The musical "blends" of Sandy Bull constitute a prodigious synthesis of antithetical idioms and one of the most lasting conquests of the vanguard folk. Away from Nashville how much him can be been, Bull didn't have anything from to divide with the dawning movement country-rock, but his lesson of creative individualism was fundamental to open new horizons to the kind that will be called " american primitivism ".

Banjoist and guitarist Sandy Bull started as folksinger a` la Woody Guthrie at the end of the 1950s in Boston, where he was studying composition. When he returned to New York in 1961, he became one of the fixed attractions of the vanguard clubs of the Greenwich Village.

In clubs such as the Gaslight Cafe, where he played since 1961, he came in contact with the dawning free-jazz scene, that deeply influenced him.

A child prodigy of the guitar and the banjo, student of jazz and Indian music, in 1963 Bull cut his first record, Fantasias For Guitar & Banjo (Vanguard, 1963) with the lone accompaniment of Ornette Coleman's drummer Billy Higgins, indulging in the luxury of a suite of twenty-two minutes, Blend, for guitar tuned as a banjo and drums.

Blend, influenced by oud player Hamza El Din who shared a Hollywood flat with Bull in 1963, is a rhythmic synthesis of jazz improvisation, raga syncopations, Arabic chords and folk melodies, an infectious sound excursus that explores fabulous worlds filtered through the feeling of a folk story-teller, alternating slow and transcendent parts with furious jams. The atmosphere is often psychedelic, two years before the psychedelic movement was born. A few classical arrangements, for banjo or guitar only, stand out among the other tracks of the album.

Bull gave a sequel to this masterpiece with Blend II, a track recorded in 1964 that featured on the following album Inventions For Guitar And Banjo (Vanguard, 1965).

E Pluribus Unum (Vanguard, 1970), partly recorded in 1968, is Bull’s psychedelic album. Here he plays a guitar characterized by a metallic, sharp, rough sound, antithetic to Duan Eddy’s twang; the guitar’s electric signal was divided into four different amplifiers. The album features two long meditations: Electric Blend (a “blend” for a special electric guitar whose signal was amplified in four different ways), a suite propelled by space chords that keep progressing up and down, an intense and mellow prayer with a processional rhythm marked by Indian drums and a guitar that imitates the sitar’s nasal notes; and No Deposit No Return Blues, a vibrant jam for guitar, bass, drums, oud, hi-hat cymbal and cowbell, that goes on in a slow rhythmic crescendo made of touches, vibrations, counterpoints, echoes and percussive noises.

Demolition Derby (Vanguard, 1972) completes the trilogy of the golden years.

Re-Inventions (Vanguard, 1998) compiles material from the first three albums.

Drug addiction destroyed Bull’s career in 1972, forcing him into ten years of silence (in those years Ali Akbar Khan taught him how to play the sarod) before he was able to record other “blends” on Jukebox School Of Music (ROM, 1988): Truth (the reunion with Billy Higgins, after a quarter of a century) and Continuum For Guitar.

Bull went back in a recording studio for the album Vehicles (Timeless, 1992), a collection of instrumental tracks worthy of his past numbers, in the name of a raga-funk for ethnic orchestra, accompanied by Senegalese percussionist Aiyb Dieng.

Steel Tears (Timeless, 1996) is an album of “songs” interpreted by a few guests. The songs are partly dedicated to Bull’s cultural roots.

Still Valentine’s Day (Water, 2006) documents a live performance from 1969.

Bull died of lung cancer in April 2001.