FREE LANCING
WHERE DID ALL THE GIRLS COME FROM?
James Blood Ulmer
Free Lancing
Columbia : 1981
JBU, guitar, vocals; Amin Ali, bass; G. Calvin Weston, drums; Ronnie Drayton, guitar (on “Girls”); Diane Wilson, Irene Datcher, and Zenobia Kinkerite, backing vocals (on “Girls”).
George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic broke and then mocked the genre boundaries that separated rock and funk. So where does that leave James Blood Ulmer, whose early albums shattered so many genres simultaneously that you’d need an accountant to accurately keep track? It may not have paid out like P-Funk, but Ulmer is still somewhere ahead of the game, musically speaking. His vocal-instrumental harmolodic avant-blues-funk-rock-jazz-soul still sounds utterly, Ulmerly singular.
His first Columbia joint, Free Lancing, isn’t his finest hour for the label, but it’s still chock-a-block with iron-enriched hits. Per Chuck Eddy – who rated it the #220 Best Heavy Metal Album in the Universe – “it swings like an expectant mom’s moods.” He deems it “the most natural place for metal-flash/guitar-hero aficionados to board Blood’s bloodcurdling barge without rocking it too much.” So climb aboard, and tell your jazz-phobic friends to grab a life vest as well.
The title track is a serious grooving and horn-scalded piece of spastic avant metal-funk. Eddy on the ingredients: “Rubber wah-notes, kamikaze slide-runs, and cackling cacophony noogie your skull atop a beat like meat on your feet.” Well, sure, why not? As for the irresistably titled soul-funk whatsit “Where Did All The Girls Come From?” (recently covered by Ulmer on Birthright), it trots out the backing vocals and sound effects to address that timeless problem of two girls for every guy in the room. Which, as we all know, is the situation at most avant-jazz-rock-funk-blues throwdowns.
Melinda Snow // Dec 8, 2008 at 3:11 am
How come this and other earlier Ulmer albums are not available on CD or MP3? I’d love to get my hands on Tales of Captain Black.
Thank you for posting this.
Bradley Sroka // Dec 8, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Melinda, I actually own a DIW CD reissue of Captain Black, as well as Odyssey reissued on CD by Columbia (found in a cut-out bin!), so they’re out there. However, according to Amazon, they’re up to $50 each used, but I see Captain Black on LP often enough to advocate a search for it in your city of choice. I also see Odyssey occasionally. LP is better than nothing, right? Happy hunting!
Melinda Snow // Dec 8, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I have all old releases on LP, but I do not have turntable. It’s probably cheaper for me to buy a turntable than to buy the used CDs at $50 a pop.
Jake // Dec 8, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Melinda, if you’re in NYC, know the public library’s got two copies of Captain Black and several others.
Joseph // Dec 9, 2008 at 4:00 pm
JB Ulmer was so ahead of his time when he recorded this album. I first heard it around 1998 when I found it in a used record store. I had a good collection of his cd’s at the time, wondering why this one and “Black Rock” never made the digital transformation.
Jim // Dec 9, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Isn’t that first track “Hijack?”
Yulun Wang // Dec 9, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Indeed the first track is Hijack, not Freelancing. It features David Murray, Oliver Lake and Olu Dara.
ledrew // Dec 9, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Whuppa. “Hijack,” indeed. That’s otherwise a lot of horn coming from a guitar-only line-up…
Thanks much for the catch, and apologies for the sloppy upload/bonus track. Actual title track now live!
djll // Dec 18, 2008 at 10:53 pm
This album’s fine, but Are You Glad To Be In America? is the real shit. ‘Specially the original Rough Trade mix, very punky and guitar-forward. Olu Dara, David Murray, and Oliver Lake are on a few cuts as well.