AUGUST 14th at 4PM
Final Concert of Sevenars Music Festival’s 54th season
The Sparkman Trio, clarinet, piano, bass guitarJudith Lynn Stillman, piano
Photo: The Sparkman Trio, PC Jon Crispin| Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artists
Location: Sevenars Academy, just off Rte. 112 at Ireland Street ("Acoustic gem, idyllic setting." - Berkshire Eagle)
Town: South Worthington, Massachusetts
Date: Sunday August 14, at 4PM
Phone number: 413-238-5854 (please leave a message for return call)
Admission: by donation at the door (suggested $20 - please include the word "suggested!) - including refreshments
Sevenars is delighted once again to present as its season finale one of its traditional favorites, the Bob Sparkman Trio, in what will mark the 20th annual performance of jazz duos/trios from these special musicians!! The duo of clarinetist Bob Sparkman and pianist Jerry Noble gave over a decade of memorable Sevenars performances starting in 2002, but with the addition of bass guitarist Kara Noble (also Jerry’s wife), it has increased its range as an outstanding trio, and (having skipped a pandemic year) this concert will mark their 20th!
The Sparkman-Noble collaborations are known to many in the area as uniquely glowing, brimming with the mutual love and admiration that has grown through years of making music together. Bob Sparkman is, in the words of pianist-composer Clifton J. ("Jerry") Noble, “a living representative of jazz history - he has learned, loved, and promoted this music for decades and has played with some of the finest practitioners of the art - it's in his soul and he lives and breathes it" Speaking for his wife bass guitarist Kara Noble and himself, he adds, "Kara and I feel honored to make music with such a profound, positive force for good in the music world, and there is no more comfortable, appropriate, and exciting place to do that than Sevenars concerts.” Their usual favorites include treasures like Stardust, Sweet Georgia Brown, Honeysuckle Rose, Avalon, Pennies from Heaven, Rose Room, and Frenesi, as announced from the stage in their inimitable bantering style.
Clifton “Jerry” Noble is a sought-after composer of works performed internationally, as well as having been the incredibly versatile staff pianist for Smith college and music reviewer for the Springfield press. He has enjoyed more than twenty years of jazz collaborations with clarinet wizard Bob Sparkman, and together they have attracted devoted fans of their concerts and numerous coveted CD recordings.
Bob Sparkman is a national treasure who honed his golden clarinet phrasing while playing with The Jazzmen, The Bourbon Street Six, the Gotham Jazz Band, Fats Waller’s trumpeter Herman Autry and other greats.
Bass guitarist Kara Noble, as Jerry’s wife and longtime musical partner, adds her special insight into his compositions, as well as her own inimitable touch in the group improvisations!
Admission is by donation (suggested $20) and refreshments are free. Because this trio invites celebration in the spirit of the great Jazz Age, some friends of Sevenars in flapper garb will be serving special "Mocktails" - don't miss the fun!
This 2022 project is supported in part by the Cultural Councils of Acushnet, Agawam, Billerica, Charlemont-Hawley, Chesterfield, Buckland, Everett, Gardner, Huntington, Lee, Middleborough, Middlefield, Montgomery, Revere, Russell, West Springfield, Wilbraham, and Worthington, local agencies which are funded in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment of the Arts.
