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| Texas Twister (73)/ '75 (75) |
| Melvin Sparks |
| első megjelenés éve: 2001 |
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| (2006)
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CD |
| 4.670 Ft
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| 1. | Whip! Whop!
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| 2. | Gathering Together
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| 3. | Judy's Groove
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| 4. | Texas Twister
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| 5. | Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)
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| 6. | I Want to Talk About You
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| 7. | Star in the Crescent
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| 8. | I've Got to Have You
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| 9. | Mockingbird
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| 10. | Looking for a Love
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| 11. | Get Ya Some
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| 12. | Get Down with the Get Down
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| 13. | Bump and Stomp
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| 14. | In the Morning
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| 15. | If You Want My Love
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Jazz
Melvin Sparks - Arranger, Conductor, Guitar, Producer
Buddy Caldwell - Conga
Cecil Bridgewater - Flugelhorn, Trumpet
Idris Muhammad - Drums
Jimmy Scott - Performer
Jon Faddis - Flugelhorn, Trumpet
Ron Bridgewater - Sax (Tenor), Saxophone
Sonny Phillips - Organ, Piano (Electric)
* Bob Scerbo - Production Supervisor
* Jimmy Roach - Arranger
* Ken Sands - Engineer
* Malcolm Addey - Engineer
* Mia Krinsky - Co-Coordinator
* Neil Terk - Art Direction, Photography
Like many soul-jazz musicians, Melvin Sparks moved into funkier directions as the mid-'70s approached, whether out of pressure from marketing trends, a desire to explore that area, or both. Two of his albums from this era, 1973's Texas Twister and 1975's '75, were combined into one disc for this CD reissue. As funk-influenced soul-jazz efforts go, 1973's Texas Twister is a decent one, though not innovative or tremendously exciting. Working as the leader of three different configurations of musicians varying in size from a trio to a ten-piece, Sparks wrote about half of the material and took all the guitar solos, though Ron Miller also played guitar on three tracks. The cuts with the larger band tend to be the funkiest, the group playing with real pluck on "Whip! Whop!" But elsewhere, they lean toward a more straight-ahead soul-jazz direction, with "Judy's Groove" setting a nice swinging, walking beat. "Star in the Crescent" is an effortless throwback to the classic, more bop-driven '60s soul-jazz style, Sparks peeling off some fluid lightning riffs and giving plenty of space to Idris Muhammad's drums and Ceasar Frazier's skittering organ. '75 sounded like a much more determined effort to get into the commercial funk-jazz mainstream. Unsurprisingly, as a consequence the music suffered, coming across as bland jazzy, largely instrumental mid-'70s soul-funk. A couple of tracks even go to the extent of including vocals by Jimmy Scott (not the same guy, from the sound of things, as the cult jazz singer Little Jimmy Scott), though neither he nor the songs are anything special. As further concessions toward commercialism, there are covers of the '60s soul hit "Mockingbird" and the '70s soul smash "Looking for a Love," along with some horn arrangements hinting at a background soundtrack ambience. Sparks does play all the guitar solos, but otherwise little of the identity he'd established with his prior soul-jazz releases comes through on '75's set of fairly languid, anonymous instrumentals.
---Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
Melvin Sparks
Active Decades: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: Mar 22, 1946
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Hard Bop, Jazz Blues, Soul-Jazz
Although not a huge name in jazz, Melvin Sparks brought his Grant Green-influenced guitar to quite a few soul-jazz and organ-combo recordings of the late '60s and early '70s. A lover of jazz as well as R&B and blues, the Houston native took up the guitar at 11, and was only 13 when he sat in with B.B. King. In 1963, he joined the Upsetters, an R&B show band that backed Little Richard, Sam Cooke, and other big names. After leaving the Upsetters, Sparks played with Jack McDuff in 1966-1967. The improviser was very much in demand in the late '60s and early '70s, and he was featured on sessions by Charles Earland, Sonny Stitt, Lou Donaldson, Rusty Bryant, Sonny Phillips, Reuben Wilson, and Johnny "Hammond" Smith, among others. Sparks delivered his first album as leader, Sparks!, for Prestige in 1970, and recorded a few more Prestige dates before providing Melvin Sparks for Westbound in 1975. When soul-jazz's fortunes declined in the mid-'70s, the guitarist wasn't working as much. The only album Sparks recorded as a leader in the '80s was 1981's Sparkling on Muse, although he was featured as a sideman on sessions by Houston Person, Hank Crawford, and Jimmy McGriff during that decade. The 1990s saw a lot of renewed interest in soul-jazz, and in 1997, Sparks returned to the studio for his Cannonball date I'm a Gittar Player.
---Alex Henderson, All Music Guide |
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