Speedy Sparks, bassist for Texas Tornados, other San Antonio music icons, has died

Speedy Sparks (second from left in the rear) performed with legendary musicians, including the Texas Tornados. Credit: Courtesy Photo / Texas Tornados

Speedy Sparks, a bassist who played with Lone Star State music icons including Doug Sahm, Joe King Carrasco and the Texas Tornados, has died at age 79, according to friends and associates.

Though he primarily worked out of Austin, Sparks first made his mark in San Antonio, recording with new-wave wild man Carrasco at the West Side’s Zaz Studios. That recording, eventually released as Carrasco’s album Tex-Mex Rock & Roll, pulled together some of the city’s finest players, including the West Side Horns, and became a surprise UK hit.

Sparks later joined a reformed Sir Douglas Quintet for the Border Wave LP, produced by San Antonio native Cassell Webb and Ramones producer Craig Leon.

From there, Sparks became Sahm’s go-to bassist and in 1989 joined the Texas Tornados when Sahm formed that supergroup with a Mount Rushmore of South Texas musicians, including Augie Meyers, Flaco Jimenez and Freddy Fender

Following the Tornados’ explosive success, Sparks stayed on the Austin scene, performing multiple gigs weekly with local acts and cementing his rep as of the city’s most quietly accomplished musicians. His credits also including working with Velvet Underground founder Sterling Morrison, a Texas transplant.

“Understated, grooveful, foundational — elevating,” Jeff Smith of San Antonio’s Saustex Records wrote in a Facebook tribute to Sparks. “Speedy knew how to listen and how to lay it down in the mode of Jimmy Reed style blues — deceptively melodic and shaded with nuance. If someone were to ask me to point to anyone I think/thought was a great bass player, Speedy would be at the top of my list. He intuitively knew exactly what and how much to play no matter the style of the song.”

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This article appears in Oct. 2-15.

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