Parker Brother

Maceo Parker: The legendary funk saxophonist pictured at the
1995 Syracuse Jazz Fest will funkify the Westcott
Theater this Monday.

The emphatic directive is just too hard to forget.
“Maceo,” singer James Brown called out, over a cardiac funk throb.
“Blow your horn. Don’t blow no trash! Blow me some. . . popcorn!” And
popcorn Brown got: terse, staccato bursts of notes, squarely on or
dappled around the beat, something to snare the ear and spur the feet. 

Maceo Parker’s play has never been
evocative or cryptic; his carefully pared phrasing, an economy of
familiar repetition, rides the surging pulse like a rodeo cowboy, an
irresistible urge atop an undeniable force: a signature delivery from
funk’s primal saxophonist. Parker will bring his 10-piece band to the
Westcott Theater, 524 Westcott St., on Monday, March 16, for a 9 p.m.
show. (Tickets are $25 and $30. For information, call (888)512-SHOW.) 

Parker has appeared in Syracuse before,
with James Brown at the Onondaga County War Memorial and, notably, at
the defunct Syracuse University club Jabberwocky on its final weekend
in 1985.

As both a sideman and a band leader,
Parker has been an iconic figure in funk music for more than four
decades. “My parents weren’t professional musicians,” he remembers
during a recent phone interview, “but they sang in church. One of my
uncles had a band called the Blue Notes and my younger brother Melvin
and I listened to them, and the other music of the time.” In high
school Parker took up the sax while Melvin played the drums. “I had a
good ear,” Parker recalls. “We played together, swing and dance stuff.” 

Later at North Carolina A&T, Parker
and his brother had a serendipitous meeting with James Brown during a
tour date in Greensboro in 1964. “After his show James Brown went to a
club where Melvin was playing,” Parker relates with a chuckle. “He
liked what Melvin was doing and offered him a job when he got out of
school.” 

A year later they met again and Melvin
refreshed Brown’s memory, got a job offer and then introduced his
saxophonist brother. “James Brown asked me if I played baritone {sax},”
Parker, then a tenor player, relates.

“I said, ‘Uh, yeah.’ He asked me if I owned a baritone. I said ‘Uh,
yeah.’ He offered me a job on the spot,” Parker recalls, with a sense
of lingering amazement. “I sat in the audience for two weeks, watching
the band, making up my baritone parts. After about three months,

I switched to tenor sax.”

Parker’s solo work with Brown, which
lasted, off and on, through the mid-1980s, and subsequently with funk
masters Bootsy Collins and George Clinton (Bootsy’s Rubber Band and
Parliament/Funkadelic) defined the character of rhythm’n’blues sax
playing with his hyperkinetic, highly punctuated, groove-oriented
style. “I was influenced by a lot of people,’ Parker says, “starting
with my high school music director, James Banks, who played sax. I also
liked Louis Jordan, Cannonball Adderly, Stanley Turrentine, Hank
Crawford, King Curtis, David ‘Fathead’ Neuman, Boots Randolph, and
Leroy Cooper, from Ray Charles’ band.” 

Parker’s solo career, beginning in 1970,
reflects the common influences of all these saxophonists, amalgamates
them and adds his own abilities as a band leader, featured soloist and
singer. His recorded legacy includes 14 solo releases and more than 60
guest appearances with a diverse collection of musicians including (in
addition to Brown, Collins and Clinton) Keith Richards, James Taylor,
Ani DiFranco, De La Soul, Kenny Neal, Brian Ferry, Prince and many
others.

Parker’s 2008 CD Roots and Grooves
(Intuition) features a set of original instrumentals and a set of Ray
Charles covers backed by the WDR Big Band Cologne, recorded live in
Europe. “The idea to put me with the big band came from Joachim Becker,
the guy who produced {pianist and composer} Joe Zawinul,” Parker says.
“We wanted to keep Ray Charles’ music alive.” 

Parker’s vocal delivery on the Charles
classics “Busted,” “Hit The Road, Jack,” “Georgia on My Mind” and
others is uncannily reminiscent of the late musician. “It’s my natural
singing voice,” Parker confesses. “It’s close to Ray Charles, very easy
to do.” The other set was a greater challenge for the alto saxophonist.
“It was a lot of fun,” he admits, “but you can’t relax too much. With
the small group I can give signals on when to start and stop, but with
the big band you have to count bars.”

Parker’s “small group,” which he will
bring to the Westcott, is actually 10 pieces, including keyboardist
Will Boulware, drummer Jamal Thomas, guitarist Bruno Speight, former
Parliament/Funkadelic bassist Rodney “Skeet” Curtis, and trumpeter Ron
Tooley and trombonist Tyrone Jefferson, both alumni of the James Brown
band. In addition, Neta Hall and Corey Parker provide backup vocals. 

“I’ve always been able to attract top
funk musicians,” Parker says. “We’re going to do a mixture of James
Brown, Bootsy {Collins} and George {Clinton} and my stuff. We also do
some Ray Charles, ‘Georgia’ and ‘You Don’t Know Me.’ I’m proud of what
we do,” Parker adds. “We want it to be a fun night. We want to give
people something to leave with, something they can hear on the way
home, long after the music is over. When I perform, I try to say ‘We
love you’ on behalf of the band. I think it is very important.”