Pinetop Sparks

Aaron "Pinetop" Sparks (born Aaron Gant, May 22, 1910 – November 5, 1935) was an American blues pianist active in St. Louis in the early 1930s. He and his brother, Milton “Lindberg” Sparks (born Marion Gant), recorded songs from between 1932 and 1935. Their 1935 song "Every Day I Have the Blues" has been twice inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for versions recorded by subsequent artists.

Career Aaron and his twin brother, Marion Gant, were born in Corona, Lee County, Mississippi, to Sullie Gant and Ruth McWhorter. They later took the surname of their stepfather, Carl Sparks. In 1920, the family moved to St. Louis, where Pinetop had "rudimentary music education at school". He and his twin brother formed a group, with Aaron playing the piano in a boogie-woogie style and Marion singing.

Their first recording session was in 1932, when they recorded a number of blues and boogie-woogie songs including "4 x 11 = 44", "East Chicago Blues" and "Louisiana Bound". Most often, the brothers played together only occasionally. In 1949, the song was recorded under a different title by Memphis Slim. The versions by B. B. King as well as the Joe Williams and the Count Basie Orchestra were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Death There were rumors that the brothers did not always get along and did not have steady employment. They also frequently had run-ins with the law. Pinetop drank heavily, and Marion killed a man (in self-defense), for which he spent time in the workhouse in 1937. Pinetop died, apparently of poisoning, in 1935.

Pinetop Sparks' grave went unmarked for nearly eight decades, before a fan club finally honored him. In 2013, 78 years after Sparks' death, thanks to the work of a non-profit organization, the Killer Blues Headstone Project, a headstone was laid at Father Dickson Cemetery in Crestwood, Missouri, a historically black cemetery in St. Louis. A keyboard adorned the lower casing of the stone, with his name, dates of birth and death, and the epitaph "Every Day I Have the Blues".