Third Rail

The jazz-funk supergroup Third Rail has absolutely phenomenal bloodlines and impeccable credentials. The lineup is certainly a who’s who from the downtown NY art picture: guitarist Adam Blood Ulmer from the Music Revelation Outfit, Ornette Coleman’s group, and many single albums; drummer Joseph “Ziggy” Modeliste, previously from the mighty Meters, New Orleans’ definitive music group; vocalist, keyboardist, and composer Amina Claudine Myers from the avant-jazz collective Association for the Advancement of Innovative Musicians; the incredible keyboardist Bernie Worrell, of Speaking Minds and Parliament/Funkadelic star; and, obviously, Costs Laswell, the bassist/manufacturer who is needed by law to seem on every third record recorded in NEW YORK since 1981. Ulmer produced Third Rail with Laswell and Modeliste in 1993 as an avant-jazz edition from the Cream-style power trio. Worrell and Myers became a member of shortly thereafter as well as the group became regulars on the Knitting Stock and other NY night clubs. The group also toured within the P-Funk Revue for two years. Third Rail released its initial record, South Delta Space Age group, in 1995. A 1997 follow-up, with Jerome “Bigfoot” Brailey changing Modeliste on drums, was originally announced as SINCE IT Is certainly by Third Rail, however the record was ultimately released as Adam Bloodstream Ulmer’s Blue Bloodstream, using the same workers and compositions.