Press Quotes

Acoustic Guitar Magazine ”Tim Sparks has created an instantly recognizable style without relying on unorthodox techniques or weird tunings. Merging his classical and jazz backgrounds and effortless chops with a keen interest in Eastern European music, he stormed onto the fingerstyle scene with his debut CD, The Nutcracker Suite, which featured his arrangement of Tchaikovsky's classic as well as a collection of Balkan folk songs. Spark's '95 release, Guitar Bazaar, is a masterpiece of acoustic world music”

Folk Roots Magazine Great Britain ”Sublime take on Klezmer and Sephardic standards veering between bluesy, flamenco-inflected finger-picking and Joao Gilberto. Gorgeous”

Sing Out! Magazine ”Tim Sparks is a brilliant fingerstyle guitarist -- he won the 1993 National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship -- who has turned much of his attention to traditional Jewish music. Whether he's adapting melodies from the Ashkenazic/klezmer tradition, or from the Judeo-Spanish Sephardic tradition, it is a joy to hear these beautiful interpretations”

DownBeat ”For his second Tzadik album, Sparks intelligently and lovingly arranges some of his favorite songs from the Oriental, Sephardic and Yiddish canons of Jewish music for his guitar and Sparks conveys the pathos of the Diaspora in his music. 5 stars”

Time Out New York ”Sparks playing is fluid and consistently beautiful. Truly masterful”

Seattle Weekly ”Any way you look at him--as Frisell without the schizophrenic effects or Zorn without a sax--Tim Sparks delivers a jazz guitar classic with Tanz. Klezmer-fueled improv at its best”

20th Century Guitar ”Tim Sparks is not a mere guitarist; he's a musician. In fact, at times he seems to transcend mere music and become a magician”

Guitar Nine Reviews ”Sparks playing is stirring and technically superb, as he embellishes the beautiful melodies with harmonies and a sense of excitement”

Acoustic Guitar Magazine ”Fingerstyle Magic”

Amazon.com ”Sparks's solo renditions have an awe-inducing power. He cherishes not only each note, even when they're coming with flashing speed, but he equally indulges each bent-string twist and turn”

Minneapolis Star and Tribune ”Sparks reduces these complex classics to their harmonic essence, allowing the depth and melodic beauty to be felt in new ways through his gently dazzling fingerstyle technique”

Guitar Player Magazine ”Whether thumbing a bass-note drone against bluesy double-stops and sitar like bends, plucking sheets of rippling arpeggios, or playing counterpoint lines at breakneck speed, Sparks is remarkably adventurous-and that's what separates him from the pack. There are many skilled solo-acoustic guitarists making CDs today, but few can match Sparks' verve and intensity”

Guitar Player Magazine ”Fresh, exotic, and totally cool”

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

Dirty Linen Magazine Sparks is an extraordinary guitarist”

“You can hear Tim Sparks think. He plays by choice not habit: ideas not licks. I've heard him do this on guitars so badly intonated, they wouldn't make a good ashtray; the same guitars - I remember a piece called Blues on Bartok Street - are guitars in Tim's hands. Beautiful. I'm Tim Sparks' biggest fan. He's really one of the best musicians I know.” LEO KOTTKE

"This is totally beautiful and inspiring music, warm and soulful, rich with melody, harmony and rhythm. Every guitarist on the planet has got to hear this. Tim Sparks is incredible, a complete original." —Bill Frisell 

Acoustic fingerstyle guitarist Tim Sparks has always set himself apart from the pack of his peers. Rather than rely strictly on playing blues or age-old folk and bluegrass tunes, or even following in the well-worn paths of John Fahey, Peter Lang, and Robbie Basho, Sparks has followed his muse down into the corridors of musical and cultural history. While no one can dent the influence of great jazzmen on his playing, one can hear the sounds of saxophonists, pianists, and of course the sounds of Yiddish folk and popular music, klezmer among them. In 2000, Sparks recorded Tanz, his second album for John Zorn's Tzadik imprint. It was a departure from his previous two in that it wasn't a solo but a trio record. His partners on that musical journey were veteran bassist Greg Cohen and master percussionist Cyro Baptista. The set was brilliant and innovative, creating an entirely new perspective on Jewish music from the beginning of the 20th century to the commencement of the 21st. It contained a slew of traditional songs and also featured four tunes by the original klezmer legend, clarinetist and composer Naftule Brandwein. The same trio reconvened in 2002 for At the Rebbe's Table, for a similar program that also contained tunes by Brandwein. Seven long years later, this trio once more reunites to perform an entire program of his work, and the results are quite astonishing. For starters, here are the group members playing together after all this time and being more emotionally and musically attuned to one another than ever before. Next there is Sparks' own playing, which was always jaw-dropping, but has risen to a such a level that now he's virtually in a league of his own. The way he combines so many different musical techniques and genres into his own idiosyncratic fingerstyle picking is not only technically remarkable, it's savvy and wildly creative at the same time. Check the way he weaves flamenco styles into Brandwein's take on a traditional Yiddish folk melody in "Der Yid in Jerusalem." Here, Baptista accents the Latin rhythms on claves and hand drums, and Sparks weaves Charlie Christian, Tal Farlow, and elements of Carlos Montoya into his playing of Brandwein's melody. The sprightly "Oh Daddy, That's Good" weaves some gorgeous modal and overtone playing into the melody, stretching the harmony to -- but never over -- the breaking point. The interplay between Cohen and Baptista is so delightfully sophisticated that all the listener can do is smile. The use of harmonics in "A Few Bowls Terkish" (sic) draws from the influence of guitarist Bert Jansch to further a series of modal interludes that flow into some gorgeous jazz playing on the changes by the composer. Highlighting these tracks doesn't mean that they are the album's finest moments at all. Virtually every one of these ten cuts is an example of how intuitive, sophisticated, and creative Sparks is, not only as a player and interpreter, but as an arranger so canny that the listener would think all of these songs were written in the current era. That said, Sparks never, ever compromises the sophistication or humor Brandwein put into his compositions. He reveres them deeply, and strives to make them live on as part of a lineage that has no use for musty audio museums, but would rather portray the music as a living, breathing, sassy, sexy thing that swaggers rather than stands still in the passage of time. Brilliant work and the best Sparks record to date. Thom Jurek Allmusicguide

Recordings

1993 The Nutcracker Suite w/ Balkan Dreams- Acoustic Music Records

1996 Guitar Bazaar- Acoustic Music Records

1998 One String Leads to Another- Acoustic Music Records

1999 Neshamah- Tzadik

2000 Tanz- Tzadik

2002 At the Rebbe's Table-Tzadik

2003 Masada Guitars with Bill Frisell and Marc Ribot-Tzadik

2007 Roots, Rags and Blues- Truefire DVD

2008 Sidewalk Blues- ToneWood

2009 Little Princess-Tzadik