Tales of Captain Black is an album by American guitarist James Blood Ulmer (credited simply as "James Blood" on the cover) featuring Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....

, Jamaaladeen Tacuma

Jamaaladeen Tacuma

-External links:*...

, and Denardo Coleman

Denardo Coleman

Denardo Ornette Coleman is an American jazz drummer. He is the son of Ornette Coleman and Jayne Cortez.Denardo Coleman began playing drums at age six; his first appearance on record was on his father's 1966 album The Empty Foxhole; Ornette later featured Denardo on many of his releases, and he...

 recorded in 1978 and originally released on the Artists House

Artists House

-Discography:...

 label.. The album was rereleased on CD on the Japanese DIW

DIW Records

DIW Records is a Japanese record label. It is a subsidiary label of Disc Union and specializes in jazz and avant garde music. Kazunori Sugiyama was an executive producer for the label before starting Tzadik Records with John Zorn.-Discography:...

 label in 1999.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 5 stars and states "Safe to say, there are no weak tracks on Tales From Captain Black, and even the redo of "Revealing" from Ulmer's previous album show an unbridled excitement and an extrapolation of that tune's rhythmic and harmonic elements into something more sinister, more driven, more angular, more mercurial. Captain Black marks the real beginning of Ulmer's career as a leader. It has been a bumpy, restless ride since that time with many creative and professional ups and downs, but it hardly matters. Records like this one make him the most visionary and brilliant electric guitarist in a generation".
Trouser Press

Trouser Press

Trouser Press was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow Who fan Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" ...

 wrote, "Ulmer's debut finds him heavily indebted to the saxophonist. Tales of Captain Black offers Ulmer's trademark knotted, choked phrasing as a rough-hewn foil to Coleman's pure, free melodocism, but he hasn't fully discovered his own voice yet."

Track listing

All compositions by James Blood Ulmer

1. "Theme From Captain Black" - 3:14
2. "Moons Shine" - 3:52
3. "Morning Bride" - 4:57
4. "Revelation March" - 4:32
5. "Woman Coming" - 3:38
6. "Nothing to Say" - 4:13
7. "Arena" - 4:24
8. "Revealing" - 4:42

Recorded at R.P.M. Sound Studios, Inc., New York City, December 5, 1978

Personnel

• James Blood Ulmer - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Ornette Coleman
  Ornette Coleman
  Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
  
   – alto saxophone
  Alto saxophone
  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
  
  
• Jamaaladeen Tacuma
  Jamaaladeen Tacuma
  -External links:*...
  
   - electric bass
  Electric Bass
  Electric bass can mean:*Electric upright bass, the electric version of a double bass*Electric bass guitar*Bass synthesizer*Big Mouth Billy Bass, a battery-powered singing fish...
  
  
• Denardo Coleman
  Denardo Coleman
  Denardo Ornette Coleman is an American jazz drummer. He is the son of Ornette Coleman and Jayne Cortez.Denardo Coleman began playing drums at age six; his first appearance on record was on his father's 1966 album The Empty Foxhole; Ornette later featured Denardo on many of his releases, and he...
  
   - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....