Black Rock is an album by American guitarist James Blood Ulmer recorded in 1982 and released on the Columbia

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 label. It was Ulmer's second of three albums recorded for a major label.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4½ stars and states "Black Rock is among Blood's strongest records. As tough as Are You Glad to Be in America?

Are You Glad to Be in America?

Are You Glad to Be in America? is an album by American guitarist James Blood Ulmer recorded in 1980 and originally released on the Rough Trade label in the UK in 1980 and the Artists House label in the US in 1981....

and the Music Revelation Ensemble's No Wave, yet more accessible than either. This is a fitting introduction to Blood Ulmer's unique, knotty, and truly original guitar and composition style. Black Rock is all funk, rock, jazz, and punk, indivisible and under a one world groove".
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" ...

described both Black Rock and the previous Free Lancing

Free Lancing

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

as "technical masterpieces, making up in precision what they lack in emotion (as compared to Are You Glad to Be in America?

Are You Glad to Be in America?

Are You Glad to Be in America? is an album by American guitarist James Blood Ulmer recorded in 1980 and originally released on the Rough Trade label in the UK in 1980 and the Artists House label in the US in 1981....

). 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)."

Track listing

All compositions by James Blood Ulmer except as indicated

1. "Open House" - 5:21
2. "Black Rock" - 3:23
3. "Moonbeam" - 5:11
4. "Family Affair" (Ulmer, Irene Datcher) - 7:26
5. "More Blood" - 4:43
6. "Love Has Two Faces" - 5:29
7. "Overnight" - 3:26
8. "Fun House" (Ulmer, Grant Calvin Weston) - 4:53
9. "We Bop" -2:58

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...
  
  , vocals
• Sam Sanders - tenor saxophone
  Tenor saxophone
  The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
  
   (tracks 3 & 7)
• Ronald Drayton - guitar (tracks 1-4, 6 & 7)
• Amin Ali - 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...
  
  , backing vocals
• Grant Calvin Weston - 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 ....
  
  , backing vocals
• Cornell Rochester - drums (tracks 1, 3, 5 & 6)
• Irene Datcher - vocals (tracks 4 & 6)