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In the
Spotlight
The multi-cultural guitar of Tim
Sparks
Originally from an article in Akustik
Gitarre
German text by
Andreas Schulz
Translated and edited by Steve Elliott
"When you play guitar, you follow a
single path that goes round the whole
world. All musical cultures have stringed
instruments."
Tim Sparks is
something of a musical globetrotter. He
returns from his travels with a bag full
of musical souvenirs, which he then turns
into highly imaginative guitar
instrumentals. His latest journeys have
found him delving into Jewish music.
Sparks' early CD's
built his reputation as one of the world's
leading fingerstylists, afraid of nothing
and conqueror of new territories for the
acoustic guitar. His first solo CD, "The
Nutcracker Suite", included an
extraordinary adaptation of that famous
orchestral piece for classical guitar and
Sparks promptly won the 1993 National
Fingerpicking championship. The other
piece on the CD, "The Balkan Dreams Suite"
displays his affinity for the music of the
Middle East.
Sparks
consolidated his love for this music in
his next CD, "Guitar Bazaar", a work which
carried the subtitle, "Multi cultural
ideas for guitar." The basis for these
pieces were a collection of Hungarian folk
songs originally arranged by Bela Bartok.
Tim Sparks complemented this material with
Celtic, Oriental, Jazz and Blues figures.
His third album, "One String Leads To
Another" saw Sparks returning to his North
Carolina roots, although his ethno,
multi-cultural approach is not entirely
forgotten. The mood of this recording is
decidedly eclectic and moves between
country-tinged, bluesy offerings and
Balkan dance music. This apparent
mish-mash is always held together by
Sparks' dazzling virtuosity and
far-ranging musical imagination.
The aforementioned
CD's appear on the Acoustic
Music Records label, while his last
two albums, "Neshamah" and the outstanding
tour de force that is the new CD, "Tanz"
came out on the Tzadik
label.
On both "Tanz" and
"Neshamah", Sparks moves his attention to
the rich musical heritage of the Jewish
diaspora.
"I am often asked,
" says Sparks, "why someone from North
Carolina plays Jewish music. Well, it
started with me playing rhythm guitar with
two accordionists. We played at many
Jewish weddings which helped me learn a
lot about this musical heritage. Another
influence was the Bosnian singer and
guitarist, Flory Jagoda. Her playing is
very subtle and lyrical and it really was
a great experience to play a gig with her
at The Center for Jewish History in New
York."
The final impetus
came from John Zorn, a New York musician
and producer, who suggested recording
traditional Jewish music in Tim's
inimitable ethno-jazz style.
Says Sparks,
"'Neshamah' uses Jewish music as a motif,
which I blended with influences from the
Near and Middle east, North Africa, Spain
and America. This project afforded me the
perfect opportunity for lyrical chord and
harmonic development. I had many ideas
kicking round from my adaptations of
Bartok and Tschaikovsky, plus others from
Jazz harmony. You'll hear Country Blues
and Flamenco sounds, but above all the
vocabulary of Middle Eastern instruments
such as the Oud. John Zorn encouraged me
to play freely and to use some quite crazy
ideas in the improvisations."
The high point so
far in Sparks' ethnic excursions is
"Tanz". Here he expertly accompanied by
percussionist, Cyro Baptista, and bassist,
Greg Cohen. "Tanz" is a fantastically
stimulating work in which Sparks utilises
a dazzling array of guitaristic
possibilities and once again displays his
mastery of odd rhythms and time
signatures, such as 7/8.
"The recordings
for "Tanz" were extremely intensive. I
arrived in New York for the session on a
Friday, we rehearsed on Saturday, played a
gig that evening and then recorded the
entire CD on the Sunday. Greg and Cyrano
were completed focused and immersed in the
music. Both are not only awesome
musicians, they are nice guys too."
Sparks chose the
tunes for "Tanz" in order to offer the
best possible expressive opportunities for
the guitar. The original tunes would have
been played on instruments like the
clarinet, oud or violin, but in Sparks'
hands the translation to guitar is
seamless and virtually perfect. Of course,
this is only possible with incredible
technique and great musical sensibility,
both of which Tim Sparks has in
spades.
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