Tim Sparks’ “Chasin’ the Boogie”

By Tom Johnson

Guitarist and longtime Minnesota resident Tim Sparks has made a name for himself for many years by taking on ambitious concepts on the guitar.

Whether it be taking the music of avant-garde composer and saxophonist John Zorn’s band Masada Quartet and condensing it to solo acoustic guitar, or when, in 2009, Sparks released “Little Princess” rearranging and deconstructing the music of Naftule Brandwein -- a klezmer clarinetist from the ‘20s dubbed “The King of the Klezmer Clarinet.” Most notably, he adapted for solo guitar Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite” in which he won the National Finger Style Guitar Championship at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas (one of the oldest and most respected guitar competitions in the country).

On his latest outing, “Chasin’ the Boogie,” Sparks takes on something completely different: his past. Sparks will host a Fargo CD release party on Thursday, July 24 at Studio 222.

In the album’s liner notes, Sparks writes in great detail about the making of the record, the history behind the songs and even some guitar approaches he used along the way. It opens, though, with a personal story about returning to his southern roots and gives insight as to where he drew his inspiration.

“Most of the tunes in this collection were crafted over the past couple of years during a time when I made several trips to Winston-Salem, N.C. to visit my mother Evelyn Sparks, who was in the last stages of Parkinson’s,” Sparks said. “Returning to the old haunts where I grew up brought back memories, which are invested in the music on this recording.”

The guitarist, now a Minneapolis resident, describes “Chasin’ the Boogie” as a musical memoir consisting of 12 solo instrumental guitar songs. Four are originals and the other eight are Sparks’ interpretations of classic songs from many different areas of music, from The Beatles’ “Blackbird,” to Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles” to Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” He also takes on old, traditional American tunes like “I’ll Fly Away,” “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and “Wayfaring Stranger.”

The name of the album – and the title track – has multiple meanings, as do most of the titles of guitar works he writes (see liner notes for substantial detail). Like Sparks explained to people around the world about his old hometown, Frazee, “When people ask me, ‘Where is Frazee?’ I like to say it’s halfway between Fargo and Lake Wobegon.”

On the surface, the record and title song is an homage to a young boogie-woogie pianist, Chase Garret, whom Sparks did a tour with a few years ago. But in the tune, he is trying to emulate a boogie-woogie piano player, who would have the use of both their hands and all 10 fingers. It is easier for a pianist to keep a bass line going with his left hand while simultaneously playing chords and melody in his right hand. As a guitarist, Sparks is fretting with one hand only using only four fingers, because most the time guitar players don’t play with their thumbs. So translating that to guitar is a very tough task, hence he felt like he was “Chasin’” that sound.

The non-original compositions on the album are better described as masterful “re-imaginings” rather than covers. He takes songs that every guitar player knows, like The Beatles’ classic “Blackbird,” and arranges them to sound like a big band orchestra for a single six-stringed instrument. He’ll even throw in melodic scales that are more associated with Middle Eastern music than Western or American music, like in his arrangement of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.”

“When I arrange a song I try to make it my own, but also contribute meaningfully to the totality of how that song is understood,” Sparks said.

The selection of reimagined songs was a very personal decision for Sparks, inspired by his mother.

“A few years ago there was a YouTube video of an old man in a Parkinson’s unit and somebody played music for him and his memory came back,” Sparks said. “My mom would have that same experience when I played music for her. So I started playing some of these old hymns like ‘What A Friend We Have in Jesus’ for her. So then I just started to think of songs that she would know and recognize. Which that was kind of the original settings for some of these songs.”

Sparks has recorded almost every genre of music and is admired by some of the most respected living guitarists. Fingerstyle legend Leo Kottke said, “(Sparks’) stuff is very difficult to play, but it doesn't sound difficult. I think that's real musicianship. He's really one of the best musicians I know."

Jazz guitar legend Bill Frisell said, "(He makes) totally beautiful and inspiring music. Tim Sparks is incredible, a complete original."

But Sparks doesn’t let it go to his head – or stop working.

“Right now I have really big projects that I am trying to finish.” He continued, “I have a giant collection of Russian Music that I want to record, John Zorn wants me to cut another record for his label Tzadik, and I was just down in St. Pete, Florida and recorded a new course for TrueFire.”

Despite his busy schedule of touring around the world and recording new projects, Sparks always finds time to play in Fargo and surrounding communities. Like Frazee, which he called home for many years, this area has a special place in his heart.

“I think living in Frazee might have been the best years of my life,” he said. “I love the high plains, I like the climate, the air is fresher. There is a vibe and an energy that is different up there that I really like.”