guitar bazaar

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track listing

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G U I T A R  B A Z A A R
(Acoustic excursions around a theme by Bela Bartok)

"I'm Tim Sparks' biggest fan. His stuff is very difficult to play but it doesn't sound difficult. I think that's real musicianship. He's really one of the best musicians I know. When he started playing the oud, I envisioned Tim wearing one of those little leather hats that makes you look like a barstool, and drinking some kind of Turkish coffee. I thought we were losing him; I thought he was getting Balkanized, and we'd never hear from him again. But we have, and he came back and brought it all with him."

"Balkan Dreams sounded as if he had grown up in Sofia in his dad's string band because he understood it so well, but he managed to bring some Tim Sparks to it after a while, so it no longer sounded like Bulgaria or Minnesota. It sounded like something else. It's very hard to do that. He can do that."

-- Leo Kottke

Guitar Player Magazine, April 1997
Guitar Bazaar

Wielding a Taylor 812-C, he channels more current than most of his electric counterparts. Fresh, exotic, and totally cool.
    If you're getting complacent about your acoustic fingerpicking, you'd better hear Tim Sparks' new CD. His specialty is playing odd meters, such as the kopanitsa from Macedonia and Bulgaria (2+2+3+2+2) and the Middle Eastern jurjinah dance rhythm (3+2+2+3). There's nothing forced or studied about his playing or compositions: his intense, on-the-edge attack speaks of many nights wailing around campfires in places most of us have never heard of. "

1993 National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion, Tim Sparks, celebrates the release of his second CD for Peter Finger's cutting-edge guitar label, Acoustic Music Records. Guitar Bazaar has been getting raves in Europe, where it was released in the fall of 1995.

"Sparks shows his tremendous versatility moving between Jazz and the classics"
-- Berlin Morning Post

"This is a major contribution to the world of guitar transcriptions. You're unlikely to hear more intricate and wonderfully tricky guitar picking on any other album this year. Sparks is an extraordinary guitarist"
-- Dirty Linen Magazine

"a classy, expert and beautiful album, just the thing to test the clarity and range of your new amp."
-- Consumable Online

This collection of pieces by acoustic guitar maestro Tim Sparks has an Eastern flavor, with Balkan harmonies and rhythms, Transylvanian touches (a Sparksified retelling of Bartok's Rumanian Dances), Turkish dance rhythms, middle-eastern scales and meters, Armenian motifs: all on a guitar!
    "Sleeping Giant" beautifully blends flamenco with somewhere further east, somewhere towards Afghanistan: it's my favourite piece from this album. A gentle giant, this one.
    A classy, expert and beautiful album, just the thing to test the clarity and range of your new amp. And it might just inspire you dig out your old guitar and start to play again.. but will you ever be this good????
- Ali Sinclair

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sound samples liner notes track listing printed music		G U I T A R B A Z A A R (Acoustic excursions around a theme by Bela Bartok) "I'm Tim Sparks' biggest fan. His stuff is very difficult to play but it doesn't sound difficult. I think that's real musicianship. He's really one of the best musicians I know. When he started playing the oud, I envisioned Tim wearing one of those little leather hats that makes you look like a barstool, and drinking some kind of Turkish coffee. I thought we were losing him; I thought he was getting Balkanized, and we'd never hear from him again. But we have, and he came back and brought it all with him." "Balkan Dreams sounded as if he had grown up in Sofia in his dad's string band because he understood it so well, but he managed to bring some Tim Sparks to it after a while, so it no longer sounded like Bulgaria or Minnesota. It sounded like something else. It's very hard to do that. He can do that." -- Leo Kottke Guitar Player Magazine, April 1997 Guitar Bazaar Wielding a Taylor 812-C, he channels more current than most of his electric counterparts. Fresh, exotic, and totally cool. If you're getting complacent about your acoustic fingerpicking, you'd better hear Tim Sparks' new CD. His specialty is playing odd meters, such as the kopanitsa from Macedonia and Bulgaria (2+2+3+2+2) and the Middle Eastern jurjinah dance rhythm (3+2+2+3). There's nothing forced or studied about his playing or compositions: his intense, on-the-edge attack speaks of many nights wailing around campfires in places most of us have never heard of. " 1993 National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion, Tim Sparks, celebrates the release of his second CD for Peter Finger's cutting-edge guitar label, Acoustic Music Records. Guitar Bazaar has been getting raves in Europe, where it was released in the fall of 1995. "Sparks shows his tremendous versatility moving between Jazz and the classics" -- Berlin Morning Post "This is a major contribution to the world of guitar transcriptions. You're unlikely to hear more intricate and wonderfully tricky guitar picking on any other album this year. Sparks is an extraordinary guitarist" -- Dirty Linen Magazine "a classy, expert and beautiful album, just the thing to test the clarity and range of your new amp." -- Consumable Online This collection of pieces by acoustic guitar maestro Tim Sparks has an Eastern flavor, with Balkan harmonies and rhythms, Transylvanian touches (a Sparksified retelling of Bartok's Rumanian Dances), Turkish dance rhythms, middle-eastern scales and meters, Armenian motifs: all on a guitar! "Sleeping Giant" beautifully blends flamenco with somewhere further east, somewhere towards Afghanistan: it's my favourite piece from this album. A gentle giant, this one. A classy, expert and beautiful album, just the thing to test the clarity and range of your new amp. And it might just inspire you dig out your old guitar and start to play again.. but will you ever be this good???? - Ali Sinclair

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