Search - Melvin Sparks :: This Is It

You better believe This Is It . . .

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 06/28/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

". . . you ain't findin' it nowhere else.



The godfather of people like Galactic, Robert Walter's 20th Congress, Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Soulive, The Greyboy Allstars, Stanton Moore, Sco's funk bands, and Charlie Hunter, Melvin Sparks invented the kind of groove/funk these others strive for even as he produces it effortlessly.



That greasy roadhouse feel isn't something that can just be evoked by a bunch of interlopers, fine as they may be as musicians. As I've said many times before, you can't conjure res. You've got to have it in your blood. And it also helps to have played hundreds of stops on the modern-day Chitlin Circuit (or what ever passes for it these days), as I'm sure Mr. Sparks has done.



From the opening sounds that just explode out of your speakers, you know you're in for something special.



Really, This IS It.



There's more feeling in a single note Sparks plays than in the gush and flood of processed music coming out of the jam band scene. Eat your hearts out, MMW. Sad to say, however, Sparks is unlikely to get his due. While far less talented groove/funk bands churn out synthesized cheese, the real thang barely, as of this writing, registers on the radar screen.



Do yourself a favor and connect up with a master."