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Adam Gussow | |
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| Background information | |
| Genres | Blues |
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| Years active | 1986–present |
| Formerly of | Satan and Adam |
| Website | www |
Adam Gussow is an American blues harmonica player and author, best known as a member of Satan and Adam.
Gussow was raised in suburban Congers, New York, and educated at Princeton University and Columbia University. He credits his music career to the mentorship of two older African-American performers: Nat Riddles, a New York harmonica player who had worked with Odetta and Larry Johnson; and guitarist Sterling Magee.
From 1986 to 1998, Gussow played harmonica in the New York-based duo Satan and Adam, alongside Sterling Magee. They released five alums: Harlem Blues (1991), Mother Mojo (1993), Living on the River (1996), Word on the Street (2008), and Back in the Game (2011). [1] [2] A brief extract of Magee and Gussow performing on 125th Street was included in U2's Rattle and Hum documentary. In 1996, Living Blues called Gussow "the first white blues musician to be so prominently spotlighted in the magazine's 26-year history." (David Nelson (September 10, 1996), Living Blues, #129)[ full citation needed ]
In August 2010, Gussow released his first solo album, Kick and Stomp, which features him as a one-man band, playing harmonica and percussion. [3] From 2010 to 2012 Gussow co-organized and produced Hill Country Harmonica, a teaching-intensive event at Foxfire Ranch in Waterford, Mississippi, with an evening concert component. [4]
Gussow is the author of an autobiography, Mister Satan's Apprentice, as well as Seems Like Murder Here: Southern Violence and the Blues Tradition (2002); Journeyman's Road: Modern Blues Lives from Faulkner's Mississippi to Post-9/11 New York (2007); Busker's Holiday (2015), a novel about the summer busking season in Europe; and Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition (2017), which won the Living Blues readers' poll as the "Best Blues Book of 2017". [5]
Gussow's YouTube channel features more than 500 videos and tutorials teaching on playing blues harmonica.
A feature-length documentary about Gussow's decades-long partnership with Magee, entitled Satan & Adam, directed by V. Scott Balcerek premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2018. [6]
Gussow's currently plays with Sir Rod & the Blues Doctors, a trio featuring Magee's nephew, Roderick "Sir Rod" Patterson on vocals, Gussow on harmonica and percussion, and Alan Gross on guitar. [7]
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes, usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.
Beauregard is a village in Copiah County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 326 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area. Beauregard is named for P. G. T. Beauregard.
Oxford is the 14th most populous city in Mississippi, and the county seat of Lafayette County, 75 miles (121 km) southeast of Memphis. A college town, the University of Mississippi or "Ole Miss" is adjacent to the city. Founded in 1837, it is named for Oxford, England.
The Memphis blues is a style of blues music created from the 1910s to the 1930s by musicians in the Memphis area, such as Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie. The style was popular in vaudeville and medicine shows and was associated with Beale Street, the main entertainment area in Memphis.
Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the style. Vocal styles in Delta blues range from introspective and soulful to passionate and fiery.
A journeyman is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that field as a fully qualified employee. They earn their license by education, supervised experience and examination. Although journeymen have completed a trade certificate and are allowed to work as employees, they may not yet work as self-employed master craftsmen.
Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is practiced all over the world and dates back to antiquity. People engaging in this practice are called street performers or buskers. Outside of New York, buskers is not a term generally used in American English.
A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical or electronic contraptions. One-man bands also often sing while they perform.
Jason Ricci is an American harmonica player and singer. In addition to his solo albums, Ricci has appeared as a guest harmonica player on albums with Johnny Winter, Terence Blanchard, Nick Curran, Ana Popovic, Walter Trout, Cedric Burnside, The Mannish Boys and Joe Louis Walker among others. Ricci was named "Best Harmonica Player" at the 2010 Blues Music Awards, and also performed on Grammy winning 2014 Johnny Winter album Step Back. In February 2015, Ricci played at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Paul Shaffer Band, Tom Morello and Zac Brown to induct The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Ricci also continues touring with his band Jason Ricci and the Bad Kind as well as with other bands such as: "Harmonicon", "JJ Appleton and Jason Ricci" and "Mark Hummel's Harmonica Blowout". In 2017, Jason Ricci and The Bad Kind signed a record deal with the Eller Soul label and released their new album Approved By Snakes released on June 16, 2017.
Othar "Otha" Turner was one of the last well-known fife players in the vanishing American fife and drum blues tradition. His music was also part of the African-American genre known as Hill country blues.
"Cross Road Blues" is a song written by the American blues artist Robert Johnson. He performed it as a solo piece with his vocal and acoustic slide guitar in the Delta blues-style. The song has become part of the Robert Johnson mythology as referring to the place where he supposedly sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for his musical talent. This is based largely on folklore of the American South that identifies a crossroads as the site where such pacts are made, although the lyrics do not contain any references to Satan or a Faustian bargain.
Satan and Adam was an American blues duo consisting of Sterling Magee, known by his stage name "Mister Satan", and Adam Gussow, who were a fixture on Harlem's sidewalks in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
William Reynolds Ferris Jr. is an American author and scholar and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. With Judy Peiser he co-founded the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, Tennessee; he was the founding director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, and is co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.
Nathan Riddles was an American blues harmonica player based in New York City.
Mikael Santana is an American blues harmonica player and singer-songwriter, who blends the Chicago blues style with jump blues and West Coast swing. He lives in Memphis, Tennessee.
"Trouble in Mind" is a vaudeville blues-style song written by jazz pianist Richard M. Jones. Singer Thelma La Vizzo with Jones on piano first recorded it in 1924 and in 1926, Bertha "Chippie" Hill popularized the tune with her recording with Jones and trumpeter Louis Armstrong. The song became an early blues standard, with numerous renditions by a variety of musicians in a variety of styles.
Dennis Gruenling is an American electric blues harmonicist, songwriter, record producer and radio DJ. He has released seven albums since 1999, with his most recent being 2016's Ready or Not. His contributions to other musician's albums has included stints playing the harmonica, audio engineering and mixing, production and album sleeve artwork. Gruenling has also been employed for over a decade as a DJ on WFDU college radio. His dynamic harmonica playing style has been inspired variously by Little Walter, Lester Young and Illinois Jacquet.
Down Home is an album by the American blues musician Z. Z. Hill, released in 1982. "Down Home Blues", the album's first track, was a crossover hit, and is regarded as a blues standard. The song is said to be the best selling blues single of the 20th century.
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