''Free Lancing'' is an album by American guitarist

James Blood Ulmer James "Blood" Ulmer (born February 8, 1940) is an American jazz, free funk and blues guitarist and singer. Ulmer plays a Gibson Byrdland guitar. His guitar sound has been described as "jagged" and "stinging". His singing has been called "ragg ...

recorded in 1981 and released on the Columbia label.James Blood Ulmer discography
accessed January 12, 2018 It was Ulmer's first of three albums recorded for a major label.

Reception

The

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

review by Brian Olewnick awarded the album 4 stars, and states, "it's Ulmer's stinging guitar lines — rough-hewn, corrosive, and scrabbling — throughout this recording that make it one of his finest".Olewnick, B.

Allmusic Review AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

accessed July 9, 2010 ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' described both ''Free Lancing'' and the subsequent '' Black Rock'' as "technical masterpieces, making up in precision what they lack in emotion (as compared to ''

Are You Glad to Be in America? ''Are You Glad to Be in America?'' is an album by American guitarist James Blood Ulmer, recorded in 1980 and released on the Rough Trade label in the UK. It was mixed by Ulmer, Geoff Travis, Roger Trilling, and Mayo Thompson. A remixed version, cr ...

''). Working to expand his audience, Ulmer concentrates more on electric guitar flash, and actual melodies can be discerned from the improvised song structures (improvisation being one of the keys to harmolodics)."

Track listing

All compositions by James Blood Ulmer # "Timeless" - 4:22 # "Pleasure Control" - 5:00 # "Night Lover" - 5:22 # "Where Did All the Girls Come From?" - 4:38 # "High Time" - 4:00 # "Hijack" - # "Free Lancing" - 4:42 # "Stand Up to Yourself" - 4:37 # "Rush Hour" - 5:32 # "Happy Time" - 5:11

Personnel

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

;

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

(tracks 2, 4 & 8) * Amin Ali -

electric bass The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

* G. Calvin Weston - drums * Ronnie Drayton - second guitar (2, 4 & 8) *

Diane Wilson Diane Wilson is an American environmental activist, an anti-war activist, and an author. In 1989, she was a shrimp boat captain in Calhoun County, Texas, and she saw an Associated Press article saying that the county had the most toxic waste dispo ...

Irene Datcher Irene is a name derived from εἰρήνη (eirēnē), the Greek for "peace". Irene, and related names, may refer to: * Irene (given name) Places * Irene, Gauteng, South Africa * Irene, South Dakota, United States * Irene, Texas, United States ...

, Zenobia Konkerite -

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

(2, 4 & 8) * David Murray -

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

(5, 6 & 9) *

Oliver Lake Oliver Lake (born September 14, 1942) is an American jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer, poet, and visual artist. He is known mainly for alto saxophone, but he also performs on soprano and flute. During the 1960s, Lake worked with the Black ...

– alto saxophone (5, 6 & 9) *

Olu Dara Olu Dara Jones (born Charles Jones III, January 12, 1941) is an American cornetist, guitarist, and singer. He is the father of rapper Nas. Early life Olu Dara was born Charles Jones III on January 12, 1941 in Natchez, Mississippi. His mother, E ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

(5, 6 & 9)

References

{{Authority control Columbia Records albums James Blood Ulmer albums 1981 albums