Magic Sam

By: Greg Johnson

Article Reprint from the September 2000 BluesNotes
Blues in History Index Related Links

August 1969 may bring to mind the grandeur of the Woodstock Arts and Music Festival in upstate New York whenever you ask somebody with basic music knowledge to name an event of that year. It's pretty hard to ignore an event of such magnitude which featured so many prolific artists of the day. But, in the Blues world, August 1969 also marked an extraordinary festival of its own, two weeks earlier in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival was a conglomeration of the greatest Blues musicians, past, present and future. The line-up was phenomenal: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Big Boy Crudup, Otis Rush, B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Freddy King, Lightnin' Hopkins, Charlie Musselwhite, James Cotton, Jimmy Dawkins, Clifton Chenier, Big Joe Williams, Roosevelt Sykes, Luther Allison and Big Mama Thornton. But, the one musician who stood tallest over the weekend may have been the least known, at least outside of Chicago.

Magic Sam was scheduled to take the stage at 3:00 p.m., Sunday afternoon. But, when his time came, he was nowhere to be found. Charlie Musselwhite, who was originally set to follow, took to the stage in his place. By the time Musselwhite finished, Sam had arrived, but with only his bassist Buffalo Bruce Barlow. Missing a drummer, he was fortunate to recruit Sam Lay to fill the void. As the three stepped to the stage, the crowd of 10,000 fans were leery of what to expect from this individual who should have been on an hour earlier. But, by the time he had finished the opening number, Freddy King's classic instrumental, "San-Ho-Zay", the word was out and the festival grounds were abuzz with the name of Magic Sam.

Like so many Blues performers before him who found their fame in Chicago, Magic Sam was originally from the Mississippi Delta. He was born Samuel Maghett near Grenada, Mississippi, on February 14, 1937 into a sharecropping household. Though no one in his family had a musical background, young Sam was fascinated by the sounds he heard played at local house parties and picnics. He made his own instruments, first the crude diddley-bows of baling wire nailed to the side of a house and then his own makeshift guitars from cigar boxes. By the time his family relocated to Chicago in 1950, Sam was already a proficient guitarist. It wasn't long before he began to play professionally, first with the gospel group The Morning View Special and then with the renowned Homesick James Band.

With encouragement and help from his uncle, harmonica player James "Shakey Jake" Harris, the teenaged Sam (working under the pseudonym Good Rocking Sam) put together his first band in 1955 which included neighbor Syl Johnson. By combining the styles of the country Bluesmen he heard in the Delta with the ferocity of Muddy Waters' urban beats and B.B. King's single-string guitar patterns, Sam helped to develop what was to become known as the West Side sound. Along with Otis Rush and Buddy Guy, the West Side became the locale of the next generation of great Chicago Bluesmen.

The West Side artists became highly popular attracting audiences to the city's clubs and eventually catching the attention of bassist and talent scout, Willie Dixon. Despite Dixon's recommendations, he could not convince his employers at Chess Records to take a chance on Sam, Rush or Guy. So he approached Eli Toscano, a small-time gambler and owner of the foundering label Cobra who agreed to work with the young Bluesmen.

In 1957, Sam entered the Cobra studio along with Dixon, pianist Little Brother Montgomery, drummer Billie Stepney and Syl Johnson's brother Mack Thompson on bass. Eli wanted to name Sam something more traditional than Good Rocking and suggested Sad Sam. Thompson suggested Magic Sam, as a play of words on the name Maghett, and the moniker stuck. The group set about recording Sam's first number titled "All Your Love", which worked around a riff lifted from Ray Charles' single "Lonely Avenue". The mixture of Sam's minimalist guitar patterns and his intense high-pitched vocals made the song a Blues classic and built a base that he would use for several more singles released by Cobra. Over the next two years, Magic Sam would find success with numbers like "21 Days In Jail", "Easy Baby" and "Call Me If You Need Me" (recorded with Shakey Jake).

Unfortunately, despite the local success that Cobra had attained with the West Side guitarists, it had not found much recognition outside of Chicago. By 1960, Cobra had closed its doors. Otis Rush and Buddy Guy soon found employment with Chess, but Magic Sam's life took a different path as he was drafted into the Army. His military career also took a turn for the worse, as Sam deserted shortly after a few weeks. He returned to Chicago and recorded a handful of sides for the Chief label, including a stellar version of Fats Domino's "Every Night About This Time". Unfortunately, these releases also saw little recognition outside of Chicago. Fate took another turn when the Army caught up with Sam, sentencing him to military prison for his desertion.

Sam received a dishonorable discharge from the Army in 1961. Again, he returned to Chicago and renewed his work with Willie Dixon. He recorded a cover of "Hi Heel Sneakers" for CBS and a few sides for Crash Records over the next couple years, but Sam wanted to release a full-length album, not just singles. He caught the attention of Bob Koester, the owner of Delmark Records, in 1967, who was riding high on the success of Junior Wells' masterful "Hoodoo Man Blues" LP. Koester signed him to a contract and Magic Sam was to receive his wish for an album in a big way.

Koester brought Sam to the studio that July and for a second time in October. Using his current working band of bassist Earnest Johnson, drummer Odie Payne Jr and Shakey Jake, Sam also brought along Otis Rush, and sideman Mighty Joe Young, as second guitarist. There was also a desire to include a pianist and the great Otis Spann had agreed to participate in the sessions. When Otis failed to appear, Koester asked a piano playing employee of his named Per Notini to sit in. Since Notini was originally from Sweden, he was given the nickname "Stockholm Slim". Unable to make all the sessions Johnson was replaced by Mack Thompson on three numbers and Odie Payne's own son filled in for his missing father. During the recordings, a problem arose where the sound just didn't come across right to Koester and Sam. The problem appeared to be that Shakey Jake's harmonica did not fit and his tracks were removed from the final mix.

The album, "West Side Soul", featured Magic Sam at his greatest potential, covering songs ranging from J.B. Lenoir's "Mama, Mama Talk To Your Daughter" to a magnificent version of the Robert Johnson classic "Sweet Home Chicago'' (which also was intended to be the original title for the LP). It would also feature Sam's skills at songwriting with masterful numbers like "I Need You So Bad" and the instrumental "Lookin' Good" which clearly defined the whole West Side sound.

Magic Sam returned to the studio a year later, this time joined by sax player Eddie Shaw from the Howlin' Wolf Band. The follow-up LP, "Black Magic", was another stellar recording for Delmark, including such songs as "You Belong To Me" and a fiery cover of Freddy King's "San-Ho-Zay".

Both releases garnered critical acclaim and Magic Sam began to find himself playing in Rock venues such as the Fillmore in San Francisco, that had proved successful for fellow Bluesmen like B.B. King, Albert King and Freddy King. It also earned his spot at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival. His appearance at that event took the audience by storm and it appeared that Magic Sam was on the verge of breaking into potential worldwide crossover success. But the Ann Arbor show would prove to be his coda.

On December 1, 1969, Magic Sam Maghett suffered a heart attack and died. He was only 32.

Over the ensuing years, there have been numerous releases of Magic Sam's material, collecting live performances and his earlier singles for Cobra and the lesser labels. Of these, the most notable is the "Magic Sam Live" recording, which contained an early gig performed at the Alex Club, a West Side venue, along with the swan song performance at the Ann Arbor festival in 1969.

Magic Sam was inducted into The Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1982. Both "West Side Soul" and "Black Magic" also achieved this honor as they entered into the Hall as "Classics of Blues Recordings". Prematurely taken from this world, Magic Sam may have had the talent to become the greatest exponent of West Side Blues, perhaps even eclipsing both Otis Rush and Buddy Guy. We will never know, yet more than 30 years following his death, the music of Magic Sam still remains vital and alive to this day.

Magic Sam

Related Links: