On February 28th, Maceo Parker held a question/answer session at fnac in Madrid
(Spain). It lasted about 45 minutes, which turned out to be plenty of time for
the room full of press and public to ask questions. Before Maceo arrived with
his son Corey (who is a rapper in his band, I think), fnac played the long,
mostly-instrumental version of TGRES featuring Maceo on sax.



Maceo^Rs interview was not very interesting, actually. When asked about current
musicians who influence him, he responded that he has no influences. He didn^Rt
say this in a cocky way, really, but more in a way that suggested that his
sound is established, and he^Rs put in his time, and now he^Rd rather be
considered an influence rather than someone who is influenced. He talked about
various people who contributed to his new CD: Ani Difranco (who he described as
^Sa very big fan of mine^T), James Taylor, and The Artist.



When asked about his work with The Artist, he said that The Artist wrote Pretty
Man with Maceo in mind. Maceo then agreed to contribute to the song and they
worked out a deal: ^SI worked on his, he worked on mine.^T He later said that
he sent a song to The Artist that was untitled but referred to as ^SSomething
for Corey,^T but that The Artist chose to contribute in other ways to Maceo^Rs CD. Without saying it, Maceo suggested that their collaborations were not
face-to-face, but rather a process of sending tapes back and forth.



Maceo also said, when asked about these collaborations, that their purpose was
to broaden his listenership. It wasn^Rt a choice about art or wanting to work
with anyone in particular (except perhaps James Taylor), but it was about
helping the public know Maceo (yes, he used third person). He did eventually
thank the four people who helped his career the most: George Clinton, Bootsy
Collins, James Brown, and The Artist (although he hedged a bit on the last one,
saying something like ^Syeah, maybe I should thank him too^T).