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2
4 H O U R S M
A G A Z I N E
April, 2000
by Doug Spencer
Tim Sparks
Neshamah
Tzadik TZ 7138 {through Birdland. tel: 02 9299 8527 web:
www.birdland.com.au Tim Sparks' own site:
www.itascasw.com/timsparks }
I'd never even heard OF Tim Sparks. Bill Frisell has long
been one of my favorite guitarists. On this album's wrapper
Bill declares: "totally beautiful and inspiring music. Tim
Sparks is incredible, a complete original". Once I had heard
this quietly phenomenal album I was in total agreement with
Bill, amazed that someone so good could be so "invisible",
and eager to discover more. I now know that Leo Kottke says
"I'm Tim Sparks' biggest fan". Like Leo, I particularly
admire the way Sparks uses his prodigious technique only to
truly musical ends. If Tim responds to my email, "The
Planet" will be more than slightly pleased to present his
other recordings to Australian listeners (Lucky Oceans is
your genial host, presenting "The Planet" on Radio National
each weekday afternoon from 2.15 to 4. It's repeated much
later each day, from 11.15 pm. Our website fully details
everything played: abc.net.au/rn/music/planet/planet.htm
}
Only "Neshamah" is readily available
in Australia, but I'd just love to hear his others. They
include solo guitar renditions of Bela Bartok, some
traditional Balkan pieces and his own compositions which
draw on sources from the blues to Brazil. He's reportedly an
excellent player of the oud and has recently been studying
the guitarra portuguesa...
Many of those elements are audible
on this set of fingerstyle, steel-string acoustic guitar
solos. Recorded at John Zorn's invitation, "Neshamah" is
subtitled "Songs From the Jewish Diaspora". Tim is a
brilliant, subtly audacious arranger and improvising player.
Nothing sounds forced or gimmicky, but his interpetations
are quietly breathtaking in their eclecticism and assurance.
The songs come from diverse sources - from Yemen through to
Tin Pan Alley - and the palette is expanded further by Tim.
He typically treats a song's core with respect, whilst
gracefully bringing to it various of his diverse
enthusiasms. In his tracknote to "Kad Jawajuni" Tim says
he's simultaneously trying to distil the spirit of the
Israeli singer from whom he learned the Yemeni song, whilst
deploying a rhythm from northeastern Brazil and having both
Africa and the Indian Ocean in mind. That may read like the
proverbial dog's breakfast, but the piece sounds absolutely
beautiful.
Tim's at least the peer of Leo, of
Bill... of just about any other creative guitarist one cares
to mention. He never plays a superfluous note, but sometimes
he'll certainly leave just about anybody wondering "how on
earth is he doing all that?" He's also a master of the
exquisite use of just a few notes. Listen to the second half
of the album's final cut (but listen to its more obviously
intricate first half, first!}. It's a poignant Ladino song
of farewell, one which many Australians have heard Mara Kiek
sing {as "Tu Madre"}. A few years ago - in Sarajevo - it was
sung to each other by evacuees and those who stayed. Even
with no knowledge of the song or its history, surely any
sensitive listener would be moved by the way Tim's guitar
"sings" it.
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Broadcast Australia-wide
Monday-Friday inclusive (2.15pm-4.00pm & repeated late
at night from 11.15 p.m.), "The Planet" is a highly diverse
yet highly selective music program. There is no "playlist"
in the rotation sense - each program is a unique entity.
We're not about hype, fads, fashions: the program simply
tries to present in a friendly-but-fearless fashion very
many different kinds of good music, and to present them
intelligently.
Our website with VERY detailed
playlists:(the double-Planet is NOT a
typo):www.abc.net.au/rn/music/planet/planet.htm
As you'll see there, I provide very
full details, including contact details, so our listeners
know where to go/what to do when a disc we play lacks
Australian distribution (which is very often the case).
The ABC is Australia's national,
non-commercial taxpayer-funded (meaning severely
UNDER-funded) broadcaster. Within Australia "The Planet" is
heard on Radio National. The late night broadcast is also
broadcast internationally, via Radio Australia and through
the internet (you'll find the necessary information via our
website). Radio National is the ABC's more "serious", more
"adventurous" network - the one on which ideas are explored
in depth.
For the last two years in succession
"The Planet" has won Australia's "National Music Program of
the Year" award {as voted by readers of "Rhythms" Magazine
(announced January 1999 and January 2000).
Best postal address:
Doug Spencer - "The
Planet"
ABC Radio National
GPO Box 9994
PERTH WA 6848
AUSTRALIA
My email: spencer.doug@a2.abc.net.au
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