James Blood Ulmer rotates into Third Thursdays at Harvard-Epworth Methodist Church on Thursday, 16 November 2023.

Dave Bryant Quartet “opens” in the closing slot at the monthly jazz series.

What is “Third Thursdays?”

A tough Google, for starters. Lots of bright minds around the world have fallen in love with the alliteration as a gimmick for promoting their event series.

The “Third Thursdays” we’re talking about is the harmolodic jazz series happening at the “acoustically perfect” Harvard-Epworth Methodist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The series is spearheaded by Dave Bryant, a keyboardist who studied for years with jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, and then played with him in the band Prime Time for a few years more.

The band name also appeared in an article penned by Coleman in 1983, “Prime Time For Harmolodics,” which purported to explain the musician’s free jazz method. If ‘method’ sounds too stuffy for you, let’s just call it a ‘philosophy’ with the understanding that Coleman was looking for ways to open up improvisational music beyond the principled vistas established by the European tradition.

How’s that project going? At Harvard-Epworth, swimmingly. Thanks in part to Dave Bryant, who has “many friends” to host at the monthly musical gatherings.

Thanks also to the generous support of the Appalachian Spring Foundation, a non-profit based in Wheeling, West Virginia, whose mission includes promoting the harmolodic concepts pioneered by Ornette Coleman. The funding has supported the monthly jazz series since Q2 of 2022, which is right around the time that public tax filings for the non-profit organization fall off the radar.

What’s a non-profit in Wheeling, West Virginia up to funding a local music series in Cambridge, Massachusetts? Is this one of those phony orgs that exists only to disburse inherited wealth into pet projects like the Thoreau Polymonophonic Journal Project? Cigar tycoon Augustus Pollack money maybe?

Shout out to Richard Test!

James Blood Ulmer

Do we put the “Blood” in quotes or not? On Thursday night the legendary guitarist introduced simply as “James Blood.”

Whatever you call him, he’s been charting his own path through the waters of jazz, rock, blues, soul, funk, you name it. Along the way he crossed paths with Ornette Coleman, whose avant garde adventurism – harmolodic or otherwise – made a profound impression.

The guitarist performed a solo set of plugged-in blues. A blues run through with a lifetime of experience. You wouldn’t have heard much harmolodic about the technique unless you made yourself listen for it. And even then you still might not have heard it. Classic solo blues riffery, with a touch more emphasis on rhythm over melody. Quasi-drone moments. He’s no electric licks man.

The headliner opened to a full and appreciative house, which took the set in with rapt attention.

Dave Bryant Quartet

Resident musician Dave Bryant, along with his quartet of Neil Leonard (saxophone), Fred Williams (bass), and James Kamal Jones (drums), closed out the evening with a theoretically-grounded goodnight kiss.

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