BLUES JUNCTION Productions
7343 El Camino Real
Suite 327
Atascadero, CA 93422-4697
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I’m thoroughly convinced that there are only two types of people roaming this planet. The first group is made up of folks who love the music of Magic Sam. The second are those, who for whatever reason, just haven’t heard it yet. His music is simply an irresistible cocktail made up of equal parts blues, rhythm and soul.
Samuel Gene Maghett was born in Greneda, Mississippi, on February 14, 1937. He moved to Chicago in the early 50’s and almost immediately began playing on that city’s west side. He was starting to get enough attention that he signed with Eli Tascano’s brand new Cobra Records and put out the 1957 single All Your Love. The tune was a local hit and the man now known as Magic Sam was off and running, but not for long.
He was drafted into the army, but returned to Chicago shortly thereafter where he continued to get booked at West Side clubs. His short stint in the Army was apparently too short and he was charged with desertion and jailed for six months. Magic Sam’s association with Uncle Sam ended with the former’s dishonorable discharge.
Sam picked up where he left off. However, the Cobra label folded in 1959. While others from Cobra’s stable of artists went to Chess Records to record, Sam went straight to Mel London’s Chief label. He cut some sides there using the same formula that garnered so much attention just a few years earlier. His staccato finger picking along with his tremolo heavy attack was still as fresh as it was exciting when he unleashed these new guitar sounds to audiences who hadn’t heard anybody quite like Magic Sam. However, up until this time Sam was more or less a regional phenomenon.
While Sam continued to be a popular night club performer, and even toured in Europe, the recording end of the blues business seemed to be missing the boat on Magic Sam and his potential. Then he finally caught a break. His association with Bob Koester and his Delmark Records label was, for Magic Sam and generations of blues fans, an absolutely glorious union.
Sam went into the studio and the result was West Side Soul. That 1967 release remains on virtually everybody’s top ten list of essential blues albums of all time. A year later Magic Sam returned to the studio to make another astonishing album. Two sessions that took place on October 23 and November 7, 1968, yielded the follow up to West Side Soul and a masterpiece in its own right, Black Magic. It was reported to be Sam’s favorite of the two seminal Delmark classics he recorded. This recording helped to cement his reputation as being one of the genres most influential, vibrant and exciting musicians. For the many that had just got hip to Magic Sam via West Side Soul, this record proved he was more than a flash in the pan and an artist experiencing true growth as a musician.
What one hears on this December, 1968, release is that wonderful ensemble sound that has such stellar interplay between talented musicians that it might put one in mind of the great small jazz combos of the era. To my ears, Black Magic sounds like great blues cats in transition as they begin to incorporate some of the textures of the very popular 60’s era soul sounds into their music. Despite the title of Sam’s Delmark debut, that record is more firmly attached to the blues traditions and an extension of the sounds Sam was making at Cobra a decade earlier. Of these two Delmark masterpieces, both billed as The Magic Sam Blues Band, Black Magic seems to have, as one might expect, a sense of confident maturity.
On Black Magic Sam shares the spotlight with tenor sax giant Eddie Shaw. Their musical empathy for one another is nothing short of breathtaking. These two buddies are joined by guitarist Mighty Joe Young, Mac Thompson on bass and drummer Odie Payne as well as pianist, Lafayette Leake.
These musicians and this recording in particular eviscerate any notion of Chicago blues as being the sound of primitive music. It has an uptown feel that owes much of that sound to the concept of swing. Much credit goes out to Bob Koester and Delmark Records who seemed to apply the same recording and career strategy with Junior Wells’ Hoodoo Man Blues and the follow up Southside Blues Jam. It was a case of the right musicians working on the right songs, in the right studio, at the right time.
Less than a year later, in August of 1969, Magic Sam was a star attraction at the very first Ann Arbor Blues Festival. On December 1st of that same year, and less than three months after his big splash in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Magic Sam collapsed in his home. He was taken to a local hospital by ambulance and pronounced dead on arrival of a heart attack. He was 32 years old.
Magic Sam ascended from a very crowded field of talent to reach the top of his field and was gone practically before he could enjoy that success. Like a shooting star, Magic Sam blazed a white hot trail across the night sky and just as one gasped at the brilliance that was Magic Sam, he was gone.
Black Magic was the last album he ever recorded.
Now in 2016, Delmark, as part of its wonderful re-issue program, Koester and company has made this masterpiece available again in a digi-pak deluxe edition. It includes not only the original ten songs from the 1968 LP but six alternate takes and two previously unissued tracks. All eighteen tracks are remastered from the original analog tapes. The package comes with a sixteen page booklet that includes never before seen photos at the recording session, as well as additional color photos from the Ann Arbor Blues Festival. It includes the original liner note from the LP and new notes by producer Bob Koester. Obviously this new release receives my highest recommendation.
In the endless tableau of the blues, Magic Sam is often overlooked, as he delivered his potent brand of blues with a seemingly effortless joy. His all too brief career left many wondering what could have been. That may be a discussion for another day, but I would rather focus on what he actually did achieve. In my view Black Magic is his crowning achievement. Like West Side Soul, Black Magic is a true desert island disc or paradise platter, whichever you prefer, and is an essential entry into any blues library.
- David Mac
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BLUES JUNCTION Productions
7343 El Camino Real
Suite 327
Atascadero, CA 93422-4697
info