe - Illusions

The CD reissue of Arthur Blythe's 1980 LP Illusions is out of print and selling for high prices on the secondhand market, so here is a vinyl rip for anyone who would like to hear it without having to shell out $50-200 for a CD. This album is part of my James Blood Ulmer collection, as his guitar playing is all over it. Ulmer's guitar is also the only electric instrument in this album's lineup, the full list being:

• Arthur Blythe, alto sax
• Fred Hopkins, acoustic bass
• Steve McCall, drums
• John Hicks, piano
• James Blood Ulmer, electric guitar
• Abdul Wadud, cello
• Bob Stewart, tuba
• Bobby Battle, drums

The tuba gives the tunes a heavier beat and grounding in traditional jazz than the average avant-garde jazz session, and Blythe switches easily between lyrical leads and free wailing. Illusions was the third in a string of nine Blythe albums released by Columbia between 1978 and 1987, and came at the same time as Ulmer's brief tenure at the label, which resulted in the fiery Black Rock and Free Lancing LPs as well as the classic trio set Odyssey. If only Columbia had managed to push this jazz subgenre into the mainstream! The track list of Illusions is:

1. Bush Baby
2. Miss Money
3. Illusions
4. My Son Ra
5. Carespin' With Mamie
6. As Of Yet

Get the vinyl rip here or here.

James Blood Ulmer - Part Time

Recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1983 (but not released until 1984 on the British Rough Trade label), Part Time documents the Odyssey trio of Ulmer, drummer Warren Benbow, and violinist Charles Burnham in a live setting. It's heavy on the Odyssey material, and the high point is some righteous jamming back and forth between Ulmer and Burnham on Odyssey's "Swings & Things." Here is the complete track list:

1. Part Time
2. Little Red House
3. Love Dance
4. Encore
5. Are You Glad To Be In America?
6. Swings & Things
7. Mr. Tight Hat

The album is unfortunately short, clocking in at just thirty-two and a half minutes. But it's a great thirty-two and a half minutes! Get the vinyl rip (not pristine, sorry) here or here.

James Blood Ulmer - Live at the Caravan of Dreams

Nowadays James Blood Ulmer is a sort of elder statesman of the blues, but back in the 70s he was a protege of jazz great Ornette Coleman and a proponent of Coleman's "harmolodics," i.e. everybody play whatever you want at the same time and let the listener sort it out. Which made for some challenging listening! Ulmer's first solo records also had a strong funk underpinning, explicitly addressed in "Jazz Is the Teacher (Funk Is the Preacher)" on his album Are You Glad To Be In America? As for the Caravan of Dreams, I'll quote Wikipedia:

The Caravan of Dreams was a performing arts center located in the central business district of Fort Worth, Texas during the 1980s and 1990s. The venue was best known locally as a live music nightclub, though this only represented one portion of a larger facility. The center also included a multitrack recording studio, a 212 seat theater, two dance studios, and a rooftop garden.[1] The center was located at 312 Houston Street, and prefigured the redevelopment of Sundance Square into a dining and entertainment district. Edward P. Bass, whose family has participated in much of the redevelopment of downtown Fort Worth, financed the project, and Kathelin Hoffman served as its artistic director.[2]

The Caravan of Dreams was self-described as "a meeting place appealing to audiences who enjoy the creation of new forms of music, theater, dance, poetry and film" that was "architected and managed by and for artists."[3] The name was taken from 1001 Arabian Nights, by way of Brion Gysin, who attended the opening of the venue with William S. Burroughs in 1983.[4] The opening celebration centered around performances by Fort Worth native Ornette Coleman, both with his Prime Time ensemble in the nightclub, and with the Fort Worth Symphony at the nearby Convention Center. The event coincided with the mayoral proclamation of September 29, 1983 as "Ornette Coleman Day," when Coleman was presented with a key to the city.[5]

The center operated its own record label, releasing albums by Coleman as well as artists such as Ronald Shannon Jackson, James "Blood" Ulmer, and Twins Seven Seven. Caravan of Dreams also released films (including Ornette: Made in America, a feature-length documentary about Coleman) and spoken word recordings by William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, John P. Allen (as Johnny Dolphin), and others.

The rooftop garden featured hundreds of cacti and succulent plants, as well as a glass geodesic dome. Several years later, Biosphere 2 would incorporate geodesic domes in its structure, with the involvement of some of the same principals behind Caravan of Dreams.[6]

Eventually the facility became less geared toward the experimental (though high-profile) musicians, writers, and artists with whom it was associated in its early days. Caravan of Dreams ceased its production of entertainment media, and the nightclub hosted more mainstream performers outside of the jazz genre.

The nightclub closed in 2001, exactly eighteen years to the day after Ornette Coleman Day, and was converted into a restaurant, Reata at Sundance Square.[7] The theater space continued to be operated as such.

Sounds like a fantastic place, which unfortunately I never got the chance to visit. So, here (or here) is the James Blood Ulmer album referenced above. Released in 1986, it was probably recorded in 1983 or 1984, and includes a good mix of blues and funk numbers. The backing band is Amin Ali on bass, Charles Burnham on violin, and Warren Benbow on drums.