REMEMBERING MY BROTHER, Part I
My big brother Adam Goldstone passed away on Tuesday, August 29 2006.
Aside from being a beloved brother, son and friend Adam was one of the most musically knowledgeable people i ever met in my life -- and i was lucky to share a household with him for so many years.
Adam passed me mix tapes of Bob Marley, the Upsetters, UTFO, Roxanne Shante and James Brown when i was 10 years old. I had no idea at that time, but my informal education had begun. His particular style of pedagogy was not exactly dialogic in nature; he usually handed me a tape and, with an incredulous glare, asked "What? You haven't HEARD of this??" before walking away shaking his head. I would stand there, trying to read his handwriting on the tape, trying to act indifferent. Then, as soon as he was gone, i would run to my room and put the tape in my Sanyo boombox, close my eyes, and listen.
After my brother left home and moved to New York in the late 1980s he continued my education with bootleg cassette recordings of DJ Red Alert on KISS FM, ever-so-casual phone references to vinyl-only B-side bangers (once he told me to "hang up the phone right now and go find" the 12" single of "A Chorus Line" by Ultramagnetic MCs), and the rare present in the mail -- usually a 12" single on some ancient NYC dance label, with a post it note that said something like "You MUST have this record." Adam's obsession about music proved to be contagious, and i don't know if that's a testament to the quality of the music he so staunchly advocated, or my desire to be as cool as my older brother. I imagine its both.
When i went to visit Adam in NYC for the last time in 1990, he took me clubbing all over the city. There was one place he insisted that i come to; he used words like "legendary" and "mindblowing" in typical Adam hyperbole and i rolled my eyes as he led me into a huge room with hardwood floors and a massive sound system at the other end of the room...a DJ was playing records on bizarre-looking turntables, large and clunky and sitting much farther apart then i had seen in a DJ setup before. "That's Larry Levan...he's God" Adam whispered in my ear, before disappearing for 10 hours to dance. When he came back to get me, i was still standing by the DJ booth, watching with my mouth open as Levan played records i had never heard, sounded nothing like anything i had ever heard before, and did not mix any of the songs together as DJs typically do -- and to this day, it remains far and away the best DJ set i have ever heard. Later that trip, Adam took me to see the Jungle Brothers perform live, to the Red Zone, Payday, Shelter to see Ultra Nate live, and Choice. It took me years to realize how special a privilege my brother afforded me by taking me those places...
Though me and my brother grew distant over the past years, each corner in my musical career brings me back to him. Random international connections reference him, magazines announce hopes of a new album (if you haven't heard his 2001 studio LP on Nuphonic, "Lower East Side Stories," try to track it down), SF and LA nightclubs email announcements of him coming to spin, and incredulous NYC friends scream "WHAT??? ADAM GOLDSTONE IS YOUR BROTHER???!?!?"
Yup, Adam Goldstone is my brother. He is an ancestor now, and his incredible passion for music and its ability to both facilitate and explicate complex human interactions remains very much alive through me and all of the people he touched.
I love you lots and i miss you already Adam...
Love,
Your little brother
PS my brother was a funny muthafukka too...
Aside from being a beloved brother, son and friend Adam was one of the most musically knowledgeable people i ever met in my life -- and i was lucky to share a household with him for so many years.
Adam passed me mix tapes of Bob Marley, the Upsetters, UTFO, Roxanne Shante and James Brown when i was 10 years old. I had no idea at that time, but my informal education had begun. His particular style of pedagogy was not exactly dialogic in nature; he usually handed me a tape and, with an incredulous glare, asked "What? You haven't HEARD of this??" before walking away shaking his head. I would stand there, trying to read his handwriting on the tape, trying to act indifferent. Then, as soon as he was gone, i would run to my room and put the tape in my Sanyo boombox, close my eyes, and listen.
After my brother left home and moved to New York in the late 1980s he continued my education with bootleg cassette recordings of DJ Red Alert on KISS FM, ever-so-casual phone references to vinyl-only B-side bangers (once he told me to "hang up the phone right now and go find" the 12" single of "A Chorus Line" by Ultramagnetic MCs), and the rare present in the mail -- usually a 12" single on some ancient NYC dance label, with a post it note that said something like "You MUST have this record." Adam's obsession about music proved to be contagious, and i don't know if that's a testament to the quality of the music he so staunchly advocated, or my desire to be as cool as my older brother. I imagine its both.
When i went to visit Adam in NYC for the last time in 1990, he took me clubbing all over the city. There was one place he insisted that i come to; he used words like "legendary" and "mindblowing" in typical Adam hyperbole and i rolled my eyes as he led me into a huge room with hardwood floors and a massive sound system at the other end of the room...a DJ was playing records on bizarre-looking turntables, large and clunky and sitting much farther apart then i had seen in a DJ setup before. "That's Larry Levan...he's God" Adam whispered in my ear, before disappearing for 10 hours to dance. When he came back to get me, i was still standing by the DJ booth, watching with my mouth open as Levan played records i had never heard, sounded nothing like anything i had ever heard before, and did not mix any of the songs together as DJs typically do -- and to this day, it remains far and away the best DJ set i have ever heard. Later that trip, Adam took me to see the Jungle Brothers perform live, to the Red Zone, Payday, Shelter to see Ultra Nate live, and Choice. It took me years to realize how special a privilege my brother afforded me by taking me those places...
Though me and my brother grew distant over the past years, each corner in my musical career brings me back to him. Random international connections reference him, magazines announce hopes of a new album (if you haven't heard his 2001 studio LP on Nuphonic, "Lower East Side Stories," try to track it down), SF and LA nightclubs email announcements of him coming to spin, and incredulous NYC friends scream "WHAT??? ADAM GOLDSTONE IS YOUR BROTHER???!?!?"
Yup, Adam Goldstone is my brother. He is an ancestor now, and his incredible passion for music and its ability to both facilitate and explicate complex human interactions remains very much alive through me and all of the people he touched.
I love you lots and i miss you already Adam...
Love,
Your little brother
PS my brother was a funny muthafukka too...
posted by dj sake 1 at 9:06 AM
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