I was lucky enough to be living ten minutes away from where Maceo and his new band played their opening night for their new tour... it was £14 for seated and £12 for a standing tickets and it was by far the most worthwhile cash i have spent so far this year. There were about 1000 people in attendance, making up a very age/ethnically mixed audience. One thing we all had in common though... was funky music!

I have to say that Maceo is much more the showman than he appears, very laid back and his band is amazing to say the least. He was shaking hands, doing james brown impressions (including some very nifty footwork 4 somebody of 50+yrs!) and speaking 2 the crowd... it excelled all of my expectations. Maceo is definately the funkiest hornman ever! He even played the flute... and he gave my friend a very good birthday celebration 2... he did his own funky solo version of happy birthday and dedicated it 2 him! You can tell that he has picked up a few things from touring with Prince these last few years, his directions to the band were almost identical (pointing and signs etc).

The show went on 4 an astounding 3 and a half hours with one encore which we cheered 4 4ever!...almost as long as maceo played when he came back on stage to hits us with round 2! The show featured alot of improvisation and some material from the 'Dial:Maceo' album ("My Baby Loves You"), classics like "Pass the Peas" and "Soul Power" not to meantion a nice rendition of "Baby Knows", which before hand Maceo credited as written by his friend Prince and that "Prince sends his love to everyone!", we were all on a high throughout and u could tell that Maceo was enjoying himself 2.

His new 8 peice band is amazing, and no wonder because it features Greg Boyer and Morris Hayes amoungst others... i didnt catch some of the names of the other musicians but they were amazing. I was lucky enough to have a quick chat 2 Morris after the show had finished when he came to shake a few hands with some of the front row and he was still wearing the NPG pendant and i said "y u still wearing that man? (jokingly)" and his reply was "i always will...he's my boy!" was nice to finally see him in the flesh and see that he is still enjoying making music. Greg looked like he had a really good time being on stage with maceo 2, he got alot of solo spots showing us how hard he could work that trombone. Other band members included a young male backing vox/rapper who came 2 the front and funked things up a lil bit while maceo was busy directing the band or on sax, a female backing vocalist who also had a solo spot and tore it up... she had an AMAZING voice, much like Franklin in her day. There was another horn guy, obviously a drummer and bassist. The guitarist that maceo has found is truely the best, i couldnt keep my eyes of those hands of his stretching and twisting all over the place! he was amazing. Was lucky enough 2 b in direction one of his plectrums flew in and he said he didnt want it back after i showed it 2 him when he also came and shook hands afterwards.

All in all this was a truely amazing show, and even if you're like me and r not really familiar with some of maceo's earlier recordings etc u should still check this show out, it was constantly funky, constantly changing and constantly about real music by real musicans. As i said before it truely surpassed any expectations i had of Maceo as a live performer and his band, it was a really amazing night and live music can't get much better.

Check out Maceo's show if it comes ur way ppl!

ps. there was also merchandise available at the shows, including the new album, tshirts, other albums, photos and other gear... if the show wasn't funky enough!!

peace. j.

Karma
thanks for the review, I just posted a note on the London show...Leicester sounds like it was just as good although I can't believe what I saw last night could be bettered!
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You can tell that he has picked up a few things from touring with Prince these last few years, his directions to the band were almost identical (pointing and signs etc).

I think you will find on this point that most band leaders use these signs! Maceo has been doing this everytime I've seen him, it's not particular to Prince... it's probably a universal sign language to convey things quickly to the band...
but a small point in a great review, it's nice to have stuff to post about shows again, since One Nite Alone!