Schizophrenia The Wang Project

Description

Levitating several meters off the ground, this extraordinary collection of diverse tracks captures a complete range of the expansive vocabulary of keyboardist Bobby Sparks with his boundless imagination. From flashy funk to slow-groove-soul ballads or directly from jazz, fusion, orchestral, even world music sounds, the aptly named Schizophrenia - The Yang Project covers a multitude of genres. Aboard his Battlespark Galactica for an exhilarating trip, the musician has invited notable guests including his friends from Dallas as well as a host of celebrities. The influences of Bernie Worrell, P-Funk, George Duke, Stevie Wonder, D'Angelo, Dizzy Gillespie, and other important figures can all be heard in this first solo project of Bobby Sparks II as a leader. Born into a family of musicians in Corsicana, Texas in 1973, Bobby started playing piano at the Baptist church on 6th Avenue at the age of 6. "My mother was a gospel organist and a church pianist, so she taught me all the popular hymns of the day," he recalls. "While my father was more into jazz. He was a trumpeter and leaned towards bebop. Dizzy Gillespie was his favorite player, but he also loved Sonny Stitt, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, and Count Basie, so I grew up with all that music. Later, he turned to Miles Davis and always wanted to play Kind of Blue for me. He also got me into Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff; that's how I learned to play the organ. My father was also a big fan of Albert King, Albert Collins, B.B. King, and Freddie King. So he also got me into the blues." The Hammond B-3 organ that Sparks received from his parents for his 6th birthday, which he still uses today, is just one of the many keyboards in his arsenal used in Schizophrenia. His collection includes the Mellotron 4000, Hohner D-6 clavinet, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Mini-Moog, Oberheim Obaxa, ARP Odyssey, and Prophet-5, all of which had their heyday in the '70s. "I love all these instruments from that era," says Sparks. "Each has a different character." These vintage keyboards have shaped the musician's distinctive voice and made him an extremely sought-after sideman, and these elements come to the forefront in Schizophrenia.