鈥楽atan & Adam鈥� is an upbeat take on two blues outliers
V. Scott Balcerek's documentary is an effervescent聽tale of the partnership of聽Sterling Magee聽and Adam Gussow and how they聽became a small sensation.
V. Scott Balcerek's documentary is an effervescent聽tale of the partnership of聽Sterling Magee聽and Adam Gussow and how they聽became a small sensation.
In Harlem in the mid-1980s, an extraordinary street musician named Sterling Magee, who called himself Mr. Satan and billed himself as a 鈥渙ne man blues band,鈥� developed quite a local following.聽
Around the same time Adam Gussow, a disaffected, white Columbia grad student, discovered Magee by happenstance and, being an adept blues harmonica player, asked to join in. Despite some initial street skepticism about the racial pairing, the two men became, for a time, a minor sensation, eventually opening for Buddy Guy in Central Park and touring Europe with Bo Diddley before circumstances took their toll.
The documentary 鈥淪atan & Adam,鈥� directed by V. Scott Balcerek, recounts the odyssey of these two outliers, and what it lacks in coherence is remedied by its verve. Ultimately it鈥檚 an upbeat movie about life鈥檚 downbeats.聽Grade: B (Not rated.)