He liked to say simply that he played “jazz over a funky beat.”

RIP Melvin Sparks

Melvin Sparks (March 22, 1946 – March 13, 2011) was an American soul jazz, hard bop and jazz blues guitarist. He died on March 13, 2011 from complications from diabetes.




Melvin Sparks is the Essential Guitar Player! He’s The Master Of The Groove! The Acid-Jazz Pioneer! The Originator of Soul Jazz, Old School Acid Jazz & BarbecueFunk(FUNKJAZZ)

Over the last thirty years he has played with some of Jazz’s greatest musicians: David "Fathead" Newman, Lou Donaldson, Hank Crawford, Reuben Wilson and John Patton (are amongst the many). During the 1970s, Sparks backed up Lou Donaldson on the Funk-Jazz classics "Everything I Play Is Funky" and "Hot Dog".

Sparks recorded seven albums of his own and played on over 100 other albums. As a session man for Blue Note and Prestige Records, Sparks laid his signature guitar work on many other musician’s albums without ever being in spotlight. It was during this time that Melvin defined the jazz-guitar sound of a generation.

Melvin Sparks is still a much sought-after studio player, both new and old talents seek him out now more than ever. He continues to perform with the greats of this genre such as Leon Spencer Jr., Mike Clark and Idris Mohammed and is now breaking out his legendary guitar wizardry with many younger bands and artists such as Galactic, The Greyboy Allstars, Karl Denson's Tiny Univers, Derek Trucks and Robert Walter's 20th Congress.

Melvin is geared up to show us all what he does better than anyone else. Groove hard and in the pocket. Melvin Sparks has perhaps the most inspiring and soul-energizing guitar chops on this planet or another. He is admired by many performers, and audiences old and young alike, but continues to be a hidden treasure for music fans worldwide. He is Soul-Jazzy and Funky to the core! .

In the player below,

Melvin Sparks Band Live at Muddy River Smokehouse on May 28, 2004






Tr-01 Fire Eater
Tr-02 Alligator Boogaloo
Tr-03 Charlie Brown
Tr-04 Miss Riverside
Tr-05 Hot Dog
Tr-06 Pick up the Pieces
Tr-07 Texas Twister
Tr-08 Give Me the Night
Tr-09 Cherokee

2120 South Michigan Avenue

Here's a little Rolling Stones instrumental for ya.

"2120 South Michigan Avenue" is the street address of Chess Studios, where many of the band's R&B idols had recorded. After a disappointing first half of their inaugural American Tour, the Stones were brought to Chicago for these sessions. The first day, June 10, the Stones were thrilled by the appearance of several visitors in the studio - Buddy Guy, Chuck Berry and Willie Dixon. When the band arrived the next day, none other than Muddy Waters helped them lug guitars and amps into the studio, and stayed around to chat with the boys, who were astonished by the whole experience.



The video is "Truckdriving in Sweden". It was uploaded to YouTube by rocknsixties

Happy Birthday Jorma!!!

The Legendary American blues, folk and rock guitarist, Jorma Kaukonen celebrates a birthday today. He is 70 years old.
Jorma is best known for his work with Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane.

For what it's worth, he also made an awesome Christmas album.









Here's a few vids!

Uncle Sam Blues -




Hesitation Blues -



Christmas Rule -

Justice For All

A native of West Virginia, folksinger Dick Justice blended both blues and folk patterns on his recordings of the late '20s.
Born Richard Justice in 1906, he played with many black musicians as a youth and listened to blues records as well.
Justice recorded a total of ten sides for Brunswick during 1929 (some as a duo with Reese Jarvis), including a version of "Henry Lee" that later gained inclusion on Harry Smith's 1952 folksong collection Anthology of American Folk Music.
Little is known about the rest of Justice's life, though he often worked in the coal mines.
Many of his sides were compiled on the Document collection Old-Time Music from West Virginia (1927-1929).



1.) Brown Skin Blues; 2.) Cocaine; 3.) Henry Lee; 4.) Little Lulie; 5.) Old Black Dog; 6.) One Cold December Day; 7.) Guian Valley Waltz; 8.) Muskrat Rag; 9.) Poca River Blues; 10.) Poor Girl's Waltz

"Chuck E. Weiss is the kind of guy who would steal his own car " - Tom Waits

Chuck E. Weiss grew up in Denver. A rebellious child and adolescent, he always felt alienated from others his age and just slightly left of the mainstream.He found himself greatly influenced by what he heard on the radio and by the music his father listened to, an eclectic mix of boogie-woogie, sabre dance, sambas, mambos, and Hank Williams.
Chuck E. acquired an extensive record collection from his father, who was in the salvage business, and from the neighborhood trash collector (one "Pappy" Frye) who left him a vast collection of old albums.
Unable to read music, he did have a knack for finding the beat, so it only seemed natural that Chuck E. would express his rhythm on the drums. When he was nine, his folks bought him his first drum kit. By the time Chuck E. was a teenager a local manager and promoter asked him to sit in on drums during a nightclub appearance by Lightnin' Hopkins. The gig went well and Chuck E. convinced the legendary bluesman to take him on tour.
By the late '60s, Chuck E. Weiss had toured with Hopkins, and found himself performing and/or recording with the likes of Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Roger Miller and others.
In 1972, while playing in the Ebbett's Field house band, Weiss met a new headlining act named Tom Waits. Weiss thought he was different and got to talking to the guy. They met again after Weiss moved to Hollywood and they became fast friends. They also started a long musical collaboration with the song "Spare Parts," which Waits recorded on his 1975 Nighthawks at the Diner album.In the late '70s, Chuck E. lived at West Hollywood's famed Tropicana Motel along with Waits and an up-and-coming singer-songwriter named Ricki Lee Jones. Jones would later immortalize Chuck E. in her top five hit "Chuck E.'s in Love."

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan

Founding Grateful Dead member Ron McKernan passed away on today's date in 1973.


Starting a rock band was actually Ron McKernan's idea, and he was its first front man, delivering stinging harmonica, keyboards, and beautiful blues vocals in the early years of the Warlocks/Grateful Dead. Nicknamed "Pigpen" for his funky approach to life and sanitation, he was born into a family that was generally conventional, except for the fact that his (Caucasian) father was an R & B disc jockey. And that sound put Pig's life on the rails of the blues from the time he was 12. Liquor, Lightnin' Hopkins, the harmonica and some barbecue - it was an unusual life for a white kid from San Carlos, but it was Pig's life. And the hard-drinkin' blues life began to catch up with Pig by the very early '70s. He played his last show with the band in 1972, and on March 8, 1973, he died of internal hemorrhaging caused by his drinking.

"Pigpen was the only guy in the band who had any talent when we were starting out. He was genuinely talented. He also had no discipline, but he had reams of talent. And he had that magical thing of being able to make stuff up as he went along. He also had great stage presence. The ironic thing was that he hated it - it really meant nothing to him; it wasn't what he liked. We had to browbeat him into being a performer. His best performances were one-on-one, sitting in a room with an acoustic guitar. That's where he was really at home and at his best.

"Out in front of the crowd he could work the band, and he'd really get the audience going. He always had more nerve than I could believe. He'd get the audience on his side, and he'd pick somebody out (like a heckler) and get on them... He was the guy who really sold the band, not me or Weir. Pigpen is what made the band work."

~ Jerry Garcia





Here's Robert Petersen's poem for Pigpen, written in 1973:

& pigpen died

my eyes tequila-tortured
4 days mourning
lost another fragment
of my own self
knowing
the same brutal
night-sweats & hungers
he knew
the same cold fist
that knocked him down
now clutching furiously
at my gut

shut my eyes
& see him standing
spread-legged
on the stage of the world
the boys prodding him
egging him on
he telling all he ever knew
or cared to know

mike hand cocked like
a boxer's
head throwed back
stale whiskey blues
many-peopled destinations
neon rainy streets
& wilderness of airports
thousands maybe millions
loved him
were fired instantly
into forty-five minutes of
midnight hour
but when he died
he was thin, sick, scared
and alone

like i said to laird
i just hope he didn't hurt
too much

+++++++++++ RIP Pigpen

The Americana Outlaw Murder Ballad Queen

"Some people have cars, some people have houses
hell some folks are married...but that's all the same to me as long I have my guitar and my songs..."

Texas-based songstress Izzy Cox (aka the “Murder Ballad Queen”) croons in a clear, honeyed soprano that slinks and slides against voodoobilly jazz, bouncy Western swing and honky tonkin’ blues. Her songs reflect a perverse sense of humor and feature a colorful cast of hard-bitten women, from a hoodoovoodoo type of girl who likes switchblades and Colt 45, to a mad woman in the 'Number Nine Ward' with voices in her head telling her she’s dead, to “Belle Gunness,” one of America’s most notorious female serial killers.

A bit of swing, jazz, country and old time --with a dark twist, Cox's songs are influenced by old movie soundtracks, old time bar room blues, and country singers. Her lyrics are like diary entries; stories of serial killers, buckaroo cowboys, and snake handlers.
Izzy had an unusual childhood, for the formative years of her life she would live in both rural Texas, and Montreal.Throughout her moving around she was part of a religious organization where she played in marching bands. At the age of twelve she found the traveling bug, she lived and worked in horse racing tracks, traveled with circuses and took part of many early punk rock mosh pits.

Izzy Cox has dedicated her life to touring & playing music & writing songs about her experiences.

Below you will find an in-studio performance by Izzy Cox & The Naughty Outlaws from KAOS radio.

1) Bad Bad Woman 2) Lazy Feista (Just a Feeling) 3) I Had a Dream Last Night 4) It Must Be Love 5) Electric Chair 6) Hoodoovoodoobilly Gal 7) Alone And Forsaken 8) Fucking And Fighting 9) Man of the Cloth 10) Killer From Hawaii 11) Killing My Own Kind 12) Devil Devil > Belle Gunness

(download mp3)

Bonus Video:

Shotgun Party

Sorry MC, no "sporting equipment", I refer to the fantastic musicians that comprise the old time pickin' band Shotgun Party.

The original Shotgun Party trio, "Two females and one bass slappin' man," met in a little Texas dive bar in 2006. They got their start performing weekly at Austin's own Continental Club. Their original songs are beautiful and timeless drawing influences from early blues, country, bluegrass and depression era swing.

In the player below, you'll find a wonderful set performed live in the KAOS studio for the Smooth & Demented Show from August 2007.



Track Listing:
1) Haunted House Bear
2) More Romantic Than Texas
3) The Builder
4) Operatar
5) Little Heart Tune
6) Holy Needles
7) Yell Out the Chords
8) New Mexico
9) Travelin' On

*Download complete performance*

... and if you like what you hear, be sure not to miss this related post!

"a little bit of Betty Boop, a little bit of bluegrass and an entire zoo of instruments..."

Today's Date In Music History:

The Asylum Street Spankers Live at Cedar Cultural Center Minneapolis, MN - November 22, 2006

They've been called a postmodern jug band and "Hee-Haw for hipsters," among other things. The Asylum Street Spankers combine theatrics, comedy and jaw-dropping musicianship to give their audience a new dimension in live musical entertainment--a fine balance between sin and salvation.
The Asylum Street Spankers began 15 years ago during a booze and hallucinogen-fueled party in Texas. Since then the revolving-door Austin ensemble has performed a unique brand of acoustic music that mixes sounds of the 1920's and 1930's with punk attitude and ribald humor.



Setlist: 1) Monkey Rag 2) Golden Fleece 3) Asylum Street Blues 4) Breathin' 5) Leaf Blower 6) Think About your Troubles 7) You Only Love Me For My Lunchbox 8) banter
9) Smokin' Resin From A Tin Can 10) Wake & Bake 11) Hick Hop 12) Why Do It Right?
13) banter 14) Tight Like That 15) My Favorite Record 16) Winning The War On Drugs
17) The Minor Waltz 18) banter 19) Big Noise At Winnetka
20) Don't Ask No Questions 21) Oh Daddy 22) Stick Magnetic Ribbons On Your SUV
23) If You Love Me (You'll Sleep On The Wet Spot) 24) Wammo's Blues 25) Smokey Dokey 26) Sidekick 27) banter 28) Digga Digga Do 29) crowd/banter 30) BEER

*Download complete show*

RIP Norton Buffalo

Blues harmonica virtuoso Norton Buffalo died Friday October 30th, following a brief battle with lung cancer.
Buffalo had been posting updates on his fight with the illness on his website, including information that the cancer was at an advanced stage and had spread to his brain.

Norton Buffalo played rock for years with the Steve Miller Band in the 70s, but had the ability to play many genres, with an emphasis on blues, rock and honky tonk. He toured this summer with Steve Miller and had many plans in the works when he learned he was sick.
Norton was 58 years old.

"He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats." -B.B. King (on guitarist Peter Green)

Fleetwood Mac founding member Peter Green (born Peter Allen Greenbaum) celebrates his 63rd birthday today.

Green --who had previously been Eric Clapton's replacement in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers-- was ranked 38th in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."

Joyful Noise

Today's Date In Music History:

Derek Trucks Band Live at The Paradiso on October 16, 2005

Four years ago today, guitar phenom Derek Trucks led his band through an amazing set at Amsterdam's famed Paradiso in the Netherlands. The performance finds the group covering a variety of musical genres --southern rock, blues, soul, jazz, Eastern music, to name a few.
Derek is the nephew of Butch Trucks (a fellow member of the Allman Brothers Band) and is married to fellow guitar wiz Susan Tedeschi .

This recording is from an FM broadcast on Dutch radio.

• My Favorite Things

• Let's Go Get Stoned

• Crow Jane

• Sahib Teri Bandi

• So Close...So Far Away

• Key To The Highway

• joyful Noise

Download show here.

R.I.P. Dickie Peterson

"I think the secret of rock & roll is that it’s 10% technique and 90% attitude. If you deliver one note with the right attitude, it will do more than 60 notes with no attitude."

Blue Cheer bassist and co-founder Dickie Peterson passed away on Oct. 12 after a bout with prostate cancer.

Blue Cheer had a hit with "Summertime Blues" in 1968 and were the heaviest band to emerge from the San Francisco psychedelic scene (and are also credited as being the pioneers of heavy metal).
"We’re just a power trio," Peterson said. "We play ultra blues, and it’s rock & roll. It’s really simple what we do."
Peterson, who was 61, had held the band -which was named after a brand of LSD- together over the years, but had canceled a recent tour to get treatment.



Dickie Peterson was a supporter of medical cannabis and was the recipient of the High Times Doobie award.

John Dawson Winter III

For your enjoyment, here's some Johnny Winter on The Old Grey Whistle Test!

MEMPHIS MINNIE (1897 - 1973)

Guitar player and blues singer Memphis Minnie is considered by many to be the best female blues artist of all time.
Minnie (born Lizzie Douglas) was as tough a drinker and blues singer as any man. She not only ranks along with the blues' best female artists, but also along with the best male blues artists.
Lizzie received her first guitar in 1905 as a Christmas present. She was soon playing guitar and banjo, and sometime during her early teens began running away from home to play on Memphis' Beale Street.
Minnie would play anywhere she could- on the street, in juke jives, in dives, in the park, at house parties, anywhere they’d listen.
Memphis Minnie’s innovation and rhythm on guitar impressed her contemporaries and her teachers alike. She traveled all over the States, and she easily changed her sets or arrangements to suit the chemistry of her audience.
Minnie was married three times, and each husband was an accomplished blues guitarist: Kansas Joe McCoy later of the Harlem Hamfats, Casey Bill Weldon of the Memphis Jug Band, and Ernest "Little Son Joe" Lawlers.


"When The Levee Breaks" by Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie



Memphis Minnie, Joe McCoy - "Pile Driver Blues"; Memphis Minnie, Ma Rainey - "Down By The Riverside"; Memphis Minnie, Memphis Jug Band - "Bumble Bee Blues"



In the mid 1950s, her health began to fail. Minnie returned to Memphis and retired from performing and recording. She spent her twilight years in a nursing home, where she died of a stroke in 1973. She is buried at the New Hope Baptist Church Cemetery in Walls, Mississippi.
A headstone paid for by Bonnie Raitt was erected by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund on 13 October 1996.

The inscription on the back of her gravestone reads:

"The hundreds of sides Minnie recorded are the perfect material to teach us about the blues. For the blues are at once general, and particular, speaking for millions, but in a highly singular, individual voice. Listening to Minnie's songs we hear her fantasies, her dreams, her desires, but we will hear them as if they were our own."