Back In Time

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Regular: £12.99

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Cat No: PI18

Release Date: 01 November 2005

Label: PI Recordings

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 808713001822

Genres: Jazz Contemporary

Description
Pi Recordings is pleased to present 'Back In Time', from Odyssey, the band featuring James "Blood" Ulmer (guitar), Charles Burnham (violin) and Warren Benbow (drums). 'Back In Time' marks the band's first return to the recording studio since 1983 when it was formed to record Ulmer's landmark album 'Odyssey' on Columbia. That album, which many consider to be one of the finest jazz releases of the past quarter century, remains perhaps Blood's seminal work.

Odyssey plays diatonic Harmolodic music, based on Ornette Coleman's musical system in which harmony is free from the dictates of chord changes. Blood's signature use of unison tuning on his guitar and his unusual rhythmic sense makes him one of the few instrumentalists with his own instantly identifiable sound. Because there is no bass player in the band, Blood's guitar must occupy everything from the upper to the lower registers while at the same time acting as both a solo and rhythmic voice. But "Back In Time" is not just Ulmer's album - Charles Burnham is Blood's equal voice. His violin entwines Blood's guitar in an undulating embrace, like two dance partners that know each others every move. Burnham's liberal use of the wah-wah pedal helps create a sound all his own. Warren Benbow propels the band, relentlessly funky at times but always sympathetic. The collective result is a complex, yet accessible recording unlike anything else out there.

"You can hear field hollers in Ulmer's music. You can hear Africa. But you can also hear the shrieks of demons that live out beyond the free-jazz frontier. No one covers more historical and spiritual bandwidth than Ulmer, from raw backwoods blues to high-voltage thrash guitar to harmolodics learned directly from his one-time boss and landlord, Ornette Coleman." - Thomas Conrad, Jazz Times

"Electric guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer, a veteran of Ornette Coleman's landmark fusion outfit Prime Time, is one of jazz's great progressives. Recent releases have foregrounded his gruff singing rather than his guitar journeys. Back in Time revives his powerhouse guitar/violin/drums trio from 1983's Odyssey for some barbed, lyrical, mostly instrumental blues-funk jams that get far-out, but never lose the groove." - Will Hermes, Entertainment Weekly

"This is a fearless band with superb chemistry." - Paul Olsen, All About Jazz
Tracklisting