From The New York Times:
Melvin Sparks, a guitarist whose brightly sinewy style made him an in-demand session player during the soul-jazz boom of the late 1960s and early ’70s, a touchstone during the acid-jazz trend of the ’90s and a wise elder on the jam-band scene of the last decade, died on March 13 at his home in Mount Vernon, N.Y. He was 64.
His wife, Judy Hassan, confirmed his death and said that he had diabetes and high blood pressure.
Mr. Sparks favored a clean, flinty tone, combining the brisk harmonic fluency of bebop with the bite and feeling of the blues. His early career coincided with a golden age for soul music, and he took its lessons deeply to heart. He liked to say simply that he played “jazz over a funky beat.”
• Melvin Sparks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Sparks