Keyboardist-composer-arranger-conceptualist Bobby Sparks continues his staggering output with Paranoia, a companion piece to 2019’s Schizophrenia — The Yang Projecton Leopard Records. An all-star outing featuring contributions from guitarists Mike Stern, John Scofield, Dean Brown, Andy Timmons and Eric Gales, saxophonists Chris Potter and Keith Anderson, bassists PinoPalladino, HadrienFeraud, Chuck Smith, Mononeon, Jay Mck and Reggie Washington, drummers Lil John Roberts, Dennis Chambers, Brannen Temple, Mike “Blaque Dynamite” Mitchell and Mark Simmons, and singers Lizz Wright, Dnessa Perry, Jojo Hill, Chuckii Booker and James Robinson, Paranoia is dedicated to the keyboardist’s father, the late Bobby Sparks, Sr., a lifelong bebop and blues fan. Also on board for this exhilarating ride are Sparks’ Snarky Puppy bandmates— bassist-founder Michael League, guitarist Mark Lettieri and drummer Jason ‘JT’ Thomas. The influences of keyboardists Bernard Wright, BernieWorrell, George Duke and Stevie Wonder as well as funk overlord George Clinton and Sparks’ own background in church music come to bear on his ambitious secondrelease as a leader for Leopard.
