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Not klezmer, but really neat, anyway

Rio Nido CD coverBack in 1978, newly returned from Israel, I settled in to Santa Cruz, California. A local record store had this amazing LP that captured my ears for ages. By a band called "Rio Nido" (is that a pun?), it was called "I like to riff." It's one of the few LPs still occasionally played in this house of mp3s and CDs. I have wanted this music on CD for many, many years. Now, it's here. Rio Nido's first two CDs (I'm more a fan of the first, which is more deeply rooted in that '20s and '30s jazz-blues territory now being mined so effectively by Saskatchewan's Little Miss Higgins; the second is more "Lambert, Hendricks and Ross," and maybe my own listening had changed by the time it came out) are finally available.

In addition to being wonderful music, it is important to note that the Tim Sparks who was a core member of that original trio, is the same Tim Sparks whose amazing, warm guitar work on Jewish melody has long been generating best-selling CDs on John Zorn's Tzadik label. He has also released a book, Neshamah of his guitar arrangements.

The guy has talent. What can I say.

Check out Rio Nido on Tim Sparks website, listen to some mp3s, and pick up your own copies of that, and of his Jewish music, too.