Tim Sparks
At The Rebbe's Table

One of the highlights of Jewish culture is probably the love for words. God created the universe with the word. The Rabbi of Prague brings the Golem to life by reciting spells and gives it death by erasing the first letter of the word "emet" (=truth) and transforming it into "met" (death). The word does not describe reality, it is reality. It's not such a bizarre coincidence, the quantity (and quality) of songwriters of Jewish origin, from Bob Dylan to Leonard Cohen to Serge Gainsbourg, passing through Lou Reed to Burt Bacharach.

Traditional Jewish music, as our Zorn argues, who on Tzadik has long launched a series called "Radical Jewish Culture," dedicated to klezmer and Masada but not only, you can even find a tribute album to Marc Bolan. It indeed seems that the salient feature of Jewish culture is the ability to assimilate other traditions and keep them alive.

Tim Sparks is probably one of the greatest fingerpicking virtuosos alive. To all this is added a truly wide ethnic musical culture, ranging from fado to Brazilian music to the Jewish cultural element, which is precisely the subject of this album. It moves here from the compositions of Polish musician Rosh Hashanah, through Yemeni songs, arriving at Greek Sephardic songs. His passion for the cultural heritage of Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean is scholarly.
In the footsteps of Segovia. Passing through various Jewish traditions. And our Tim is not Jewish; what guides him is a passion for music of Mediterranean ethnic origin.

I close this terse review with the opinion of a guy you might know: "This is totally beautiful and inspiring music. Tim Sparks is incredible, a complete original." - Bill Frisell