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Monday, March 03, 2008 The Man With The Funkiest Horn In History Is About To Grace Our Shores. By Brian Wise
“The kind of music that we play - the funky, funky side - has an element in it that commands people to feel good, to party, to let it all hang out,” says Maceo Parker on the phone line from North Carolina to talk about his forthcoming visit to Australia. “It’s all about party, party, party and having fun.”
Funk legend Parker celebrated his 65th birthday in February but he has no intentions of sitting back and taking it easy. James Brown, his mentor and the man responsible for giving him his start, died a year or so ago but Parker is still going strong – and looking as fit as someone 20 years younger.
“I’ve been playing funky, funky music for all my life and what keeps me going is just the love of performing and the love that I have for people and what I can see that people can get from just coming to concerts and being enlightened about what it is that we do,” he explains about his motivation. “It sort of gives them strength to continue their lives.”
“So through the love of performing the music I can keep going as long as I can satisfy myself with my performance,” he adds, “then I’m okay to continue to do it as long as I can.”
Parker’s remarkable career has seen him ‘graduate’ from James Brown’s band (he describes it as like being at University) to George Clinton’s Mothership with Parliament/Funkadelic and Bootsy’s Rubber Band. He also has his own formidable solo recording career and is one of the most in demand session players in the world, gracing albums by or performing with the likes of Ray Charles, Ani Difranco, James Taylor, De La Soul, Dave Matthews Band and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
Maceo Parker joined James Brown’s band back in 1964 when Brown hired Parker’s brother Melvin to play drums and agreed to take Maceo as well. Little did he know then that he would become the lynch-pin of Brown’s band - and the sound - for the next two decades or so.
In 1973 Maceo left Brown to form Maceo & All The King’s Men and toured with that outfit for several years, also releasing a funk-laden self-titled album. But even though Maceo worked on other projects such as Maceo & The Macks or joined, along with Fred Wesley, George Clinton’s Parliament, he returned to the Godfather of Soul until the late ‘90s when he finally forged a solo career.
In 1990 Parker released Roots Revisited, which spent 10 weeks at the top of Billboard's Jazz Charts. Mo' Roots followed in1991. His third solo album, Life on Planet Groove was recorded live in 1992 and was followed a year later by Southern Exposure. Since 1998 Parker has released five albums, often helped by his son Cory. The music has an increasingly contemporary feel yet has lost none of its ineffable funk groove for which he is famous.
The latest album released in 2007, Roots & Grooves, features a tribute to Ray Charles, recorded with the German WDR Big Band, with whom Parker broadcast and performed a live series of shows.
Parker vividly remembers working with Ray Charles, one of his idols, back in the early ‘90s.
“One night, about ’93, ’94 ’95 somewhere, we did about 3 weeks over in Europe,” he recalls. “I opened for him. One of the nights he allowed me to play saxophone on one of the songs. That was the very top for me at that point for me to say, ‘I performed with Ray Charles, I’ve been on the stage with Ray Charles.’ My career could end now. I’ve done everything I could possibly do by working with Ray Charles. Man, that was heaven for me.”
“Anytime I’m involved in music there ought to be some funking something somewhere,” he explains of the latest double disc set. “We’ve done a big band thing with my tunes. Most of my tunes got to be funky, you know, coming from that James Brown kind of a thing. Even before I met James Brown I was geared towards the funky side of performing and playing and music and listening and all that stuff.”
“You know, I’ve never got into smoking and drinking,” explains Parker when I remark on how amazingly youthful he seems. I saw him some years ago at Jazz Fest and couldn’t believe then that he was in his late 50s. “I think those two elements right there sort of robs you of your age, the way you look, your stamina and all that.”
“I am who I am,” he continues, “and I do what I do. I appreciate the thing about how I look and all that but again it’s all out of the love of the arts and the music and love for fellow man.”
“I like to bring a positive love, hi-fives, smiles and togetherness,” says Parker of his shows. “I try to promote that as well as having a concert. Put it this way: it’s almost like a good football or basketball game or tennis match or golf, anything that we cannot do. We appreciate those that can. People leave feeling good about themselves and that’s what it’s all about really.”
Parker’s performance chops were honed working with James Brown in some of the most legendary venues of all time, such as The Apollo Theatre in Harlem. The apprenticeship was hard-earned as the band travelled across the country playing gig after gig, often more than one a night. But even in high school Parker had been working towards a career in music.
“When I first saw James Brown I was in high school then but we always had a group, me and my brothers and cousins,” he explains. “We were doing stuff almost the same as his. So by the time we saw him we thought, especially me, we thought, ‘We can do that we can work with him now.’ It was two or three years later that that dream came true - me and my brother started working with James Brown. By choosing that kind of music it was like stepping, like you walk around your house and you step from one corner to the next it was just that easy for us. Thankfully, we had people throughout the world that are really into that kind of music, so that can keep going on and on.”
I mention that it seems difficult to imagine that Brown is no longer with us. He had been making more frequent visits to Australia – attendees at Bluesfest had been lucky enough to see him – and he was due back here when he passed away.Get your party shoes ready because Maceo is on the way!!
Read the full story in March Rhythms.
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