the klezmer shack

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T A N Z
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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home return to press		T A N Z 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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