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Tanz:
Reviews
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All About Jazz -
Italy
La Palma, Roma, Marzo 2006
L'ultima serata in programma era
dedicata a un chitarrista americano, Tim
Sparks, accompagnato da Greg Cohen al
contrabbasso e Cyro Batista alle
percussioni. Partito dal ragtime e dal
fingerpicking puro, Sparks ha
progressivamente arricchito la sua musica
di connotazioni etniche, sviluppando un
particolare interesse per l'area balcanica
e dell'est europeo, sfociato nel klezmer e
nell'approdo alla corte del sassofonista e
compositore d'avanguardia John Zorn e dei
suoi progetti a nome Masada; proprio la
sua etichetta. la Tzadik, ha pubblicato i
lavori più recenti di Sparks, oltre
a fornirgli i due musicisti che lo
affiancano anche in questo tour. Il
repertorio è in gran parte quello
della tradizione ebraica che ha inciso in
trio nei suoi ultimi lavori, Tanz e At the
Rebbe's Table. La musica klezmer affonda
le sue radici nell'Europa dell'Est,
mescolandosi alla tradizione gitana (uno
dei suoi massimi esponenti del Novecento
è stato il clarinettista Naftule
Brandwein, del quale Sparks esegue
“Araber Tanz”, “Fun
Tashlach” e “Turk in
Amerika”), ma si è sparsa un
po' in tutto il mondo sulla scia della
Diaspora ebraica; non mancano brani di
ispirazione spagnola
(”Morenica”, “Tres
Hermanicas”), bosniaca (”La Jave
Espana”) e addirittura brasiliana
(”Eu So Quero Um Xodo”). Due
brani proposti fanno parte del repertorio
Masada (”Kodashim” e
“Kanah”, di Zorn), mentre a
metà concerto Sparks in solitudine
porge un tributo ai padri della musica
afroamericana (e allo stesso tempo alle
proprie radici chitarristiche) con il
trittico “Maple Leaf Rag” di
Joplin, “Original Jelly Roll
Blues” di Jelly Roll Morton, e
“Mississippi Blues” di Willie
Brown. Il chitarrista riesce a
destreggiarsi mirabilmente in mezzo a
tutte queste influenze, grazie a una
padronanza della tecnica strumentale di
tutto rispetto; mentre l'accompagnamento
della coppia ritmica formata da Cohen,
preciso e potente, e Batista, dinamico e
fantasioso, circondato da percussioni di
tutti i tipi cui si alterna senza sosta,
permette al chitarrista una maggiore
libertà nelle improvvisazioni
solistiche, dove rivela la sua natura di
jazzista non sempre evidente dagli
album.
Un altro ottimo concerto, che ha chiuso
in bellezza l'edizione 2006 di questa
importante rassegna, ancora una volta di
alto livello.
Downbeat
December 2000
For his second Tzadik album, Sparks
intelligently and lovingly arranges some
of his favorite songs from the Oriental,
Sephardic and Yiddish canons of Jewish
music for his guitar and, often, Greg
Cohen's string bass and Cyro Baptista's
percussion. With impeccable control, he
imparts quiet depth to his close study of
the melodies, harmonies and unusual
rhythms belonging to, say, the Caucasus
Mountains region wedding song "Aji Tu
Yorma?" and four Depression-era
compositions credited to the storied
klezmer clarinetist Naftule Brandwein. No
small achievement, Sparks conveys the
pathos of the Diaspora in his music.
Frank-John Hadley
Dirty Linen
2001
For his second album on Tzadik, Tim Sparks
has expanded on his groundbreaking concept
of presenting traditional Jewish melodies
on acoustic guitar. This time he has
recruited Greg Cohen, a bassist, and Cyro
Baptista, a Brazilian percussionist, to
accompany him on most tracks. Not only is
the idea of playing such music on acoustic
guitar a novel idea but, in the nimble
hands of Sparks, it succeeds admirably. On
Tanz, Sparks interprets four tunes by the
famous Naftule Brandwein as well as other
material drawn from Yiddish, Sephardic,
and Oriental sources. The mix of a
traditional approach with the jazz nuances
that the trio brings to the arrangements
makes for compelling and original music
which should impress both guitar
aficionados and those with a keen interest
in the diversity of Jewish music. - Paul
Emile Comeau
Guitarist explores
Jewish influences
Pioneer Planet
The title of this disc, "Tanz,'' is the
Yiddish word for dance. But to paraphrase
an old Boston ad campaign, you don't have
to be Jewish to move to and be moved by
this music.
This is guitarist
Sparks' second record based on Jewish
music, particularly the popular and
familiar klezmer style, for John Zorn's
"radical Jewish culture'' label Tzadik. On
it, the fingerpicking champion, a North
Carolina native who now lives in Frazee,
Minn., also dips into jazz, bluegrass and
classical styles. And along with the
accompaniment of bassist Greg Cohen and
Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista, he
presents an intriguing set of tunes.
For me, the
standout piece of the album is "Dos
Oybershte Fun Shtoysl (The Most Conceited
of All),'' a 1920s piece based on
traditional Yiddish melodies that strikes
a variety of moods. Another moment of
captivation comes with "Atumati Te'orer
Hayeshenim (The Holy Presence Awakens the
Sleepers)'' from the Jewish-Yemenite
Manakha tradition.
One critic calls
Sparks' technique "musical
sleight-of-hand''; it certainly is some
kind of string-bending magic. I'm not
certain what constitutes "appropriate''
Hanukkah music, but I should think this
would certainly help set the tone.
-- James M. Tarbox
The Klezmer Shack
by Ari Davidow
I got e-mail recently from Tzadik
recording artist, Tim Sparks, who sent me
his two Tzakik releases, last year's
"Neshamah," and this year's "Tantz."
Sparks is an amazing finger-picker whose
music reminds me a bit of Dave Grisman,
and occasionally of John Fahey or Leo
Kotke, except that he's jazzier than
them--no less intricate, but more bouncy,
more full of life. But my memory is
colored by the connection, as we were
e-mailing back and forth, that he was the
guitarist on a delightful retro-'20s band
called "Rio Nido" of whom I was made
aware, and of whom I became a fan, back in
the mid-'80s. It's a long time later,
now.
For the recordings
in question, on "Neshamah" he played a
range of Jewish music, religious, Yiddish,
klezmer, Ladino, on solo guitar (no
vocals). It is good, gentle, listening
music with lots there to ponder if you can
make the time and space to sit and listen
for a while, as I've been doing this
evening. Picking up a percussionist and
bass player, as he does on "Tantz," gives
whole new dimensions to the music, and
lets him move away from the melody and
improvise more at times, which I really
enjoyed. Listening to a guitar stylist who
is so deeply influenced by the popular
music of the period in which Naftule
Brandwein was at his height take on "Wie
bist die gewestn vor prohibition?" turns
the music on its head in some ways, but
also Americanizes Brandwein's Americanized
klezmer with results that are unexpectedly
accessible and fun. Best, you can still do
a tantz (dance) to the result! Here, the
range also includes not only the more
familiar Yiddish, klezmer, and Sephardic
music, but also several Yemenite,
Judeo-Kurdish, and even a melody, "Aji
tuyorma?" from Azeri Jews from
Dagestan.
I am presuming, as
I look at the range of songs, that he is,
or has spent much time in Brooklyn, or
someplace with an equally diverse
community of far Eastern Jews who came
over in the big migrations from the former
Soviet Union ten and twenty years ago.
Said migrations have given us not only new
klezmer and Yiddish repertoire, but opened
the door to become familiar with Jewish
cultures in the Caucasuses, something
different again from the Sephardic and
Judeo-Arabic cultures that are more
familiar. I had my mind blown just a bit a
couple of years ago by the range and
vitality of these cultures at a festival
feature Jews of the former Soviet Union
put on at a community center in Brighton
Beach by Brave Old World's Michael Alpert
and friends.
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