Documentary: Melvin Sparks

Melvin Sparks was one of the finest and most important guitarists during the jazz-funk movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. For the Prestige label, Sparks recorded with Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, Leon Spencer Jr., Johnny Hammond Smith, Caesar Frazier and many others. He was known for his Houston shuffle rhythm guitar and funky jazz lines.

Sparks came out of the Houston blues and soul scene in the 1960s and began playing soul-jazz with organist Brother Jack McDuff mid-decade. Next came a year with Dr. Lonnie Smith and then Lou Donaldson. Major jazz-funk albums followed, including Charles Earland's Black Talk! (1969). He also recorded his first leadership album for Prestige: “Sparks!" in 1970, followed by Spark Plug and many others for a variety of labels, including Savant.

As a sideman in th 1970s, he can be heard on a large number of artists' albums, including Rusty Brown's Soul Liberation (1970); four by Lou Donaldson, from 1969 to 1971; Charles Kynard's Wa-Tu-Wa-Zui (1970); Reuben Wilson's The Cisco Kid (1973); and four by Leon Spencer Jr. His recordings into the 1980s and beyond are also extensive.

Here are a few clips by Sparks, followed by a new documentary:

Here's Sparks on the title track of Earland's Black Talk!...



Here's Sparks's first leadership album in full...



Here's Sparks laying down his Houston shuffle on Leon Spencer Jr.'s cover of Marvin Gaye's Mercy Mercy Me...



And here's Sparkplug, the new Melvin Sparks documentary...



Melvin Sparks died in 2011. at age 64