Frankie Sparo

A mysterious 4-track cassette was first delivered to Constellation in the summer of 1998, and through the thick mists of tape hiss and reverb-drenched guitar, we heard the magic. Frankie Sparo was a moniker of Chad Jones, unparalleled wordsmith and scrawny performer. From his earliest Montreal solo performances accompanied only by guitar – including his first show in town, at Constellation’s Musique Fragile concert series – Jones rallied beatboxes and broken MIDI patches to his off-kilter rhythm cause and signed up various Montreal players to realise his unique arrangement ideas. Nadia Moss joined as an official second member for the composing, arranging and recording of Welcome Crummy Mystics, and together with Jessica Moss and Scott Levine Gilmore (both of Black Ox Orkestar and Silver Mt. Zion), comprised Frankie Sparo’s short-lived but much adored full-band incarnation. Jones quietly put Sparo on ice in 2004, in a scarcely noticed move forecasted by his own “A Citizen’s Farewell”. He recently started work on Witchies, which he describes as “a little more uplifting”. Chad currently resides in Vancouver.