No artist has paved a musical plateau to the stars quite like the critically extolled, playfully exalted South Carolinian jazz luminary James “Blood” Ulmer. With a signature look that recalls the sophistication of funk visionary George Clinton, the grainy soulfulness of B.B. King and a string-snapping sound orchestrating a rock synthesis critics have described as “the missing link between Jimi Hendrix and Wes Montgomery,” Blood has become a kind of pioneering jazz futurist. With the release of his pivotally acclaimed Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions (Hyena), Blood has fashioned heart-wrenching vocals and resonating poetics to accompany his real-life political and cultural statements about the devastated city of New Orleans. Garnering Grammy nods, his recent record Birthright—a record adored even by nit-picking, hairsplitting faultfinders—is sure to bedazzle jazz lovers. “Blood’s” intimate one-night only performance as part of the 2007-08 Hunt Real Estate Art of Jazz Series is to be heralded by “The Geography of the Blues,” a pre-concert conversation with Jim Santella at 7pm.

Saturday, February 9 at 8pm. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1285 Elmwood

Avenue. $22 general, $18 members.

For reservations call (716) 270-8223