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Jazz Articles about Melvin Sparks
Johnny "Hammond" Smith: Wild Horses Rock Steady
by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
Born John Robert Smith on December 16, 1933 (in Louisville, KY), formerly known as Johnny Hammond Smith, and later as Johnnny Hammond, one of the all-time best jazz organists passed away on June 4, 1997, in Chicago, Illinois. For some of his early fans, some of the best albums he recorded were done for Prestige in the Sixties. A younger generation, who grew up listening to the hip-hop influenced jazz sounds of the 1990s, prefers Johnny's over-produced sessions for Milestone ...
Continue ReadingMelvin Sparks: Live at Nectar’s
by Joe Gatto
A cool thing about music is that when you follow a band for a long time, you eventually get turned on to the music that influenced them. You get to hear all kinds of exciting new music, and start digging deep, going down groovy rabbit holes to discover great musicians you might not find on your own. This is the case with Melvin Sparks, the late great soul jazz guitarist, whose music greatly influenced one of my current ...
Continue ReadingMelvin Sparks: I'm A 'Gittar' Player
by Douglas Payne
Guitarist Melvin Sparks will sound familiar to those who like the fatback soul-jazz of the late 60s and early 70s. That music has new life today as “acid jazz" and Sparks was a significant catalyst in its sound. He's ignited some of the better funk of Lou Donaldson ( Pretty Things and Cosmos ), Sonny Stitt ( Turn It On ), Charles Earland ( Black Talk ), Lonnie Smith ( Think ), Hank Crawford (the recent Tight ) and Rusty ...
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