Here Comes Charlie

Houston Person (tenor sax), Virgil Jones (trumpet), Melvin Sparks (electric guitar), Charles Earland (organ) and Idris Muhammad (drums). From the album Black Talk! (1970) by Charles Earland.

Melvin Sparks was an American guitarist who played blues, rhythm and blues, bebop, hard bop, soul jazz, jazz-funk and acid jazz, introducing his sound influenced by the remarkable Grant Green in several important albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He worked extensively as a studio musician for the Prestige, Blue Note and Milestone labels, appearing in over a hundred recordings. He collaborated with Dr. Lonnie Smith, Sonny Phillips, Charles Earland, Lou Donaldson, Johnny “Hammond” Smith, Sonny Stitt, Rusty Bryant, Idris Muhammad, Etta Jones, Hank Crawford, Houston Person, John DeFrancesco, his son Joey DeFrancesco, Red Holloway, Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers, Karl Denson, Jimmy McGriff, Bernard Purdie, Dakota Staton, Reuben Wilson and Rhoda Scott among others.

He was also invited to perform with soul funk groups The Greyboy Allstars, The New Mastersounds and Soulive. His songs were sampled by countless hip hop musicians and DJ’s, including Grandmaster Flash. Born in Houston, Sparks listened to rhythm and blues and jazz since childhood, and his parents bought him his first guitar when he was eleven. While in high school he began playing rhythm and blues first with Hank Ballard and the Midnighters and from 1963 with the Upsetters, which backed up great singers like Little Richard, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke.

From 1966 to 1967 he was part of the organist Jack McDuff’s band, with which he appeared in Do It Now! (1966) and Double Barreled Soul (1967). In 1970 he debuted as a leader for Prestige Records interpreting soul jazz in Sparks!, including two tenor saxophones and a trumpet, as well as organist Leon Spencer and drummer Idris Muhammad. In 1971 he released Spark Plug, featuring Grover Washington, Jr., a future famous smooth jazz saxophonist; and in 1972 Akilah! with the support of several wind musicians.