James Brown, Maceo Parker and the JB's
Concert Review
Experience Music Project Grand Opening
Seattle, WA
June 25th, 1999

Review by Mike Theiss

Being a child of hip-hop turned follower of the funk myself, I've been waiting over a decade for this concert. I'd seen the Godfather perform with his band on a few occasions before and I've seen several of his former band members perform in various other contexts, but I've always thought "Damn, why can't they get back together again?" Until now, I'd never had the oppurtunity to see James Brown perform on the same stage with any of his star musicians such as Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley or Bootsy Collins.

The show last Sunday kicked off with a collection of many of the finest and funkiest musicians alive performing the instrumental rendition of Soul Power originally dubbed "Soul Power '74". While the group was officially billed as "The JB's", in fact this was an all-star lineup encompassing many stages of James Brown's career, but emphasizing the era of the JB's.

The rhythm section consisted of John "Jabo" Starks and Melvin Parker on drums, Johnny Griggs on percussion, Bootsy Collins on bass, Phelps "Catfish" Collins on guitar, Bobby Byrd on Hammond B3 and another gentleman (Jerry Lawd (?) -- the only person on stage that was never a member of James Brown's band was filling in because Hearlon Martin couldn't make the show). The horn section included Maceo Parker and Pee Wee Ellis on saxophone, Ron Tooley on trumpet and of course bandleader and funky trombonist Fred Wesley.

Following "Soul Power" Fred Wesley introduced the band members starting with the drummers and the rhythm section adding each element of the song "Gimme Some More" as each member was featured. It was particularly thrilling to see the two Collins brothers getting down and shining their trademark grins side by side. Bootsy dressed relatively low key, but still was hard to miss. He wore a shiny gold suit and played a Fender P Bass through a rig much smaller than you'll ever see him play with his own band. While he didn't have his space bass or any of his outrageous hats, he wore his trademark star-shaped shades as he nodded his head to the groove. He had a Mutron in his rig but used it much more sparingly than usual, accomplishing a sound which resembled the down and dirty sound he was known for playing with JB, while also incorporating elements of the more modern bass stylings he pioneered with P-Funk. When Bootsy was introduced, the crowd went wild and followed Fred's cue to chant his name as heard on his song "Ahh...The Name Is Bootsy Baby", but he didn't sing at all.

After everybody got their turn to shine, the music stopped and Fred took time out to mention some of the band members who moved on "to the great funk band in the sky", paying respect to Jimmy Nolen, Eldee Williams, Alfonso "Country" Kellum and St. Clair Pinckney. Fred cleverly mentioned St. Clair's name last so he could introduce the next song "Hot Pants Road" which Mr. Pinckney co-wrote. "Hot Pants Road" firstly is a song that's not performed nearly often enough. This was probably the highlight of the set for me, for God's sake the band was as tight as the spandex outfits James Brown's dancers came out wearing later that evening. Less of an obscurity, but still somewhat of a rare gem in this day and time, the band followed up with an instrumental rendition of "Licking Stick - Licking Stick" featuring composer Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis on tenor saxophone. Right in the pocket the way it should be, the groove sounded just like in 1968.

Then the guitar intro to Otis Redding's "Respect" kicked in as Fred called original funky diva Vicki Anderson to the stage to sing the song as I imagine she did on countless occasions as a member of the James Brown Revue.

Vicki's performance was one of the highlights of the evening for me. Sure, I might have rather seen her perform"Baby Don't You Know" or "Super Good" and quite frankly her vocal chops aren't what they used to be.But this is Vicki Anderson we're talking about here!!! Her call and response routine in particular was brilliant. She started out somewhat calmly and seriously saying "We travelled a long, long ways just to tell you how much we love you." Then she paused and belted out in her trademark voice "Do you love us? " When the crowd reciprocated she went on to say that "since we have established a love relationship, we're going to do something together" and that led into her call and response segment. Vicki sang "I love you" as soulfully as I've ever heard those three words sung, engaging the crowd to mimick her as she varied the melody and sang the same words again differently. It was beautiful.

After "Respect", Bobby Byrd came out from behind the organ and took center stage to perform his own "I Need Help" in a medley with "I Know You Got Soul". Bobby threw down and so did the JB's. In Bobby's absence, Maceo sat down at the B3. For those who haven't seen it before, it's an absolute thrill to watch Maceo play organ. He seems to get a lot of amusement out of it, as he regularly gets a grin on his face that has "Funky Good Time" written all over it. Speaking of which, the closing number was "Doing It To Death".

Bobby, Vicki and Fred led the vocals and Maceo continued to play organ, until the "down D" modulation where he was called to play a solo, then Maceo grabbed his flute and played an interpretation of the flute solo he played on the original recording. All in all, each of the band members were in fine form. Most everybody got a few solos and appeared to enjoy themselves. The crowd was lively as well.

After a short break, Maceo's band took the stage. Some people around me seemed confused, I heard someone say "That's not his usual band". I suspect they had never seen Maceo before and were expecting James Brown's band to have taken the stage next.

The band consisted of Corey Parker, Martha High and Sweet Charles Sherell on vocals, Greg Boyer on trombone, Ron Tooley on Trumpet, Bruno Speight on guitar, Rodney Skeet Curtis on bass, William Boulvare on Hammond B3 and Jamal Thomas on drums. They started the show with an opening number they've worked up which calls Maceo to the stage "Come on Maceo / come on Maceo / come on, come On, come on, come on, come on Maceo!"

Then Maceo came out to led the band through an energetic performance of "Uptown Up". It didn't take long for Maceo and the band to win the crowd over. Nearly instantly, the same people behind me that didn't recognize any of the people onstage were going wild, grooving to the music. Between songs, Maceo took the oppurtunity to thank the people responsible for organizing the show and give the Godfather his props for giving all the musicians involved in the reunion there start in the business.

Next up was "Rappers In The Pea Patch" and Maceo's"Ooohh Yeah show" chant session. That was followed by "Shake Everything You've Got" aka "Southwick." I had seen both Ron Tooley and Greg Boyer play with the band before, but never together. It was nice to see Maceo with a three piece horn section once again, in the past I've usually seen Maceo and Ron or Maceo and Greg without an additional horn. Greg and Ron both got a few solos and each worked the spotlight to their advantage. Up to this point it was a fairly typical Maceo set, which is to say FUNKY as all hell.

But what happend in the next song"Baby Knows" was far from regular. Maceo was center stage right in front blowing his solo from the song and James Brown himself just walks up on the stage and starts checking out the band. Then James walked right up next to Maceo looked over at him. Maceo pretended he didn't see him and kept on blowin' his horn, looking straight ahead, ignoring James. He gave it away though by the grin on his face though, Maceo was perfectly aware of who was standing beside him. If anybody encounters a photo of this moment, Please, Please, Please let me know, it was an amazing site! Then finally Maceo turns over to James and calls out to the crowd "THE STAR OF THE SHOW, GIVE IT UP!!!!!"

Moments later, Maceo and his band launched into "Got to Getcha" and James Brown got up on his organ!! (Note: there were two organs on stage. William Boulvare was playing a standard maple finished B3 over on the right side of the stage. But up on the upper level in the back of the stage on the left side was James' organ with a red vinyl cover with "The Godfather" printed on it in large letters.) Needless to say, nothing has changed as far as James Brown's organ skills --- but it was a blast to see him up there with Maceo's band like that. Near the end of the song Fred Wesley came out and blew a solo as well.

As if there hadn't been enough excitement already, Martha High, whom Maceo introduced as the newest member of his band led the band through a performance of Lyn Collins' "Think (About It)". I've got to say "GODDAMN!!!!" I had known who Martha was and I believe I may have seen her perform with James Brown several years ago, but this was on a whole 'nother level. This being one of my all time favorite songs, Martha turned that mutha out. She did the "Hey fellas..." intro in the same spirit Lyn does on the record, only she stretched it out and if anything was a little more energetic. The performance was excellent, so I'm reluctant to complain, but I'd rather have the band stick to the original arrangement a little more. I love Skeet's playing to death, but I could have done without the slap bass treatment on this song.

Now if ANYBODY is funky, it's Sweet Charles Sherrell. Fred Wesley did a "Master Artist Workshop" at the Experience Music Project on the day before this show. He spoke of how James Brown is the undisputed king of funk and mentioned that with people like James, you know just by looking at him he's not an ordinary person, you can tell he's funky. The same goes for Sweet Charles. I had the pleasure of rapping with him for awhile before the show, very cool guy. Anyway, after "Think (About It)" Sweet Charles was featured singing "Mustang Sally" and he turned it out. Before Sweet Charles came out, the band played the groove from "Doing It To Death" in F, then after Maceo's calling "Down D" they went down to the key of D and then they played "Mustang Sally" in a similar down and dirty shuffle groove. Before leaving the stage, Charles did a little dance and his trademark karate kick.

Maceo then said "Good night!", teasing the crowd as if he was ready to leave, but then quickly launched into a smooth soulful interpretation of Paul and Linda McCartney's "My Love." Then the band closed things up with "Move Your Body" in a medley with "Soul Power", the former featuring Maceo's son Corey Parker rapping. I can certainly sympathize with complaints about Corey's lyrical skills, but the music behind him was so dang funky that anybody could have been up there rapping and I could have cared less. (Then again the Cold Crush Brothers were in the house after performed an incredible FREE concert at the Seattle Center that afternoon, so one could only speculate what would have happened had they been invited up on stage....) But hey, I'll call it as it is and just be thankful Corey didn't do his "Let's Get It On" treatment. Overall the set was solid. You can't really go wrong with this band.

Next up of course was James Brown, who was supported by his regular touring lineup "The Soul General". To some degree I felt sorry for the members of "Soul General". Not that they're not competant musicians in their own right, but the reality of the situation is that most of those guys were hired to imitate the musicians who preceded them on this particular evening. Coming straight out of 2 hours of funk heaven from the people responsible for James Brown's best work, I wouldn't have wanted to have been in their shoes.

Then again, it is important to recognize that James Brown still has a number of veterans left in his band. Namely Mr. Fred Thomas on bass, who joined around the time Bootsy left in '71. There are a handful of members who have been with him since the mid to late seventies as well: Hollie Farris (trumpet), Tyrone Jefferson (trombone) and Ron Laster (guitar). There may be others I missed, but quite frankly I couldn't understand what the funk James was saying when he introduced the band.

I was probably 15-20 feet from the stage for the whole event --- right up near the front. I don't know about everywhere else, but where I was standing the overall energy level from the audience during the James Brown set was significantly less than it had been during the JB's and Maceo sets. Especially at the beginning of the set when the band came out to do their intro. They started with a jazzy number which led into one of those traditional JB tension building introductory arrangements. The band played a bit of "Ain't It Funky Now", then the Bittersweets sang a bit of "Gimme Some More" and finally it was "Star Time" as emcee Danny Ray introduced the star of the show and the band played snippits of his hits.

James Brown came out and kicked into "Get Up Offa That Thing", followed by "Cold Sweat", "There Was A Time" and "Doing It To Death". Midway through "Doing It To Death" JB called Fred back to the stage and he blew a funky solo on his "big black horn".

While it's far from my favorite JB song, I was impressed by the tightness of the band on "Living In America". The horn section in particular, blends together really well.

I think the weak link in this band is the drummers to be honest. Both of them devote too much time trying to hit every note with the horns and playing in a busy "showtime" style. The groove and pocket however is often sacrificed. As I've found pretty typical with this band, many songs we're just a little too fast and it was not uncommon for a beat to be missed in favor of adding an extra fill. And it's not that these guys are bad musicians either. I bet if Fred came back as bandleader he could whip them into shape in a few weeks.

Next up, the band played "Theme from Shaft" briefly as an introduction for Heather Hayes, who is of course Isaac Hayes' daughter. Heather tours with James as a dancer, but she also can sing so JB gives her the spotlight. As has been the case each of the three times I've seen her with the band, her performance was limited to an impersonation of Whitney Houston. "And Iiiiiiiii-ee-i-ee-i... will always love youuuu." The girl can sing, but damn I wish they'd give her a different song to shine on.

Next the Bittersweets were featured on "This Is My Story". Interesting to note that this song was originally recorded by "The Jewels" in 1965 (you can get it on the "James Brown's Original Funky Divas" compilation). Martha Harvin (aka Martha High), an original member of the Jewels was in the house, but unfortunately she wasn't on stage for this song. Pee Wee Ellis however, was called to the front and he blew a nice soulful, bluesy tenor saxophone solo in the way only he could.

Now, I enjoyed the Godfather's organ treatment to "Got to Getcha" during Maceo's set, but I must say I could have done without what he was doing to the Roland D-50 on stage behind him during "Get On The Good Foot." Also, this song was a classic example of the problem I mentioned earlier -- the drummers not focusing on the pocket enough. In fact the horns have apparently grown so accustomed to the drummers playing this song too fast that they changed the notes in this song so they'd be easier to play at fast tempos. ( The original song has a series of ascending notes grouped into triplets. Rather than playing each note three times as the song was originally done, the horns drop the second note in each group of three down a step. On a saxophone, this is much easier to play because you can do everything with your fingers. The original melody is extremely difficult to play fast because each note has to be tongued.)

"I Got The Feeling" was full of energy, but again I think the drummer deserved a speeding ticket. Young guitarist "Keith" took a screaming solo on this song which started out with him playing Maceo's original tenor solo from the record note for note. Midway through the solo, the band jerks to a stop and Keith was left hanging awkwardly. Then James says "Keith, we want you to get down. You got up. Don't get up, get down. HIT ME!" and on cue Keith and the band jumped right back into the groove.


Then the band went into "The Payback" and I may sound like a broken record, but I'll be damned if they didn't play this song too fast too. After a brief teaser going way back to "Prisoner of Love" (1962!) the rhythm section played the groove for "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" just where it belonged. James pleaded for the crowd to "stop the violence", siting that girls can't go to school today without fearing being raped and young men can't sit on a porch without fearing being shot.

Then he told the crowd he only had 10 more minutes, but he wanted to give the people more, and he said he wasn't doing it cause he was getting paid but because he WANTED to do it. The band did a short familiar sounding jazzy number and that was followed up by a gospel segment featuring the organist. As the organist was playing James Brown dedicate the groove to "Maceo, Fred, JB's, Martha High, Vicki, Sweet Charles,etc."

Then the music stopped and the Godfather rapped to the audience, giving major props to Maceo and thanking him for being a "brother" to him. He related a story about Maceo going to Vietnam with him to perform. Apparently the band was in a "huddle" discussing something and it was hot and humid out (just prior to a show I'm speculating). So they're all in this group huddle "like a football team" and low and behold some snot drips out of JB's nose(!) This came to Maceo's attention and he didn't hesitate to WIPE the snot off the Godfather's face with his bare hand! (I swear to God this is the story James told, I'm not making this shit up....)

So naturally, the audience had a laugh once Mr. Brown related this story --- but he was quite serious about this! He was ABSOLUTELY sincere when he said to the crowd "WAIT A MINUTE, it takes more man than normal to do that" and said that Maceo did it because he didn't want James to look bad and be embarassed. Goddamn! I don't know, but I can't help but think Maceo's had prouder moments for James to relate before a couple thousand people on a special occasion like this!

After having the audience give Maceo around of applause he explained that when he hired Maceo, he really didn't want him! He wanted Melvin Parker, Maceo's brother to be his drummer. As Melvin told the story on Maceo's concert movie "My Name Is Maceo", Melvin knew that Maceo had a special talent so he insisted that Mr. Brown hire Maceo with him and he wanted Melvin bad enough that he agreed to it.

James then called specifically for Melvin to "come up here and get on the drums". Sadly, it didn't happen though. Melvin didn't even come up on stage. I don't know if he didn't want to come or if he wasn't around or what... Too bad. After taking a cue from Maceo that Melvin wasn't coming up at the moment James cued the band into the next song: "In 1965 this was the sound..."

Then of course the "Soul General" launched into "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag". An awkward moment occured shortly into the song. James called out for Jeff Watkins, his lead saxophonist to come over. Then immediately after Jeff started walking over James called out for Maceo "the original" to blow instead.

One of the more memorable moments from the show occured during this song as James Brown called for the bass player to do a solo. Well this wasn't just any old bassist! Midway through the song, none other than Sweet Charles Sherrell had quietly slipped in and took over the bass duties. His solo DEFINED funk. Nice and bottom heavy, great use of syncopation --- just incredible. After hearing his solo I can't believe that Maceo hasn't showcased him on bass more. (I've never seen Sweet Charles play bass with Maceo's band but if I remember correctly Charles told me he does on occasion when I was rapping with him before the show.)

Following Sweet Charles' solo, JB called Maceo back center stage, this time along with Jeff Watkins and the two traded solos. Then Maceo spontaneously vamped on a riff and cued for Jeff to join him. Jeff harmonized Maceo's line and the energy level of the whole band jumped up two or three notches as they worked it out.

Then during "I Got You" Martha High and Vicki Anderson, who had been standing off to the side of the stage came up closer to the front and were given mics to share with the Bittersweets. Even better, Marva Whitney, who hadn't performed with any of the earlier acts took the stage and the Godfather passed her the mic to sing a verse of the song.

I'm glad I don't have to choose, but I think of all the female vocalists that worked with James, Marva had the most funk. Maybe she was just there at the right time to get the funkiest tunes, but her album "It's My Thing" is the strongest album by a JB diva that I've heard by far. (It used to be that you could only find this as a bootleg pressing, but I believe it was recently reissued legitimately-- only on vinyl though.) It was truly a pleasure to get the oppurtunity to see Marva perform, especially because she was not one of those listed in the advertisements for the event.

Saxophonist Jeff Watkins found himself in Maceo's shadow once again during "I Got You" when he habitually walked to the center of the stage to play the sax solo in the bridge of the song. Maceo beat him too it though, so Jeff found himself backing up to return to the rest of the horn section --- kind of shows you the spontaneous nature of this event.

Before the Grand Finale, James called out "POP-cone!!!" and the band teased us with a snipit of "Mother Popcorn" . Then he introduced a brief version of "Please, Please, Please" as "the song that started it all". Martha High took a glorious solo.

At this point it was clear that the show was winding to a close. Fred Wesley had mentioned in his Master Artist workshop that for the last song in James Brown's set that the JB's would come out and jam with James' current band.

I was nearly *certain* that Catfish, Bootsy, Jabo and some of the other guys would come back to the stage to finish it off. After all --- the perfect number for them to do this on, was the one big hit that had not been played all night.

Needless to say, I was a bit dissapointed when the band finally did "Sex Machine", but Bootsy, Catfish, Jabo, Melvin, Pee Wee and even Fred Wesley for that matter were nowhere to be seen. I may never know what exactly why things went down the way they did, but the song was still enjoyable even if not as stanky as it could have been as a full fledged James Brown reunion with the JB's.

The song started out with the traditional "Can I get into it?" call and response, but JB stretched it out and added a call for Bobby Byrd specifically to help him out. The song itself ended up over 20 minutes long. Of course Bobby was featured as JB's sidekick on the verse doing the "Get on up!" part. Then Maceo and Jeff traded solos again before Maceo went off to the side of the stage and stood next to all of the other horns while the vocalists were featured. Marva Whitney did a bit of "It's My Thing" over the Sex Machine groove then did a bit of "I Feel Alright" --- unfortunately the drummer didn't follow her (Refer to"Live At the Apollo 1967" if you don't know what I'm talking about.) Martha High sang a little solo too and the band took it home.

After the Godfather left the stage, Danny Ray came out and put a finishing touch on the occasion, recalling all the names of all the star performers and of course "Mr. Please Please himself".

Overall, it was a majestical evening. Sure, it would have been better if the JB's had came out for "Sex Machine". Hell, if it was left up to me I would have had the JB's play last -- their set would have been at least 90 minutes and James Brown definitely would have done the last few numbers with them. If I could have picked the set list they would have played "Talkin' Loud and Saying Nothing" and "Super Bad" for sure.

In a perfect world, everyone there would come back with James, rehearse everything for a few weeks and take it on the road for a couple months. But the reality is that many of his band members have their own careers now and others probably could do without the rigors of life on the road. But I must say it was truly a pleasure to see all of these incredible, legendary musicians and vocalists in one evening of entertainment. Even if it wasn't quite something straight out of a funkateer's wildest dream, it was closer to that than I'd ever have thought I would have been given the opportunity to witness.



SET LIST
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THE JB'S
Soul Power
Introduction of Band/Gimme Some More
(Funk Band in the Sky) / Hot Pants Road
Licking Stick
Respect
I Need Help
I Know You Got Soul
Doing It To Death (w/ Fred Wesley)

MACEO PARKER
Come On Maceo (Intro)
Uptown Up
Rappers In a Pea Patch/Ooh Yeah
Shake Everything You've Got/Southwick
Baby Knows
Got To Getcha (w/ James Brown and Fred Wesley)
Think (About It)
Mustang Sally
My Love
Move Your Body / Soul Power


JAMES BROWN
Intro
Ain't It Funky Now
Gimme Some More/Star Time
Get Up Offa That Thing
Cold Sweat
There Was A Time
I Can't Stand Myself
Doing It To Death (w/ Fred Wesley)
Living In America
Theme From Shaft
I Will Always Love You (w/ Heather Hayes)
This Is My Story (w/ Bittersweets and Pee Wee Ellis)
Get On The Good Foot
I Got The Feeling
The Payback
Prisoner of Love (teaser)
It's A Man's Man's Man's World
?
Organ feature / James Brown pays respect to Maceo,etc.
Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
I Got You (I Feel Good)
Popcorn (teaser)
Please Please Please
Get Up I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine