Reflecting on the Life of Boston Jazz Legend Sparkie Miele: An Influencer in the Truest Sense of the Word
Working late nights in Boston years ago gave me the opportunity to meet some interesting figures on the urban landscape.
I got to know Sparkie Miele while he was playing several nights each week with his jazz quartet at the Terrace Lounge in Boston’s Copley Square. Roughly 68 years old at the time, Sparkie had spent a lifetime in music and radiated the cool demeanor that you might expect from a professional jazz player. I once asked him if he could figure out the chords to the old classic song Stars Fell on Alabama so that I could play it on the guitar. He showed up a few nights later with the music written out in what looked like a work of art, although what he transcribed in longhand was so musically detailed it was impossible for me to use. On another occasion, Sparkie approached me and a friend, both musicians, about what he said was a really hip song that he claimed to have discovered that he wanted to add to his set. He told us it was called The Flintstones Theme and began to hum the song while snapping his fingers. When we began humming along with him, a look of bewilderment came over Sparkie’s face. “Wait a minute,” he said. You two know this tune?” A jazzman to the core, Sparkie was surprised to learn that The Flintstones Theme was a relatively well-known song. Sparkie and I got together for a promotional story I was writing for the Post-Gazette in Boston’s North End. Although my interview with Sparkie was intended to be primarily biographical at the time, a recent review of my notes caused me to reflect on Sparkie’s approach to life with renewed meaning.
Sparkie Miele was born in 1930 in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, Spartaco Silvio Giovanni (John) Miele, one of eight children born to Vincenzo and Francesca Miele. When he was ten years old, Sparkie told his father that he wanted to play the clarinet. Having grown up in a house full of music, Sparkie was already listening to Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw among other artists at that time. His father, an Italian immigrant, played both guitar and mandolin and promised to buy Sparkie a clarinet on the condition that he would learn solfeggio first. “Solfeggio is the art of reading music without an instrument,” shared Sparkie. “My father gave me a book to accompany my studies that had come from LaScala DeMilan Opera House in Italy. After ten months studying solfeggio my father declared that I was ready for a clarinet. It was a private party deal and the guy that sold us the clarinet also had a saxophone, so we bought both of them.”
Within a few years, Sparkie was playing school dances, block parties, and neighborhood functions in Cambridge. By the time he was 16 years old he was playing clubs in Boston’s Scollay Square, a less than reputable area in Boston’s old West End neighborhood. “It did not go over well with my parents. I got caught playing there a few times,” said Sparkie. “I was told on more than one occasion, ‘Get home right now!,” he said while laughing. “But it was playing in Scollay Square,” said Sparkie, “where I really developed my skills as a musician.” As just a teenager, Sparkie was soon playing regular gigs at several Scollay Square venues including The Bowdoin Cafe, The Rainbow Restaurant, and at the old Hotel Imperial, a popular location for off-duty sailors known for its “permissive policy towards prostitution,” according to Boston’s West End Museum. “Doing these shows I needed to know how to play more than one horn. You had to be able to double on instruments because changes in songs demanded different players, so it was a big plus to be able to switch horns and play different parts of songs. It made me more versatile and really became my ticket to getting more gigs.”
After graduating from high school Sparkie went out on the road. “I toured the midwest with a territory band during the late 1940s. The experience was great. I learned a lot more about music and touring and doing it for work gave me a chance to be exposed to more music. As a result, I gained the ability to read more music.” But in January 1951, Sparkie was drafted into the military as a U.S. Army machine gun operator to serve his part in the Korean War. “It was different than today. I was called and I went, no questions asked. I was sure to let them know that I was a musician, but they put me into a machine gun unit anyway. During my five months of training, I continued to play in the service clubs at the same time.” En route to Korea, Sparkie’s unit made a military stopover in Japan. “A few of us were told that, because we were musicians, we were going to be sent to Tokyo to audition for General MacArthur’s band, but only six of us would make it. The rest of us would continue on to Korea. Of course, I had no horn with me. How was I going to audition without a horn? As luck would have it, the army supplied me with a clarinet and sent me into a private room to quickly warm up. When I told them I was ready, a man showed up and took his place behind a piano. I was told to play a melodic minor scale along with the piano accompaniment. The piano player asked me if I played jazz, to which I said, ‘Sure do!’ After we played for a few minutes, I was told that I would be staying.” As a member of MacArthur’s band, Sparkie found himself playing functions for dignitaries, but also toured Japan with the Johnny Watson Kampai Kings. “Watson was a First Sergeant, but also a brilliant composer and arranger. We had a seven piece orchestra and toured Japan. Watson had a really popular tune out called 720 in the Books that was recorded by RCA.” But Sparkie’s commitment to the military was nearing an end and he longed to return to the United States. “Johnny wanted me to stay. He told me that he could get me gigs all over Japan. Even though I thought the clubs were a ball, I thought it was time to get home.”
Back in the United States, Sparkie furthered his studies in music. “I met a very talented composer and arranger by the name of Frank Cangliuso in Boston. Frank was a great clarinet and saxophone player who taught me the art of reharmonization and composition and, to this day, I still use the methods he taught me.” After a few years doing regular stints at the New York Country Club where he would gain the attention of celebrities like Norm Crosby and then playing a series of gigs in Miami Beach, Sparkie was again headed overseas, this time to Europe and Africa for a tour that was to last six months. “I headed off as part of a U.S.O. tour with stops in Turkey, France, Scotland, England, Germany, and also a few locations in Africa. It was on this tour that I met the girl that I knew I was going to marry. Marjorie Altman was a singer on the same tour, and although I didn’t act on it at the time, she had already changed the course of my life without me realizing it.” Returning to the U.S. from Europe, Sparkie found work on a Caribbean jazz cruise, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Marjorie. He contacted her in California, telling her via telephone that he wanted to marry her. “I had to go to California and ask her father, which I did. We were soon married and back on the east coast where we raised a family, three sons and a daughter. All have studied music.”
“Music has definitely changed, but my love for it is still the same,” said Sparkie. “Mine was the era of swing with Dexter Gordon, Zoot Sims, and Lester Young. I guess change is always good,” said Sparkie. “But music has just gone in a different direction. I like some of the more contemporary musicians like Dave Valentin, Frank West, and Michael Brecker, although he’s more of an avante-garde player. I appreciate their stuff, but I don’t play like they do. One guy I really dig is Branford Marsalis. I like his tenor and he plays great soprano. He is really talented. This area has continued to have a great music scene for jazz,” said Sparkie, who managed to play regularly at local Cambridge jazz spots like Scullers, Ryles, and the Regattabar over the years. “I also played behind some big acts like The 5th Dimension, Melissa Manchester, and Liberace. Those are just some that come to mind. I can’t even remember all the acts that I have played with.” Sparkie credited the influence of his father with his eventual success. “The ability to read music still gets me a lot of work. My father was right when he forced me to learn solfeggio when I was a kid.”
I was living in Somerville, Massachusetts, when I heard the news that Sparkie had passed away back in 2004. Although he certainly couldn’t be characterized as young even at the time of our interview, it was still hard to believe that someone who was always so enthusiastic about life was suddenly gone. “It was inspiring spiritually to watch a man who had an incredibly positive attitude toward all other human beings,” said Boston jazz musician Ferdinando Argenti, a member of Sparkie’s band, after Sparkie’s passing. “Sparkie would talk to someone the first time as if he had known the person for years. He had something about him that made people come back and see him just to be in his company. He was a beautiful person.” Sparkie’s effect was universal. “What can I say?” wrote a family friend attempting to describe Sparkie. “He was so cool.”
Looking back at our conversation years later Sparkie’s words convey not only a story about history and the importance of pursuing a passion, but also a potential transformation in our cultural values. Although Sparkie was an influence to so many, he never sought notoriety or the quintessential five minutes of fame. “I’m just loving everything that I’m doing,” Sparkie said at the end of our interview. “I’m enjoying life more now than I ever did. My wife has been a saint and I love her deeply. I love my kids and my grandkids. Music has been very rewarding for me, and I recommend it for anyone as a career or an avocation. But the most important thing for me is that I have always been able to continue doing what I love to do the most, which is to play music.”
I can’t imagine a more meaningful message than that.
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