Tim Sparks At The Mainstay July 12

The extraordinary fingerstyle guitarist Tim Sparks appears in concert at the Mainstay in Rock Hall, MD on Friday July 12 at 8:00 p.m. Admission is $15. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.

Tim Sparks is a guitarist’s guitarist whose blending of musical styles has won him extensive praise from all corners of the music world. Guitar Player Magazine has called his music “Fresh, exotic, and totally cool.” Acoustic Guitar Magazine calls it “rich and sensuous”, and guitarist Leo Kottke simply says “He’s really one of the best musicians I know.” He plays everything from the early traditional country blues and gospel music he learned in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Jazz, Be Bop, Klezmer, classical and world music..

At 14, Sparks was nominated by a musically astute uncle for a scholarship at the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts. There he studied the classics with Segovia protégé Jesus Silva while continuing to play all kinds of music, increasingly turning to classic jazz for inspiration. He adapted compositions by Jelly Roll Morton, Scott Joplin, and Fats Waller to the guitar, frequently reducing piano arrangements to their essence.

While recording three albums with the seminal vocal jazz ensemble Rio Nido, Sparks also became proficient in jazz styles from Brazilian to Be Bop. During this time he arranged Carla Bley’s composition “Jesus Maria” for Leo Kottke.

Sparks’ interest in classical music led him to adapt Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite for guitar, a work that has been cited as a significant contribution to solo guitar literature. For Sparks, it was a labor of love that earned him the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas in 1993.

His work came to the attention of John Zorn, the saxophonist, composer, and curator of Tzadik Records in New York which led to a new cycle of compositions inspired by traditional Jewish melodies: “Neshamah” (1999), a solo effort. “Tanz”, which garnered Downbeat Magazine’s highest praise, five stars, in 2000 and “At the Rebbe’s Table” (2002). All three releases have been acclaimed by a broad spectrum of critics and listeners alike. Spring of 2003 saw the release of “Masada Guitars”, featuring interpretations of John Zorn’s music by Tim, Bill Frisell, and Marc Ribot.

In recent years, Sparks’ musical focus has come full circle, returning to the country blues and classic jazz that served as a springboard for his worldwide guitar explorations. His most recent recording “Sidewalk Blues” is a mix of ragtime and Jazz from New Orleans to Harlem, country blues and Gospel.

Sparks says, “In my show, I play roots-Americana fingerstyle guitar instrumentals of country blues and gospel and then I segue into 1920’s jazz and Klezmer and then I move into world music and then I play some of Tchaikovsy’s Nutcracker Suite…[my goal] is to make this wonderful music enjoyable and accessible for an audience.”