"It wasn’t called acid jazz when I was recording this music. We were
basically trying to play jazz on top of a funky beat.” - Melvin Sparks
Photo by Dino Perrucci |
After absolutely killin’ it on his band’s San Francisco debut (two nights of sold-out shows) in March at the Boom Boom Room, NYC’s own Melvin Sparks returns to the Boom Boom Room this weekend to reignite San Francisco with his first rate, boiling hot poly-rhythmic groove machine; simply called Melvin Sparks Band.
Melvin Sparks is geared up again to show us all what he does better than anyone else, groove hard and in the pocket!
While sharing the stage with funky masters such as Curtis Mayfield and James Brown, Melvin blended his Texas blues influences and formal jazz education with the Funk and Soul styling of Motown melodies. The end result was the roots of Acid Jazz.
Over the thirty years he has played with some of Jazz’s greatest musicians; David "Fathead" Newman, Lou Donaldson, Hank Crawford, Reuben Wilson and John Patton are amongst the many. During the 1970s, Sparks backed up Lou Donaldson on the Funk-Jazz classics "Everything I Play Is Funky" and "Hot Dog." Sparks recorded seven albums of his own and played on over 100 other albums. As a session man for Blue Note and Prestige Records, Sparks laid his signature guitar work on many other musician’s albums without ever being in spotlight.
Melvin, who recently released a highly acclaimed CD entitled, What You Hear is what You Get, is finding himself these days called upon to play to sold-out crowds across the country. This year during JazzFest in New Orleans, Melvin played night after night to the groovin’ delight of numerous fans (many new), headlining a sold-out gig with Idris Muhammad, Will Bernard, Charlie Hunter and Donald Harrison. He sat in on other gigs with OM Trio, Galactic, Robert Walters, Soulive, Will Bernard and Wild Magnolias. His band is now slated to open for Galactic on the notorious groove party Halloween weekend at Tipitinas (New Orleans).
Don’t miss Melvin Sparks and what will certainly be (once again) an awesome weekend of non-stop dance floor revelry at the Boom Boom Room!
Jason Perkins
JamBase | San Francisco
Go See Live Music!
OPENERS:
Friday Night – OGD (opens)
Saturday Night- FREAKTET (opens)
Dj Romanowski (spins rare groove & Funk between sets)
Doors 8pm/Show 9:30pm - 3am | Tickets $12
Buy advance tickets at BoomBoomTickets.com, JamBaseTickets.com, and TicketWeb.com
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