Soul jazz/jazz-funk: “Aquarius”

Houston Person (tenor sax), Virgil Jones (trumpet), Melvin Sparks (electric guitar), Charles Earland (organ) and Idris Muhammad (drums). From the album Black Talk! (1970) by Charles Earland.

In 1975 Melvin Sparks launched Texas Twister for the label Eastbound, in which, like other soul jazz musicians of the time, introduces elements of funk and congas. That same year he presented Melvin Sparks ‘75 with Westbound Records, in which he fully immerses himserf in commercial funk. Since soul jazz was in decline, he didn’t record again until 1981, when he released Sparkling with the Muse label. In the 1990s there was a soul jazz revival and Sparks started playing in clubs in a trio with organist Beau Sasser and drummer Bill Carbone, although sometimes backed up by the wind section The Grippo Horns.

He also shared the magic of his guitar with groups like Galactic, the Derek Trucks, organist Robert Walter’s 20th Congress and singer, saxophonist and flutist Karl Denson’s Tiny Univers. In 1997 he published I’m A ‘Gittar’ Player for Cannonball Records in which he offers a gentle combination of blues, rhythm and blues, jazz and pop. In 1998 The Reunion - Live at Akbar Hall went on the market, featuring a club performance with tenor saxophonist Houston Person, organist Charles Earland and drummer Idris Muhammad.

In 2001 Sparks joined the Savant label, with which he edited What You Hear Is What You Get (2002), in which acid jazz tenor saxophonist Topaz McGarrigle appears in three songs and Sparks plays with moderation and good taste; It Is What It Is (2004), with moving solos and catchy, danceable rhythms; This Is It! (2005), which is a return to late 1960s soul jazz in which the music is bluesy, funky and nice; and Groove On Up (2006). In 2008 he issued I’m Funky Now once more with Westbound Records. His last recording was Live at Nectar’s (2010), in which we can listen to six songs with his refined, swift and brilliant style from a performance he made at the Nectar club in the city of Burlington (Vermont) with his bandmates Sasser and Carbone, Dave Grippo on alto sax and Brian McCarthy on tenor. Melvis Sparks was suffering from diabetes and died of heart failure in New York at the age of 64.