Despre James Blood Ulmer, care va cânta la Cluj International Jazz Festival, v-am spus acilea, material care face parte din secţiunea mai amplă de pe blog, pe care am făcut-o special pentru acest Festival. Şi, dacă tot am zis că este o ispravă care merită prmovată corespunzător, am zis să îi trimit nişte întrebări maestrului, prin intermediul organizatorilor. Ceea ce am şi făcut, fireşte. Iar maestrul mi-a răspuns.

Eu unul am vrut să fac un interviu. Dar vedeţi şi voi mai jos ce a ieşit. Adică întrebările mele sunt de vreo 3 ori mai mari decât răspunsurile sale :)) Maximă a fost aia când l-am întrebat ce a „furat” de la Ornette Coleman (cu ghilimele de rigoare, desigur), iar el mi-a răspuns că nu este un hoţ… =))

Mno, artist, ce să mai. Căci, make no mistake, este un mare, mare artist. Care comunică pe scenă, cu chitara în mână, nu în interviuri pe mail cu un blogger din ţara lui Dracula sau ceva… :D

Organizator: Diesel Club

Unde: Casa de Cultură a Studenţilor, Cluj-Napoca

Perioada: 23-25 octombrie 2014

Bilete: Le puteţi cumpăra de la birourile Diesel Club (Piaţa Unirii 10) şi/sau de pe Eventim, cu menţiunea că vă recomand abonamentul pentru cele trei zile

Program
23.10.2014 | ora 19:00
Eli Degibri Quartet – Israel
24.10.2014 | ora 19:00
Chico Freeman Quartet – USA
25.10.2014 | ora 19:00
James Blood Ulmer with Pierre Dørge & New Jungle Orchestra – USA / Denmark

Je: Dear Sir, I have to begin by saying that I am counting the days until your concert in Cluj-Napoca. And I am not a teenager or anything, but your music has that special feeling that speaks to me in ways I can’t describe… :) What can you tell a person who feels like that? :)
James Ulmer Blood: What…?

You know that you will be playing in the heart of Transylvania, the realm of Dracula :)) What do you know about the Romanian audience? How do you think the Romanian public will receive you?
I hope I get a human response.

A very good friend of mine (a musician) told me once: playing music is about listening to you listening to others listening to your music. I am not sure what he meant by that :)) But, I guess, he was talking about the energy that the right audience gives you. How important is the audience in what your are doing?
The audience becomes like my instrument, it responds to whatever I am doing.

You have been exposed to gospel. A kind of music that we do not have in our orthodox religion, so it is hard fot us to understand it with a relegious component; for us it is just exceptional music and that’s it. Are you a religious person, by the book, sort of speak? Or rather a believer on your own terms?
I am a believer in God and I follow God´s law.

Is it true that there are no recordings of you playing with Ornette Coleman? Google does say so… Tell us something (you could write several books, I know…) about how Coleman was, what have you „stolen” from him, musically speaking.
That is not true. Ornette Coleman played on my first record “Tales of Captain Black”. I am not a thief.

I am amazed at the number of exceptional musicians you played with. It is very hard for me to choose from them… That is why my question goes like this: if you had to choose only five musicians for the Dream Team of your life, is it possible for you to do that?
No.

Please send an invitation, through my blog (FYI: his blog is http://cristianchinabirta.ro/), for my readers and tell them why should they come to see you play at Cluj International Jazz Festival?
It will be fun for me to see the audience watching me trying to find music on my instrument.