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Melvin Sparks
b. March 22nd, 1946 – d. March 15th, 2011

Acid Jazz Icon

Melvin Sparks was an American soul jazz, hard bop and jazz blues guitarist. He recorded a number of albums for Prestige Records, later recording for Savant Records. He appeared on several recordings with musicians including Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, Leon Spencer and Johnny Hammond Smith.
 
Career
 
Sparks was born in Houston, Texas, United States, and raised in a musical family. He received his first guitar at age 11. Sparks began working in the rhythm and blues genre as a high school student, first with Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, and then with the Upsetters, a touring band formed by Little Richard, which also backed Jackie Wilson, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye.
 
Sparks moved to New York City and worked as a session musician for Blue Note and Prestige Records. As part of the burgeoning soul-jazz scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Sparks often backed organists like Jack McDuff, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Charles Earland. Sparks released his debut album, Sparks!, for Prestige in 1970.
 
He was seen on Northeastern television commercials as the voice of Price Chopper's House of BBQ advertising campaign.
[text lifted from Wiki]

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  • home
  • My Images
  • The guitarists A - F
  • The Guitarist G - O
  • horn section
  • About
  • My Images in Other Places
  • Kid Bangham
  • Junior Brown
  • The Blues Trail
  • Radio Kings
  • Tickets, Please
  • Cross Country Trip
  • The White Mountains
  • State Lines
  • Medline Island
  • National Parks
  • Go Home Lake
  • Doric and Doric II
  • Toronto
  • The Twin Cities
  • Eureka!!
  • Phoenix AR
  • The Suwanna Page