Tim Sparks

Sidewalk Blues

If you think you might go for swinging fingerstyle arrangements of blues tunes originally penned by Jelly Roll Morton, Willie Brown, Eubie Blake, Fats Waller, Scott Joplin, Maybelle Carter, and Louis Armstrong, you should take this disc for a spin. In addition to the great arrangements and virtuoso performances, Sparks’ Collings, Hoffman, and Lakewood instruments (with a 1917 Gibson L-3 on one tune) sound wonderful. ToneWood. —Barry Cleveland