Bobby Sparks II | Jazz-Funk / Fusion | USA

Line-up

Bobby Sparks II | keys
Snarky Puppy, Prince, Herbie Hancock, Ray Charles, Nelly Furtado, Marcus Miller, Kirk Franklin, St. Vincent, Tower of Power, Lizz Wright

Jay McK / Justin “Jay Mack” McKinney | bass
Ghost-Note, Erykah Badu, Kirk Franklin, MonoNeon, Chaka Khan, Fred Hammond, Bobby Brown, Liv Warfield, Bobby Sparks II, GLOW

Keith Anderson | sax
Roy Hargrove, Marcus Miller, Les McCann, Erykah Badu, Kirk Franklin, Kanye West, Prince, Paul Jackson Jr., Bobby Sparks II, The RH Factor

Cam Lee | guitar
Nile Rodgers, Musiq Soulchild, Bobby Sparks II

DeAnthony McGee | EWI
Bobby Sparks II, Kirk Franklin, Michael McDonald, Joe Sample, Snarky Puppy

Adarian Roberts | drums
Bobby Sparks II, Tye Tribbett, Kirk Franklin, Anita Baker, The Crusaders, D’Angelo

Style

Vintage-key funk, gospel harmony and Texas jazz-fusion pressure, led from a fortress of organs, synths, Rhodes and Clavinet.

A rhythm section built for deep pocket, elastic backbeat and sudden gear-shifts, with bass and drums pushing the band toward body-level impact.

Sax, guitar and EWI expand the music into a high-voltage Black American continuum: blues, church, fusion, soul, hip-hop, funk opera.

Profile

Bobby Sparks II’s live project is not a keyboard showcase with accompaniment: it is a pressure system of groove, church harmony, jazz freedom and analog electricity. Sparks leads from the center, shaping Hammond, Rhodes, Clavinet, synths and sound-design into a dense orchestral field, while Jay McK and Adarian Roberts keep the music physical, flexible and dangerous. Keith Anderson brings the Roy Hargrove/RH Factor lineage into the front line, Cam Lee adds clipped funk guitar and R&B color, and DeAnthony McGee’s EWI opens a synthetic horn register that suits Sparks’ futuristic vocabulary. The result is a band that treats funk as architecture: heavy in the pocket, open in form, saturated in timbre, and built for improvisation without losing the body.

Details

Bobby Sparks II | keys. Leader, composer and producer, Sparks is the project’s harmonic and timbral engine. His language connects gospel voicings, Texas blues, jazz-funk, Prince-derived funk, analog synthesis and orchestral sound design. Verified work includes Snarky Puppy, Kirk Franklin, Roy Hargrove’s RH Factor, Marcus Miller, Herbie Hancock, Ray Charles, St. Vincent and Lizz Wright. In interview, he has described gospel as the source of his harmonic ear and Prince as a decisive inspiration.

Jay McK / Justin “Jay Mack” McKinney | bass. Low-end anchor and groove stabilizer, Jay McK gives the band the rounded, syncopated floor needed for Sparks’ dense keyboard architecture. Public sources identify him with Ghost-Note and list collaborations or credits connected to Erykah Badu, Kirk Franklin, MonoNeon, Chaka Khan, Fred Hammond, Bobby Brown and Liv Warfield. His role in this project is to keep the pocket wide while leaving space for Sparks’ rhythmic displacements and left-hand synth-bass gestures.

Keith Anderson | sax. Front-line saxophonist with a Dallas/RH Factor profile, Anderson brings a vocal, blues-rooted horn voice into Sparks’ high-density funk. Verified associations include Roy Hargrove, Marcus Miller, Les McCann, Erykah Badu, Kirk Franklin, Kanye West and Prince-related contexts, with credits on RH Factor recordings. In the band, he works as a melodic counterweight: gritty tenor/alto phrasing, call-and-response energy and direct links to the neo-soul/jazz-funk language Sparks helped shape.

Cam Lee | guitar. The current French ticketing material identifies the guitarist as Cam Lee, while management material lists “Cam” with Nile Rodgers and Musiq Soulchild. In this ensemble, the guitar chair is functional and coloristic: rhythmic chanks, R&B glue, blues-rock bite and tight comping around Sparks’ organ and Clavinet. Because public documentation is limited, no additional collaborations are added beyond those verified in current project materials.

DeAnthony McGee | EWI. McGee supplies the band’s most explicitly electronic wind color. Sources list him as EWI player in Bobby Sparks II’s live band and connect him with Kirk Franklin, Michael McDonald, Joe Sample and Snarky Puppy-related contexts. His role is not decorative: the EWI extends the horn section into synth-like bends, vocal phrasing, pitch manipulation and futuristic solo textures that match Sparks’ analog-electronic vocabulary.

Adarian Roberts | drums. Roberts is the live band’s young rhythmic engine, documented in Bobby Sparks II line-ups and reviewed live as a strikingly focused drummer. Management and venue materials connect him with Tye Tribbett, Kirk Franklin, Anita Baker, The Crusaders and D’Angelo. His function is to make the band move: deep pocket, gospel chops, responsive accents and enough propulsion to hold long-form funk-fusion structures together.

Discography

Bobby Sparks II: as leader, Schizophrenia: The Yang Project (2019) and Paranoia (2022). Verified associated recordings include Roy Hargrove/The RH Factor’s Hard Groove (2003), Strength (2004) and Distractions (2006), plus Snarky Puppy-related credits including Culcha Vulcha and Immigrance as reported in artist/booking biographies.

Jay McK / Justin “Jay Mack” McKinney: verified public credits include bass on Bobby Sparks II’s Paranoia material and Liv Warfield’s “Edge” (2023). Touring/live documentation also places him with Ghost-Note and Bobby Sparks II. No leader discography was verified from accessible public sources.

Keith Anderson: verified discographic credits include Les McCann’s Listen Up! (1995), The RH Factor’s Hard Groove (2003) and Distractions (2006), plus Bobby Sparks II’s Schizophrenia: The Yang Project and Paranoia contexts. Public artist biographies also list his own releases Diversity and Let’s Roll.

Cam Lee: no principal leader discography was verified from accessible public sources. Current live documentation verifies his guitar chair in Bobby Sparks II’s band and management material lists collaborations with Nile Rodgers and Musiq Soulchild.

DeAnthony McGee: no principal leader discography was verified from accessible public sources. Current live and ticketing documentation verifies him as EWI player in Bobby Sparks II’s band, with listed associations including Kirk Franklin, Michael McDonald, Joe Sample and Snarky Puppy.

Adarian Roberts: no principal leader discography was verified from accessible public sources. Current live documentation verifies him as drummer in Bobby Sparks II’s band, with public listings connecting him to Tye Tribbett, Kirk Franklin, Anita Baker, The Crusaders and D’Angelo.

Quotes

“Gospel music got me into harmony.” — Bobby Sparks II; interview by Charles Waring; Soul and Jazz and Funk; 2019-04-05; https://www.soulandjazzandfunk.com/interviews/all-aboard-the-battlespark-galactica-bobby-sparks-ii-talks-schizophrenia-chilli-sauce-and-prince/

“I’m a student of all music.” — Bobby Sparks II; interview by Charles Waring; Soul and Jazz and Funk; 2019-04-05; https://www.soulandjazzandfunk.com/interviews/all-aboard-the-battlespark-galactica-bobby-sparks-ii-talks-schizophrenia-chilli-sauce-and-prince/

“He’s my biggest inspiration.” — Bobby Sparks II on Prince; interview by Charles Waring; Soul and Jazz and Funk; 2019-04-05; https://www.soulandjazzandfunk.com/interviews/all-aboard-the-battlespark-galactica-bobby-sparks-ii-talks-schizophrenia-chilli-sauce-and-prince/

Reviews

CD REVIEW: Bobby Sparks II – Schizophrenia: The Yang Project — London Jazz News; Rob Mallows; 2019-03-04;
https://londonjazznews.com/2019/03/04/cd-review-bobby-sparks-ii-schizophrenia-the-yang-project/
The review frames Sparks’ debut as a powerful double album of funk, jazz and fusion, praising the quality of the playing and collaborators while noting that a tighter edit would have made the work stronger.

Bobby Sparks II: Schizophrenia: The Yang Project — All About Jazz; Roger Farbey; 2019-03-19;
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/schizophrenia-the-yang-project-bobby-sparks-ii-delta-review-by-roger-farbey
Farbey presents the album as an extraordinary, genre-wide debut, emphasizing Sparks’ gospel and jazz foundations, the breadth of the writing and the large-scale Black music vocabulary behind the record.

Bobby Sparks II ‘Paranoia’ 3LP/2CD (Leopard) 4/5 — UK Vibe; Imran Mirza; 2022-06-17;
https://ukvibe.org/album_reviews/bobby-sparks-ii/
The review treats Paranoia as a grand, all-encompassing funk-opera project, connecting it to Sparks’ Snarky Puppy and RH Factor background and highlighting its broad palette across soul, funk, jazz, gospel, blues, hip-hop and orchestral writing.

Bobby Sparks II – Paranoia — Jazz Views; George Cole; 2022-10-12;
https://jazzviews.net/bobby-sparks-ii-paranoia/
Cole describes Paranoia as an ambitious, wide-ranging album with superb musicianship, noting Sparks’ affinity for 1970s synth technology, high-energy jazz-fusion workouts and a huge cast of leading players.