Tim Sparks

Guitar virtuoso Tim Sparks entered the world on October 31, 1954, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where his earliest lessons came from a moonshiner uncle. While enrolled at the North Carolina School of the Arts he worked on classical technique under Jesus Silva, a protégé of Andrés Segovia. After finishing his studies in 1973 he toured with an R&B group; a stop in Minneapolis prompted him to relocate there for good. He soon joined the vintage jazz ensemble Rio Nido, whose albums I Like to Riff, Hi Fly, and Voicings appeared before the band dissolved in 1987. Sparks then devoted several years to investigating musical traditions worldwide, obtaining a Jerome Foundation fellowship to examine Portuguese fado and a Minnesota State Arts Board grant for Eastern European repertoire. He also performed with local ethnic ensembles that included the Brazilian group Mandala, the Persian outfit Robayat, and a Jewish wedding band. A year after issuing his 1992 guitar adaptation of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite, he claimed the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas, and released the solo album Balkan Dreams; Guitar Bazaar appeared in 1995. One String Leads to Another came out in 1999 and was quickly followed by Neshamah, the first of several Tzadik releases that also comprised Tanz (2000), At the Rebbe’s Table (2002), and Little Princess (2009).