James Blood Ulmer, US guitar legend, dead

Agencies NEW YORK

James Blood Ulmer, the US guitarist celebrated for his avant garde splicing of jazz, blues and funk, has died aged 86.

A statement on social media said he died on 3 June. “His music was fearless, and so was his spirit,” his family added.

Born Willie James Ulmer in South Carolina in 1940, Ulmer’s music career started in funk bands, shuttling from Pittsburgh to Columbus to Detroit — and backing musicians such as Jewel Bryner and Hank Marr — before settling in New York in the early 1970s. “I ain’t never thought nobody could make no money playing free music,” he later said. “So I always played structured blues, rhythm playing, dance music, or something like that. And I abandoned it! When I came to New York, it was like … I just went totally another way.”

As well as playing there with Art Blakey, Joe Henderson and Rashied Ali, Ulmer was mentored by Ornette Coleman, who schooled him in his harmolodic theory: avoiding regular keys and harmonics in favour of a freer approach to sound. That spirit informed Ulmer’s entire career, characterised as it was by instinctive, unbounded playing even as he began to embrace songwriting.