(Jewish Folk / Instrumental Guitar (Acoustic) / Fingerstyle / Tzadik / Ethnic Jazz / Klezmer Jazz) Tim Sparks - At the Rebbe's Table - 2002, FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009
EAC extraction logfile from 11. October 2010, 13:09
Tim Sparks / At the Rebbe's Table
Used drive  : HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GSA-H54N   Adapter: 0  ID: 0
Read mode               : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache      : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction                      : 102
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out          : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks   : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations       : Yes
Used interface                              : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format              : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate                : 320 kBit/s
Quality                         : High
Add ID3 tag                     : No
Command line compressor         : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V %s
TOC of the extracted CD
     Track |   Start  |  Length  | Start sector | End sector
    ---------------------------------------------------------
        1  |  0:00.00 |  4:56.52 |         0    |    22251
        2  |  4:56.52 |  4:30.35 |     22252    |    42536
        3  |  9:27.12 |  4:08.44 |     42537    |    61180
        4  | 13:35.56 |  5:13.21 |     61181    |    84676
        5  | 18:49.02 |  5:14.02 |     84677    |   108228
        6  | 24:03.04 |  3:48.64 |    108229    |   125392
        7  | 27:51.68 |  5:24.24 |    125393    |   149716
        8  | 33:16.17 |  3:38.27 |    149717    |   166093
        9  | 36:54.44 |  4:38.72 |    166094    |   187015
       10  | 41:33.41 |  7:03.46 |    187016    |   218786
       11  | 48:37.12 |  3:06.38 |    218787    |   232774
Range status and errors
Selected range
     Filename C:\EAC\Tim Sparks - At the Rebbe's Table.wav
     Peak level 100.0 %
     Range quality 100.0 %
     Test CRC 8C3C89D4
     Copy CRC 8C3C89D4
     Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track  1  not present in database
Track  2  not present in database
Track  3  not present in database
Track  4  not present in database
Track  5  not present in database
Track  6  not present in database
Track  7  not present in database
Track  8  not present in database
Track  9  not present in database
Track 10  not present in database
Track 11  not present in database
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
End of status report

Biography
by Jason Ankeny
Guitar virtuoso Tim Sparks was born October 31, 1954, in Winston-Salem, NC, taking his first music lessons from his moonshiner uncle; while attending the North Carolina School of the Arts, he also studied classical guitar with Andrés Segovia protégé Jesus Silva. Upon graduating in 1973, Sparks went on tour with an R&B band, and during a stop in Minneapolis he opted to move to the city permanently; there he joined the vintage jazz combo Rio Nido, which recorded albums including I Like to Riff, Hi Fly, and Voicings before disbanding in 1987. Sparks then spent the next several years exploring musical cultures from across the globe, winning a Jerome Foundation fellowship to study the fado tradition in Portugal as well as earning a grant from Minnesota's State Arts Board to study Eastern European music; he additionally played in a variety of local ethnic acts including including the Brazilian group Mandala, the Persian outfit Robayat, and even a Jewish wedding band. A year after the release of his 1992 guitar adaptation of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite, Sparks won the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship in Winfield, KS, and released the solo effort Balkan Dreams; Guitar Bazaar followed in 1995. In 1999 Sparks released One String Leads to Another, followed closely by Neshamah, the first of several collections (Tanz [2000], At the Rebbe's Table [2002], and Little Princess [2009]) for John Zorn's Tzadik label.

Cat. # 7160
Released Apr 2002
cd time - 51:45
US Price $16.00
The breathtaking guitarist who created Neshamah and Tanz, two of the most popular CDs in the Tzadik catalogue, continues to delight us with his newest release At the Rebbe’s Table. Tim Sparks once again has managed to choose a surprising program of Jewish music from around the world. Lilting melodies to tickle the soul. Harmonies and rhythm to make you dance. Special guests Marc Ribot and Erik Friedlander join Tim’s trio from Tanz for some intimate duets and complex band arrangements. At the Rebbe’s Table is Tim’s best CD yet.
Personnel:
Cyro Baptista: Percussion
Greg Cohen: Bass
Erik Friedlander: Cello
Marc Ribot: Nylon-string Acoustic Guitar
Tim Sparks: Steel-string Acoustic Guitar

"Jewish music comes full circle -- on the guitar!, May 5, 2002
By Rabbi Yonassan Gershom (Minnesota, USA)
Judging from his music, Tim Sparks has found a deep connection between music and Jewish mysticism. "At The Rebbe's Table" is his third CD in a series of, in his own words, "explorations of Jewish mystical traditions." Played on the steel-string guitar.
If you think the guitar is not an authentically "Jewish" instrument, think again. Plucking stringed instruments dates all the way back to biblical times. King David, it is said, meditated on the sound of his harp. Not to mention that the Sephardic Jews came from Spain --original home of the guitar. Spain was also the home of several schools of kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) during the Middle Ages, whose writings are still studied today. I can easily imagine the Spanish kabbalists meditating to the sound of this instrument. As Sparks explains in his liner notes, "There's a way in which a guitar can uniquely embody these Jewish songs, something about the guitar having evolved from the Judeo-Arabic culture in Spain." So, if you hear strains of flamenco in some of these arrangements, that's not a gentile intrusion -- just a case of Jewish music coming full circle.
He's not just strumming Hava Nagila, either. This is highly sophisticated finger-style picking, accompanied by Marc Ribot on nylon acoustic guitar, Erik Friedlander on the cello, Greg Cohen on bass, and Cyro Basta on percussion. The result is an ensemble with a fresh sound that made me hear Jewish music in an entirely new way. The pieces include traditional Hasidic niggunim, a tune based on an old Yemenite chant, and Sephardic pieces collected in Greece and Bosnia. Plus there are three tunes by Naftule Brandwein, and two klezmer gems gleaned from old 78s recorded by the Abe Schwartz Orchestra. In each case, Sparks and company have breathed a new spirit into these varied forms of Jewish music. Their latest CD is a creative experiment that definitely succeeds!"
( Source.. и "уйма" других откликов @ http://www.amazon.com/At-Rebbes-Table-Tim-Sparks/dp/B000063BUT )

This is Tim Sparks' third album as a leader for the Tzadik label, and as with the others he interprets tunes from the repertoire of traditional Jewish song. Here, he takes a few pieces from the noted modern composer Naftule Brandwein, along with an eclectic selection of traditional Yemenite, Sephardic, Hasidic, and Klezmer melodies. This album is distinguished, at least in part, by the unusual collection of musicians, such as avant-gardists Marc Ribot on guitar and Erik Friedlander on cello, all of whom were handpicked by executive producer John Zorn. Zorn even contributed one of the compositions, the traditional-sounding "Mashav." Sparks stamps each piece with his own unique concept that incorporates elements of modern folk music and some jazz. He transforms the traditional Jewish repertoire so that it barely resembles the way in which the songs have typically been played. They are mutated into lovely, tuneful melodic excursions that, although not vigorous enough to serve in their usual roles as dance music for weddings or religious holidays, are paragons of loveliness. In Sparks' fingers, these tunes are given new life as modern folk tunes, with Cyro Baptista's consistently rhythmic percussion giving them a forward-reaching thrust. Rejecting simplistic explications of the Jewish niggun, Sparks treats the melodies respectfully as serious guides to a people's past, and in the process explores the life-affirming nature of the music.

This set contains three tunes by Naftule Brandwein. The first, Fun Tashlach, refers to the Rosh Hashnah tradition of casting bread on the waters, thus the English title Returning From the River. Brandwein came from the Polish province of Galicia, a musical crossroads situated between the Carpathian Mountains and the Crimea, and his songs reveal a wealth of these influences. For example, Terk in America, which was recorded on Tanz, an earlier project I did for Tzadik, is set in a rhythm like a Greek Kalimatiano. Der Heisser, or the Tartar Dance, is written in a Persian sounding 6/8 meter. Fim Di Mekhutonim Aheym, a wedding song, alludes to a tradition of musicians Walking the In-laws Home in the early morning hours at the end of the wedding party. There are two more Klezmer gems mined from old 78's by the Abe Schwartz Orchestra: Baym Rebn's Sude and the Sadagora Chusidl. I learned Abu's Courtyard, an Israeli Hasidic tune associated with Mount Meron, from a version by Klezmer violinist Yehoshua Rochman. Kefer Yefefiya is from an old Yeminite chant, which is demonstrated on the Beth Hatefutsoth Museum's recording titled Ahavat Hadasa. It's a song about Jerusalem and translates as Beautiful City. The Sephardic tradition represented by three selections, La Serena was taught to me by David Harris, who has traveled and done fieldwork to collect Sephardic songs and their variations. he found this version in one of the oldest Sephardic communities in the Balkans; Salonika, Greece. David also introduced me to Flory Jagoda. Flory is a big inspiration, and her guitar style in particular informed my own concept for adapting Jewish music to fingerstyle guitar. I first played La Jave Espana in a concert with Flory and her family band at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan. Flory came from a village in Bosnia near Sarajevo. The first Sephardic immigrants had arrived 400 years earlier after being expelled from Spain. Hoping to return someday, many families kept the keys to their homes, and passed them down for generations, thus the title, The Keys From Spain. Todos Si Hueron is a Ladino dialect for They Have All Gone. This is a haunting tune about Flory's return to her old village decades after the end of the Second World War. Flory wrote this song especially for David's group, Voices of Sepharad. Finally, Mashav is by John Zorn and means Thought. There's a Yiddish saying, "Man thinks and God laughs." This song shows a quieter, meditative side of the iconoclastic composer. For this recording, John Zorn invited guitarist Marc Ribot and cellist Erik Friedlander, in addition to Greg Cohen on bass and Cyro Baptista on percussion. We wanted to try a variety of textures and you'll hear solo guitar, guitar duets, guitar and cello, guitar with cello, bass and percussion, and so on. Collaborating with these great musicians was exhilarating to say the least. If you're enjoying this collection of tunes, it's due mostly to all the ideas they contributed. There's a way in which a guitar can uniquely embody these Jewish songs, something about the guitar having evolved from the medieval Judeo-Arabic culture in Spain. Cyro suggested we ask Marc Ribot to bring his nylon-string and happily, he did. At one point, Marc looked at me with a slight smile and said, "Classical guitars get jealous if you don't play them." Fortunately, Marc and his guitar made up, as you can hear in his solos. Erik Freidlander brings all the skill and poise of a consummate classical musician to the table, and then improvises and plays great time - and when he plays he has a great time and you have a great time playing with him! I especially like Erik's take on At the Rebbe's Table,which we made the title track for this CD. Now Cyro Baptista is like some kind of force of nature. I never worry about what he's going to do. It just bubbles out. In fact, watching him work out is as much fun as listening. This is the second recording I've done with Greg Cohen and I've come to realize he doesn't merely play incredible bass but has a sense of humor and personality that puts everyone at ease before he plays a note. Greg suggested many improvements to these arrangements, and for this, we can be thankful. A word of thanks also to Jim Anderson, who came out to hear us play, and also took the time to sit in on a rehearsal in order to get a sense of the ensemble sound, which he captured very well. Scott Hull did the mastering, tweaking things and generally putting the icing on the cake, and lighting it just right for the presentation. This is the third volume in a series of guitar explorations of Jewish musical traditions for Tzadik and I'm grateful to John and Kaz for the opportunity to record some of the most beautiful music I've ever arranged for guitar. Kazunori Sugiyama is a man of few words. He just calmly shepherds the organized chaos of this process toward a happy conclusion. And John Zorn, what can I say? Two words come to mind, Contagious Enthusiasm. That, and he plays a mean abacus.
-- Tim Sparks, 2002