| MACEO PARKER | | | "Everything's coming up Maceo," concluded DownBeat Magazine in a 1991 article, at the at the beginning of Maceo Parker's solo career. At the time Maceo was a remembered by aficionados of funk music as back-seat sideman; appreciated by those in the know, but not well known on the music scene of the time. More than a decade later Maceo Parker is enjoying a blistering solo career. For the past ten years Maceo has been building a new funk empire, fresh and stylistically diverse. He navigates deftly between JB's 1960's soul and George Clinton's 1970's freaky funk while exploring mellower jazz and hip-hop. Throughout the United States, Europe and Japan he has garnered unusual simultaneous respect as both an unrivaled musical legend and a hip, contemporary artist. Today Maceo headlines over 250 performances a year worldwide to sold-out audiences of college fans and old-school music aficionados alike. Over this time he has collaborated on recordings with such diverse acts as, Ani DiFranco, Prince, De La Soul, Jane's Addiction and Dave Matthews Band.
Raised in Kinston, North Carolina, Maceo was born into a musical family: both his parents played gospel music in their church. But his uncle, who headed local band the Blue Notes, was his first musical mentor. At age 8 Maceo picked up the saxophone, and his brothers Melvin (7) and Kellis (9) chose drums and trombone respectively. The three Parker brothers formed the Junior Blue Notes and grew up admiring such heroes as David "Fathead" Newman, Hank Crawford, Cannonball Adderley and King Curtis."I was crazy about Ray Charles and all his band, and of course particularly the horn players" .When Maceo reached the sixth grade, their uncle let the Junior Blue Notes perform in between sets at his nightclub engagements. It was his first experience of the stage that perhaps goes some way to explaining a love affair with performing that has increased rather than diminished with time. By age 15, Maceo Parker had forged his own style on the tenor sax. "I thought about Maceo Parker plays Charlie Parker, and then I thought how about Maceo Parker plays Maceo Parker, what would it be like to have young sax players listening to me and emulating my style of playing..." and thus the Maceo sound was born. By the time Maceo and Melvin were attending the A & T College in Greensboro, the two were seasoned pros. On an evening in 1962 (while Maceo was out of town with another band), Melvin was performing with a local band, when James Brown wandered in for some late night food. Impressed with the young drummer's style, that night James told Melvin, "If there's ever a time when you're not a student and you want a job with me, you got it, automatically." Both brothers would approach J.B. a year and a half later. "I really wanted Melvin," Brown remembers in his autobiography James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, "but I figured I had to hire Maceo, too, if I wanted to get his brother. I didn't know what I had got!" | |
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