(Originally posted 6/16/24 11:59 AM EST)
It was the fall of 1979 when singer/songwriter Marc Gerson first met Howard Nemaizer aka Howard Nema at Adrian Block Intermediate School 25 in Flushing, Queens on the first day of school. Both were starting 7th grade. Marc was from Whitestone. Howard lived a short bike ride away in Bay Terrace.
The two shared the same homeroom class and a passionate love for music. They became fast friends, quickly discovering that they were fans of the same bands, such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Genesis and Led Zeppelin. Marc loved to sing and Howard had just started drum lessons in the summer of 1979, inspired by John Bonham of Led Zeppelin. Over the next several months the two forged a friendship and songwriting team that has lasted 45 years.
That winter and spring of 1979-80 Marc and Howard spent a lot of time after school hanging out listening to music at Marc’s parent’s house in Whitestone. This was when Howard discovered Randy Rhoads and where Marc first turned Howard onto Queen and Crosby Stills and Nash. Marc’s older brother David soon expanded Howard’s musical interests when he turned him onto Pink Floyd.
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Howard offered his own influences, turning Marc onto Black Sabbath, Rush and Jeff Beck. Nema, an admitted “progressive rock junky” credits friend, Robbie Walters with “changing his life” when he turned Howard on to Yes.
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It wasn’t long before Marc and Howard began writing songs together. They wrote their first song, Midnight Run, that summer. Marc wrote the melody and Howard created the beat. Their musical influences are clearly present in their songwriting, but the music Gerson and Nema create crafts an original alchemy in both style and sound.
That fall, Bruce Martone, a Francis Lewis High School sophomore who played guitar began taking the bus From Flushing to Bayside to jam at Howard’s apartment in Bay Terrace. Martone had a nicer guitar at home in Flushing, so he left a starter acoustic guitar at Howard’s to use when they jammed.
Suddenly, in the early spring of 1980, with little warning Martone’s family moved to Florida– without retreiving Bruce’s guitar.
The guitar sat in the corner in Howard’s bedroom for months. More and more, it seemed the instrument called out to him. Still a drummer, every once and a while he would attempt to play the guitar and even bought a chord book.
As fate would have it, that summer, thirteen year old Nema was caught joyriding in the family car by his father. The punishment was swift and harsh. Howard’s drum set was sold. This forever changed the trajectory of his musical journey and destiny. It wasn’t long before Howard’s full attention focused on the acoustic guitar his friend Bruce Martone had abandoned.
NOTE: ( Midnight Run will be released on on the 2nd MAGIC BUDDHA EP, “ANGELS OF MUSIC” in the fall of 2024.)
After Howard acquired some skill, he began writing songs with Marc, composing works like, The Execution, The Sound of Song and Dreams of Yesterday’s Life. By this time it was decided that the two would form a band. Names like, Pegasus and Gossymer Wings were thrown around at first. It wasn’t until Kenny Banks joined Gerson and Nema that the name WHITE MAGIC was decided upon, to promote good, as an alternative to black magic.
In the years since Gerson and Nema began their friendship and collaboration the two have written more than 200 songs together (150 or so that they can still remember) and are planning to record and release them all over the next several years. Performances in PA/NY/CT coming this fall.
And the countdown begins . . .
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