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Organist Beau Sasser (Alan Evans Trio, Akashic Record) and drummer Bill Carbone (Max Creek, Z3) spent several years as the other 2/3s of the late legendary soul-jazz guitarist Melvin Sparks' trio. Sparks was always looking toward the future, and he frequently played the band demos of songs-everything from Jimmy Smith to John Lennon to Zapp and Roger-that he thought would be fun to record or play live. Sparkplug is Bill and Beau's way of paying tribute to their friend and mentor by performing the songs that he wrote and on which he performed during his 45-year career as well as imagining what else he might do if he was still here. Though he would have carried a larger group if finances permitted, for the last decade or so of his life Sparks worked with a trio. Sparkplug beefed up the ensemble, adding saxophonist and frontman via EWI/vocoder David Davis and percussionist Jamemurrell Stanley, both of whom had worked with Sparks at times. Because Sparks is irreplaceable, the guitar chair is a revolving door through which great musicians come and go. So far the group has featured guitarists Scott Murawski (Max Creek, Mike Gordon Band, Bill Kruetzman Trio), Fuzz (Deep Banana Blackout, Caravan of Thieves), Zach Deputy (who played guitar and fronted the band for an evening), Ryan Montbleau (guitar/vocals), Lyle Brewer (Ryan Montbleau Band), Mihali Savoulidis (Twiddle), Johnny Trama (Ghosts of Jupiter, B3 Kings, Dub Apocalypse), Van Martin (VGMB, Club d'Elf, Spiritual Rez), Ryan Hommel, Tony Lee, and Steve Fell. A BIT ABOUT MELVIN SPARKS Barbeque-funk, Soul-jazz or Acid Jazz: look up those terms in Webster's dictionary and there you should find a picture of Melvin Sparks, the guitarist who helped put all those styles together. Sparks left his Houston, Texas home in 1964 as a member of The Upsetters, a R&B group that backed singers such as Little Richard, Johhny Taylor, Lee Dorsey, Sam Cooke, and many others. Sparks hit the New York City jazz scene in the late 1960s, making quick friends with fellow-guitarists Grant Green and George Benson and embarking on career peppered with recordings and performances with a host of jazz's greatest musicians including Jack McDuff, David "Fathead" Newman, Jimmy McGriff, Sonny Stitt, Lou Donaldson, Hank Crawford, Reuben Wilson and "Big" John Patton. All told, Sparks has recorded seven albums as a leader and played on nearly 150 others for legendary jazz labels such as Blue Note and Prestige Records. |
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Sparkplug, with special guest, Scott Murawski
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ABOUT SPARKPLUG'S MEMBERS
Beau Sasser
Beau Sasser hit the music scene at a young age, traversing the snowy highways of Colorado for both All-State high school band gigs and shows with legends like John Denver and Jimmy Ibbotson of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. In the mid-90s Sasser headed east for a stint at Berklee College of Music and soon found himself back on the highways with the successful jamband Uncle Sammy. Though he'd tinkled ivories and various plastic synth keys previously, around the year 2000 Sasser began performing almost exclusively on the Hammond Organ. In addition to his tenure as Melvin Sparks' preferred organist Sasser leads his own trio whose residency at Bishop's Lounge in Northampton, MA is now in its fifth year, tours internationally with the Alan Evans Trio, performs with the funk group Akashic Record, and freelances like crazy.
Bill Carbone
Born in the suburban cultural vacuum of CT, drummer Bill Carbone managed to graduate from his initial fascination with the dramatic plinkings of Rush and Yes to a broader palette of loves. Recently he's played jazz and boogaloo with guitarist Melvin Sparks, funk with organist Beau Sasser's trio, R&B and jam-rock with Max Creek, the Matt Zeiner Band and Shakedown, original quirky jazz type music with the sax 4tet plus bass and drums Dead Cat Bounce, and reggae and experimental dub music with various vocalists and his own group Buru Style. As a percussionist he's been featured on several albums by ROIR recording artists 10 ft Ganja Plant and has also recorded with the founding members of Jamaica's legendary Soul Syndicate Band. Carbone is currently a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, where he also teaches drums and steel pan while pecking away at a dissertation about the Hammond Organ soul-jazz scene of the 1960s-70s. His writing has been featured in Wax Poetics, Modern Drummer, and in his bi-weekly New Haven Advocate column. More at www.billcarbone.com.
David Davis
A former protégé of jazz saxophone legend Jackie McLean, David Davis merges a uniquely round alto sound and a love of modern urban music with his mentor's be-bop acumen. Armed also with an EWI and vocoder, Davis is the rare saxophonist whose melodic playing and ebullient personality enhance almost any style of music. Since graduating from the Hartt School of Music in 1996, Davis has performed with Mary J. Blige, Deborah Cox, LL Cool J, Brian McKnight, 10,000 Maniacs, Keith Washington, Sean Puffy Combs, Melvin Sparks, Kid Capri, Biz Markie, Karen Clarke, Marion Meadows, Roy Ayers, Donald Harrison, Dave Valentine and Gloria Lynn to name a few.
Jamemurrell Stanley
The youngest of seven children, Roxbury, Massachusetts native Jamemurrell Stanley was a drummer before he could walk. After accompanying his siblings to West African drum and dance classes, Jamemurrell would lie on his back singing and mumbling the rhythms that he had heard. When he was 14, Jamemurrell traveled to Senegal, West Africa to expand his knowledge of African culture and music. Throughout his teens and early 20s Jamemurrell studied intensely with artists from Guinea, Senegal, and Mali.
Jamemurrell is a percussionist writ large however, and he is equally as nasty with congas, bongos, tambourine, triangle and cowbell as he is with the djembe. Over the past decade he has provided both the rhythmic drive and seasoning spices for performances and recordings by Makengo of the Sierra Leone Refuge All Stars, Buru Style, Mass Construction, Rhythm Incorporated, Melvin Sparks, and his own Drummers of Peace and Equality. Jay also joined Max Creek in January 2012.