Free Lancing Explained

Free Lancing
Type:Album
Artist:James Blood Ulmer
Cover:Free Lancing.jpg
Released:1981
Recorded:1981
Genre:Jazz
Length:47:31
Label:Columbia
Producer:Jim Fishel, Roger Trilling, James "Blood" Ulmer
Chronology:James Blood Ulmer
Prev Title:No Wave
Prev Year:1980
Next Title:Black Rock
Next Year:1982

Free Lancing is an album by American guitarist James Blood Ulmer, recorded in 1981 and released on the Columbia label.[1] It was Ulmer's first of three albums recorded for a major label.

Reception

The AllMusic review by Brian Olewnick stated that "it's Ulmer's stinging guitar lines — rough-hewn, corrosive, and scrabbling — throughout this recording that make it one of his finest".[2]

Trouser Press 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?). 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)."[3]

Track listing

All compositions by James Blood Ulmer

  1. "Timeless" – 4:22
  2. "Pleasure Control" – 5:00
  3. "Night Lover" – 5:22
  4. "Where Did All the Girls Come From?" – 4:38
  5. "High Time" – 4:00
  6. "Hijack" –
  7. "Free Lancing" – 4:42
  8. "Stand Up to Yourself" – 4:37
  9. "Rush Hour" – 5:32
  10. "Happy Time" – 5:11

Personnel

Notes and References

  1. http://www.geocities.ws/rstubenrauch/Ulmer/Disko-ulmer.htm#15 James Blood Ulmer discography
  2. Olewnick, B. [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r149262|pure_url=yes}} AllMusic Review] accessed July 9, 2010
  3. Web site: James Blood Ulmer . Peter . Margasak . Peter Margasak . Graham Flashner . 2007 . . Trouser Press LLC . July 28, 2010.