Maceo Parker

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Maceo Parker at the 2002 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee

Maceo Parker ( pronunciation : [ ˈmeɪsiːoʊ ]) (born February 14, 1943 in Kinston , North Carolina ) is an influential American radio musician . He sings and plays alto saxophone and flute .

Live and act

Maceo Parker was born into a musical family. His father plays the drums and piano, the parents sing in the gospel choir and all three brothers play an instrument. Melvin plays the drums, Kelli's trombone and Maceo starts playing the alto saxophone at the age of eight. The brothers found the band “Junior Blue Notes”, encouraged by the musical uncle who played in the band “Bobby Butler and The Blue Notes”, and performed at concerts by the uncle's band between the sets. After studying at the University of North Carolina , Parker got a job in the wind department of James Brown in 1964 thanks to his brother Melvin - first as a baritone saxophonist, then as a tenor saxophonist , and later switched to alto saxophone. It will turn out to be a stroke of luck for Brown, as the hard-working Parker played a key role in shaping Brown's rhythm-oriented funk style. Hits from this time like " Papa's Got a Brand New Bag " and "Cold Sweat" also go back to Maceo Parker. At this point, Parker had already found his unmistakable style: He blows his saxophone extremely precisely with a lot of attack and rhythm that it is often compared to a percussion instrument. He stayed with James Brown for six years until the band fell out with the star.

In the 1970s, Parker and the Horny Horns , later JB Horns ( Fred Wesley , Rick Gardner, Richard "Kush" Griffith) formed the brass section for George Clinton's P-Funk projects ( Parliament , Parlet and others) as well for Bootsy Collins , with whom he also records. From 1973 to 1975 he played again with James Brown, whom he rejoined in 1984 until Brown's imprisonment in 1988.

This is followed by a long era with Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley. In 1990 the solo album Roots Revisited was a huge success under German production. The record is number one on the Billboard Jazz Charts for ten weeks. Other releases follow, such as Mo 'Roots and the live CD Life On Planet Groove . In 1995 the documentary My First Name is Maceo was released , for which he not only contributed the soundtrack himself, but also gave three extra jam sessions at the Fabrik cultural center in Altona, which George Clinton also stopped by.

Maceo Parker with Prince in The O2 arena during the " 21 Nights in London: The Earth Tour ", 2007

For more than ten years he played very successfully - with Bruno Speight (git), Larry Goldings (org), Will Boulware (org), Jamal Thomas (dr), Rodney Jones (git), Jerry Preston (bs) - with his brass colleagues Pee Wee Ellis (sax) and Fred Wesley (tr). In the late 1990s, Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley separated from Maceo Parker, who then put together a new brass section with Ron Tooley, Greg Boyer and Vincent Henry. Maceo Parker is also held in high regard by many of his music colleagues, and so he occasionally visits younger musicians, such as B. in productions of Prince , De La Soul , the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Deee-Lite . But he is also open to a wide range of influences from today's musical styles; for example in the collaboration with his son Corey Parker, who raps to Maceo's funk on the last albums . In 2003 he not only played the saxophone on his album "Made By Maceo", but also sang. Maceo Parker's concerts often last more than three hours. He gives around 200 concerts a year, making him one of the busiest musicians in the world.

In early 2007 Parker worked with the WDR Big Band . Together with drummer Dennis Chambers they developed a program with pieces by Ray Charles and pieces from the saxophonist and singer's own repertoire. This first collaboration was later released as a double CD under the name Roots & Grooves . In 2012 there was another collaboration between Parker and the big band of the WDR. This time a CD with songs from the era of soul was recorded and released as Soul Classics .

Parker describes his music with the well-known phrase: "Two Percent Jazz and 98 Percent Funky Stuff!" He published his autobiography in 2013 under the title 98% Funky Stuff: My Life in Music .

He plays a Selmer Mark VI alto saxophone with a # 3 Brilhart Ebolin mouthpiece and Vandoren reeds (Java strength 3.5).

Maceo Parker plays the flute in The Jazz Cafe, London, 2009
Hamburg / Germany 2000
Hamburg / Germany 2000

Discography (albums under your own name)

Maceo Parker at the Liri Blues Festival, Italy, 2009
Maceo Parker at the Liri Blues Festival , Italy, 2009
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Radio overload
  DE 61 09/07/1998 (4 weeks)
  CH 37 09/13/1998 (4 weeks)
Dial MACEO
  DE 45 04/03/2000 (7 weeks)
  CH 53 04/02/2000 (7 weeks)
Made by Maceo
  DE 63 03/10/2003 (4 weeks)
  CH 65 03/09/2003 (5 weeks)
Soul Food - Cooking with Maceo
  CH 77 07/05/2020 (1 week)
  • 1970: Doing Their Own Thing
  • 1974: Us
  • 1975: Funky Music Machine
  • 1989: For All the King's Men
  • 1990: Roots Revisited
  • 1991: Mo 'Roots
  • 1992: Life on Planet Groove
  • 1993: Southern Exposure
  • 1993: Maceo - soundtrack
  • 1998: FunkOverload (DE:goldgold in the Jazz Award)
  • 2000: Dial: MACEO (DE:goldgold in the Jazz Award)
  • 2003: Made by Maceo
  • 2004: My First Name Is Maceo ( re-release of Maceo soundtrack )
  • 2005: School's In! (DE:goldgold in the Jazz Award)
  • 2007: Roots & Grooves
  • 2012: Soul Classics
  • 2015: Roots Revisited the Bremen Concert
  • 2018: It's All About Love (together with Michael Abene & WDR Big Band Cologne)
  • 2018: Life On Planet Groove - Revisited
  • 2020: Soul Food - Cooking with Maceo

Guest musician with Prince

Filmography

Web links

Commons : Maceo Parker  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.maceo.fr/MACEO-PARKER-BIO-PART-1_a325.html
  2. ↑ http://www.maceo.fr/MACEO-PARKER-BIO-PART-4_a328.html
  3. ↑ Chart sources: Germany Switzerland
  4. ↑ Gold / platinum database of the Federal Association of the Music Industry, accessed on June 5, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Parker, Maceo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American radio musician (alto saxophone, vocals)
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Kinston , North Carolina