aus: Thesis on John Patton by Javier Gonzalez
Cabell’s memories are very clear about what his first session with Patton was, which he says was his first session ever. The session was Accent on the Blues, which occurred, assuming the discographies are correct, on August 15, 1969. „On the first date [which is always the way he refers to Accent on the Blues], I did half of the music. It was unheard of for a cat [who was not an established player] to just go into Blue Note and record his music. Usually when you went to Blue Note, they would have a star on the album, horn player or something. Frank Wolff and John just let me do something by myself. I was one of the first cats to do that, and John was gracious enough. He gave me a lot of opportunities to do my music.“ He added, „We needed a guitar player, so I recommended ‚Blood‘. So I called ‚Blood‘ and ‚Blood‘ came up and did the session and moved to New York. I got ‚Blood‘ to New York. I knew ‚Blood‘ from Detroit. He was working with a group out there, Focus Novii, with [drummer] Doug Hammond, [tenor saxophonist and Joe’s brother] Leon Henderson, bassist John Dana, and [trumpeter] Charles Moore. They were doing all original music because Doug is a great writer, ‚Blood’s a writer…in fact, everybody in the band wrote. That was ‚Blood’s group. „[189] „Blood,“ of course, is James „Blood“ Ulmer (born February 2, 1942 in St. Matthews, South Carolina), who was virtually unknown at the time. He had recorded once before with Columbus, Ohio-based organist Hank Marr in 1964 or 1965 (discographies do not agree on this, not even the King records discography) on Marr’s Sounds from the Marr-ket Place for King Records[190]. He had been uncredited on the record sleeve, though discographies (as well as my own ears) confirm his involvement, as do interviews with Ulmer from the late 1970’s. This was his first session in New York. Ulmer would later gain world-wide notoriety as a member of Ornette Coleman’s group and as a singularly unique guitar stylist. Ulmer’s inventiveness shines on Patton’s recordings as well, and Patton recognized it, giving Ulmer the longest solo on „Rakin‘ and Scrapin,'“ a Harold Mabern blues that opens Accent on the Blues. Cabell added,“‚Blood‘ wasn’t in the band as a player [at gigs], he just did recordings.“ Patton recalled doing some gigs with Ulmer at the time, as did Williams, “ ‚Blood‘ came in and did some gigs with us.“
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