Magic Sam Blues Band: "Black Magic" Vinyl LP (DELMARK DS 620) 1969 Junior Wells
$
31
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Description
You are bidding on a Vinyl release of Magic Sam (and his Blues Band) featuring his 1969 LP, “Black Magic.” This album appears to be a 1971 Re-Issue, on the Delmark Label (DS-620), one of Chicago’s great blues labels. This is a Stereo Recording. We purchased this item in the 1970’s, played it (and enjoyed it!), and it has been sitting in our home (vertically) for the last few decades.
The LP is in excellent condition; it looks great. The LP cover is in VG+ condition but there is a mark on the upper right corner of the front cover where a label was apparently removed. (See Photos). There are signs of wear on the corners, and the rear cover has the circular outline of the record on the rear cover. (See Photos!). Please remember that this album was well taken care of, but it was played as part of our record collection decades ago.
This item has been stored at room temperature, in a smoke free home. Please see photos of actual item being sold.
Magic Sam: Black Magic Delmark 1969)
“This album's color cover photo is an action shot, showing Magic Sam in the process of choking and bending his strings, a good hike up the fretboard. In the meantime, the record goes on and the first soloist out of the gate is Eddie Shaw, playing tenor sax. He is blowing over the top of an R&B riff that, although not out of the syntax of Chicago blues, would also have been quite fitting on a Wilson Pickett record. It is unfortunate that Magic Sam's recording career came to such an abrupt end, as he was one of the best artists working in the musical area between the urban blues tradition and newly developing soul music forms. This fusion was on the minds of many blues artists during the late '60s, and not just because it was aesthetically conceivable. It was also a matter of commerce, as audiences -- particularly black audiences -- didn't want to hear any blues that sounded too much like something their parents might have listened to.
The harmonica player Junior Wells. What listeners have here is frankly delicious, the results of the surplus of talent Magic Sam possessed, a triple threat as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Yet with all this talent, the label should also get some credit. This period of the Delmark discography set a high standard for blues recordings, the sound quality and tight interplay among the musicians every bit the equal of the classic jazz recordings on labels such as Blue Note and Prestige. There is nothing fancy about the production, and no gimmicks. It is just a great band, allowed to play the music exactly the way it wanted to. The musicians have obviously worked together a great deal and either had these arrangements down cold from live gigs or had plenty of time to get things tight. This doesn't mean that the music doesn't breathe, as there are plenty of little touches such as drum fills and turnarounds that show the presence of musicians thinking on their feet. Check out a track such as "You Belong to Me," where the guitarist cuts loose with a restrained solo that sometimes dances ahead of the beat like a country fiddler while the band pumps away on a superb riff. The players here, including the fine guitarist Mighty Joe Young, pianist Lafayette Leake, and a muscular rhythm section, are the best of the best. No information is provided on the songwriting, so the assumption is that these tunes are all originals by Magic Sam. None are too obviously adopted from standards, but the opening "I Just Want a Little Bit" was much copied by other blues artists. "I Have the Same Old Blues" has a medium, loping blues tempo that swings so perfectly it should be used as an instruction course for lame blues bar bands”.
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