I heard today on the radio some jocks talking bout Maceo.

A guest said he would rate Maceo as one of the greatest saxophonist of all time including John Coltrane.

Now I love me some Maceo Parker, but would I put him in the same category with John Coltrane? I have to ponder that one for a minute before I'd say yes. I have to hear some more of Maceo's old Jazz stuff before I'd say yes. Most of the stuff I'ver hrd him do is Funk or R&B.

What do you think?

In terms of innovation, they're comparable. No one was playing like Maceo and Fred Wesley when they busted out during the "Cold Sweat" period. They invented that style pretty much on the spot.

Same with Trane. No one was doing that "sheets of sound" thing back when he started playing with Miles Davis.

Maceo iz one of the last true, original funkateers. On a scale of 1-10, I give him a 50! Long live the funk and long live Maceo!

I am going to see Maceo at Toad's Place in New Haven, Ct on Sunday.

He is incredible as is his band.

www.live365.com/stations/funk7

Life on Planet Groove - Song one "Shake everything you got"

If you heard this song, you'll KNOW!

eleventeen!

GeMiNiSFuNkYJaMs said:

Wish you'd post the guest and the show so I could avoid 'em both. Ignorance can be a plague on clear thinking.

Maceo's great and all. My top pick nowadays in a soul-jazz, funk-r&b vein, but as innovative as Trane? Not hardly. Mace himself says it's only "2% jazz, 98% funky stuff".

You into Karl Denson's Tiny Universe? Check him hard on DANCE LESSON # 2 www.KarlDenson.com (and get back to me). It's on Blue NOte. Oh and check Soulive too! www.soulive.com. One more: check Rodney Jones www.soulmanifesto.com. Some form of Maceo, Fred and some funky stuff is on there, too . DAMN! they're all on Blue Note!

Something else to funk with on KOCH: Its' the JBs Reunion with Bootsy, Maceo, Fred and Pee Wee and all the other cats. NO link but cduniverse is selling it. I think it's BRING THE FUNK ON DOWN.

Maceo is a great sax player, and his style is unique. If he is in the same level of Coltrane, only time and history will tell. But I think he is greatest. But you know, people that dont play traditional jazz are usually underrated. There are some very talented sax players in jazz field today, but most of them dont have the style so unique that Maceo has

First of all: Mace is not a jazz player. so one shouldnt compare him with the outstanding innovation of a john coltrane. but he sure is innovative and its hard to find an alto-sax player with a such a distinctive sound. the special thing about mace is not what he plays, its what he DOESNT play. he leaves space for imagination, feeling, comprehension. I think his greatest time was his first period with james brown. his playing on "the popcorn" is simply unreachable for a funk-player, especially on "the chicken".
but to compare him to coltrane you must not know anything about trane... that man is so unique and rare that I cant thing of ANYBODY who was as dedicated to music, not even duke or miles. maybe Herman Sonny Blount (aka Sun Ra) can hang in there... trane was developing every moment of his playing, constantly reaching out for the new. maceo doesnt change. he played the funk with JB, he played the P-funk, found out he didnt like it, went back to JB and then did his own thing. but his playing hasnt progressed, as great as it is. he still sounds like 1972

soulpower said:

Just a note on the resume part.
Maceo was recording and touring with BOOTSY'S RUBBER BAND and also as part of the HORNY HORNS and with PARLIAMENT-FUNKADELIC in studio and on stage. FRED WESLEY (also with the same bands) got an offer from James BRowns to head up the JBs and called Maceo back. Maceo maintained his ties to Clinton and came back when they were the PFUNK ALL-STARS (he was musical director) and also for THE BRIDES OF FUNKENSTEIN.

Nowadays, MACEO pursues booking and recording his own band which includes his son Corey on vocals and raps and PFUNK alumni GREG BOYER (trombone) and Robert "Skeet" Curtis (bass). Greg's the handsome bald guy with Prince. Maceo's band is a tight funk unit that does a little bit of jazz even if it sounds like 1972 (don't realy agree with your asessment, but it's all good).

PFunkjazz said:

well, actually mace sounded a bit more raw with his group "maceo and all the kings men", so I grant you that one (guess melvin, jimmy, etc. are not replacable). I agree, today he sounds a little different, which I blame on his sidemen. corey's raps give it a modern touch.
I think that today mace's group sounds like JB SHOULD sound today.

soulpower said:

YES. A good assessment. As James BRown's live show sounds like a bad LAS VEGAS revue.

BTW Fred Wesley's heavy into the jam band thingand sounds really fresh.

PFunkjazz said:

ever heard the JB band in soundcheck? the guys are tight!! when JB is not around, they do stuff like "hot pants road" and "blow your head". but JB always wants them to play double tempo. I wish it was just a LV revue. when I was on tour with him he just got into the "macarena"-groove. now he has a spanish chick who's a dancer and he makes her rap. everybody in the bands hates it. but, you know....

soulpower said:

I caught JB in San Diego last summer. Had some hokey white chick doing a Janis Joplin thing. She was terrible. It felt like an in-joke. Like James was winking and nudging, "Ya see how bad white folks sing?"
Lord it was terrible. I missed the band warmup cuz i was across the way at the BAND OF GYPSYS tribute.
WOW!! Buddy Miles and Billy Cox backed up guitarists from from PEARL JAM LOS LOBOS KIDD ROCK and ERIC GALES while Corey Glover sang lead vox. That was so far off we couldn't see the hook nowhere!

Pfunk, the horrible white chick you are talking about is James' latest discovery, in bed as on stage. But I think because she's good in bed he takes her on stage. Her name is Tommy Ray, she's from Vegas (haha) and she's with him since 4 years. Last year (june) she had a son with him --- his name is james joseph, like his father (and himself). thats his first son after teddy who died in a car accident in 1974.
tommy is a pretty cool hgirl, but her singing sux. but he's madly in love. guess what he told me: "the only girl who could sing like that was vicki!"
he was serious..

soulpower said:

YEP those were his exact words!
LOL we kept saying that she was casting couch material.

\"Maceo iz one of the last true, original funkateers. On a scale of 1-10, I give him a 50! Long live the funk and long live Maceo!"
_____
- could not agree more Joekelley! ... interesting to find what I consider the funk contingent on .org to be having this discussion...
Firstly yes Gustavoriberas, Maceo is the first to call his music 2%Jazz 98% Funky stuff, that's his lineage and he makes to pretensions to any throne, the most title I've ever seen him give himself is The Architect of Groove... he seems to be a down to earth regular guy... secondly I like a description he had on his website (I don't know if this is still there) but he described musical taste like a buffet, you want different tastes of things and that I think is true of most of our tastes, do we want another Coltrane and could there be another Coltrane, no of course not.
Maceo established his jazz cred. on his first solo re-run some 10 years ago or so (Roots Revisited) a great album and still in the stores...
_____
PFunkjazz said:
One more: check Rodney Jones www.soulmanifesto.com. Some form of Maceo, Fred and some funky stuff is on there, too .
_____
Yeah Rodney was originally with Maceo back on the earlier jazzy Maceo albums and also LIFE ON PLANET GROOVE

PFunkjazz said:
Something else to funk with on KOCH: Its' the JBs Reunion with Bootsy, Maceo, Fred and Pee
Wee"
and sorry Reunion is not that funky or great considering who's on it... I went to the grand Seattle opening of the Music Project , this was a "JB Reunion", Maceo, and then JB himself... Maceo smoked everyone, basically because he was all groove (even with horrible sound)... JB was as sad as you all say, and the "JB's" were okay of course Fred and Pee Wee were great but it was more a bunch of old guys(and gals) getting together, Maceo made the whole thing great... it seems he was like a thread through the funkiest music and the moments when those groups were in their heyday.. JB, George Clinto, Bootsy...and if you go to the museum you can see a film of Maceo holding everything together with all the old guys, it's not for nothing he was everyone's band leader....
Sometimes I laugh or get made reading some stuff on the org as people refer to Maceo as an oldie and I wonder what makes people reject the past... (not true of this thread at all) , I see the Prince Maceo connection as obvious I keep wondering why it didn't happen sooner (was Alan Leeds keeping Maceo away so that Eric his brother got the gig???)...

soulpower said:
First of all: Mace is not a jazz player. so one shouldnt compare him with the outstanding innovation of a john coltrane. but he sure is innovative and its hard to find an alto-sax player with a such a distinctive sound. the special thing about mace is not what he plays, its what he DOESNT play. he leaves space for imagination, feeling, comprehension
Yes Yes Yes (at the risk of sounding either like Meg Ryan or the woman in the shampoo commercial...,

soulpower said:
but to compare him to coltrane you must not know anything about trane... that man is so unique and rare that I cant thing of ANYBODY who was as dedicated to music, not even duke or miles. maybe Herman Sonny Blount (aka Sun Ra) can hang in there... trane was developing every moment of his playing, constantly reaching out for the new. maceo doesnt change. he played the funk with JB, he played the P-funk, found out he didnt like it, went back to JB and then did his own thing. but his playing hasnt progressed, as great as it is. he still sounds like 1972

But again why compare, Coltrane was Coltrane, and a bit messed up too, Miles and Duke hey geniuses in their own way...
Not true by the way, Maceo just went back to James for a short while nothing to do with not liking P-Funk (hey George and he appear on each other's stages more than any one elses!) I think he just got caught in the JB trap until his 2nd solo thing happened (wasn't that when JB got incarcerated??) I think pfunkjazz is right and also like him I don't agree with your assement... I don't know what you mean by not progressing or sounding like 1972... I maintain my argument that Maceo is a) the thread to all great funk music, and b) his own band (in it's various incarnations has been the founding father to most jam bands as we know them (there would be no new school without the old school)

PFunkjazz said:
Just a note on the resume part.
Maceo was recording and touring with BOOTSY'S RUBBER BAND and also as part of the HORNY HORNS and with PARLIAMENT-FUNKADELIC in studio and on stage. FRED WESLEY (also with the same bands) got an offer from James BRowns to head up the JBs and called Maceo back. Maceo maintained his ties to Clinton and came back when they were the PFUNK ALL-STARS (he was musical director) and also for THE BRIDES OF FUNKENSTEIN.

soulpower said:
Well, actually mace sounded a bit more raw with his group "maceo and all the kings men", so I grant you that one (guess melvin, jimmy, etc. are not replacable). I agree, today he sounds a little different, which I blame on his sidemen. corey's raps give it a modern touch.
I think that today mace's group sounds like JB SHOULD sound today.,
Some of the kingsmen sounds a bit 1970's to me altho' I agree some is really fresh, I like some of the current sidemen, can never make up my mind about Corey, sometimes he sounds great sometimes he is too much... then I also think if Maceo worked with people like JB or George as he did when they were in their heyday we might see something amazing, Maceo seems like a glue which holds everything together, and to come back to the original question, there is only one Maceo, no-one sounds like him, many have tried....I just love the man and his music...(on that note are any of you New Yorkers? and going to Maceo on June 6th? or going to celebration ... where we get to see it all in action? am trying to get time and money to go...
thanks for the chance to air my views...

sorry I can't seem to get the hang of the quoting here or the italics which would have made my post more readable...