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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Adam, how'd you meet Sterling Magee?
Adam, how'd you meet Sterling Magee?
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oda
11 posts
Jan 31, 2009
12:51 PM
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I'm a fan of your videos, Adam. I can't quite recall if you've ever mentioned it, but I don't think so...
How'd you meet Magee? and I am also curious, how were you accepted in the blues circle? I mean, were there not a lot of people seeking Nat riddles' expertise? and How did Magee come to accept you?
I hope none of that sounded rude or anything, it certainly wasn't my intention. I'm just curious. Especially of how you were accepted, because it's a good lesson y'know? Acceptance comes from personality and skill not looks or anything physical or tangible.
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gene
122 posts
Jan 31, 2009
6:26 PM
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He went to the crossroads. ;)
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isaacullah
27 posts
Jan 31, 2009
6:52 PM
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Buy (or check out from the library) Adam's book "Mr. Satan's Apprentice". It'll tell you that and much much much more about Mr. Gussow and Mr. Magee.
The short answer is that, by coincidence he headed into Harlem for breakfast, and happened by Mr. Satan playing on 125th street. Of course you need more context to understand why Adam stopped. Why he got out. Why he asked if he could sit in. Why it all worked out the way it did. That's why Adam wrote the book.
Even if you aren't interested in blues, in Satan and Adam, in harmonica: the book's a fantastic read in it's own right. Adam tells all, and holds no punches. He writes in a soul-baring style that few authors can successfully pull off (Dave Eggers' "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" is one other example I can think of off the top of my head). That style can't work if the author isn't willing to put absolutly everything down on paper. I couldn't imaging being so totally honest about thoughts and feelings in a book I knew was going to be put out there for anyone to read, and Adam must be commended on being able to do so. Trust me, once you pick it up, you'll not be able to stop reading. And to make it even more cool, think about this: WE are now part of the story. If Adam writes another memoir late in life, we are now part of that story... It's pretty cool...
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The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
Last Edited by on Feb 01, 2009 4:08 PM
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kudzurunner
266 posts
Feb 01, 2009
4:53 AM
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Thanks, Isaac. Yes, Mister Satan's Apprentice tells the whole story, and you've got the outlines right.
And no, Oda, you're not being rude at all to ask. I've told the story many times, but perhaps I haven't told it in the YouTube videos. One recent comment on my latest video, since deleted, suggested that I'd been milking my connection with the "half crazy old black man" for the last 20 years. The truth is, we were BOTH half crazy guys at the time--most street musicians have at least a couple of screws slightly loose--but he was also a genius, a true original, an explosively vital musical presence with whom I meshed extremely well. He was, from my perspective, a dream gig. But the journey he took me on had many, many ups and downs, and I wanted to make readers understand that the blues life poses a series of challenges that can't be anticipated in advance, and can't be sidestepped. Sterling was also, in his own way, very dependable, and, in ethical terms, an aristocrat--he had a solid moral code, he treated me with respect, and he demanded that I do the same. Our whole evolving partnership was played out on the racially tense stage that was NYC (and Harlem) in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when young black men were being murdered by whites in Howard Beach and Bensonhurst, and when Spike Lee's DO THE RIGHT THING was making waves (summer of 1989).
As for whether I've been milking or exploiting my connection with him: well, I'm a fan of the American-born Tibetan Buddhist, Pema Chodron. She gives marvelous lectures on Tibetan Buddhist practice. And she often draws on the wisdom of her teacher, Master Trungpa Chogyam Rinpoche (I hope I've spelled that correctly). In spiritual traditions, people believe it signifies respect to acknowledge their great teachers. I do this. Sterling, who was an infinitely better and more experienced player than I was when I first wandered along and asked to sit in with him, gave me the great gift of allowing me to pull myself up to his level--or at least a level where I was worthy of sharing a stage with him. He forced me to be original. And I still play with him, although I've got other gigs (most notably with Charlie Hilbert) and I'm proud of them, too. So in pure showbiz terms--and surely we all understand those!--it makes sense for me to identify myself as "Adam Gussow of Satan and Adam." Hell, two years ago, before I came on YouTube, we were all but forgotten. My longterm goal is to see him acknowledged by the Blues Foundation as the greatest one-man blues band in history. I can't achieve that unless people know who he is, and just how good he actually was. Anybody who saw our live shows way back when knows I'm right about this. Anyway, that's my longterm plan: get him the respect and acknowledgment he deserves.
Finally, as the cover story in Living Blues in 1996 testified, Satan and Adam is merely one example--a representative example--of an important dynamic in the contemporary blues scene: older black legends who choose to work with, and bring along, younger white apprentices, transforming them slowly into journeymen and perhaps, eventually, into masters of a different sort.
I'm afraid that the poster known as Elvisload missed all these subtleties. I forgive him.
MISTER SATAN'S APPRENTICE is being republished this fall, 2009, by the University of Minnesota Press; I've just written a foreword to the new edition.
And yes, you guys are now part of the story. At least if you come to the gigs this summer...... :)
Last Edited by on Feb 01, 2009 5:14 AM
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