2% Jazz - 98% Funky Stuff

There are few musicians in the world these days, who deserve the title ‘living legend’. Fortunately for us, Maceo Parker is one. He has been making people dance for almost  50 years, and shows no sign of quitting anytime soon. Last year, his album Roots & Grooves won a Jammie – award given to folk, blues, jazz, rock and worldbeat artists from Michigan radio station WYCE – for Best Jazz Album of 2009. Maceo joined James Brown’s band in 1964, playing alto, tenor and baritone saxophone and would play with the “Godfather of Soul”, on and off, over the next 25 years. Together they forged a new genre of music we now know as ‘funk’. So many of J.B’s greatest recordings are punctuated with the cry “Maceo! We want you to blow!” prior to a mind-blowing sax solo from the master. Maceo has also headed up his own bands: The King’s Men and The Macks. In 1975, along with another James Brown sideman Fred Wesley, he joined the most spectacular funk band of all time, George Clinton’s Parliament- Funkadelic—who took the music to whole other level, with outrageous costumes and enormous stage props of flying saucers.

Maceo’s solo career really took off in the 90s, with his band averaging between 100-150 shows a year ever since. He has been a member of Prince’s New Power Generation, and plays on many of his greatest hits. Parker has also guested on albums with artists as diverse as De La Soul and Jane’s Addiction. In 2007, he supported Prince during his record breaking, 21- night residency at London’s O2 Arena.

On this tour, Maceo Parker will be playing with his “greatest little funk orchestra on earth”, re-visiting his own back catalogue and paying tribute to the great Ray Charles, whose songs make up the award-winning Roots & Grooves album. So be prepared to dance up a storm, even within the hallowed halls of the Palau de la Música—you won’t be able to resist. As Maceo says, it’s “2% jazz and 98% funky stuff.”

April 8th at 9pm