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Maceo
Parker has since performed or recorded with the likes of Jane's Addiction,
Red Hot Chili Peppers, 10,000 Maniacs, De La Soul, Ani DiFranco, and the
Dave Matthews Band. When Maceo finally broke out on his own in the early
90's, he and his Mark VI alto soon became the funkiest act on the road,
building a large international following. Three years ago Maceo brought
family to his travels, adding his son, emerging rap artist Corey E.L.O.S.
Parker to the group. Maceo's 1992 live CD Life on Planet Groove is a
testament to how the energy of a great live show can be captured on a disc.
His latest release, Funk Overload, on the What Are Records? label has been
earning critical acclaim.
I caught up with Maceo Parker on the road in Buffalo, New York and we spoke
on his tour bus, which was parked behind the stage. Maceo had just finished
opening for Ani DiFranco, the new message mistress of folk funk. Much of the
5,000-plus DiFranco audience were teen or early twenty-somethings, many of
them taken by surprise by the P-Funk Parker. I overheard groups of Maceo
first-timers pledging allegiance to him, like he was a rising star, fresh
off the cover of Rolling Stone. Ani DiFranco herself, a huge Parker fan,
describes Maceo as a "Buddha with a saxophone". And what I
initially thought to be an odd pairing (the DiFranco/Parker tour) turned out
to be a symbiotic education of funk for a higher cause. Once on the bus with
Maceo, I listened intently to what the Jedi Jam Master of the alto sax had
to say. The sounds of Ani's grooves pulsed in the distance. At one point
Parker lost his train of thought upon hearing a DiFranco bass-leaded beat;
after a moment of silence, he looked me in the eye and simply said,
seriously, "Funky."
Tell us about your family's musical background.
Maceo: It's not like my parents were music instructors or anything like that.
But they knew, and taught us, that music can camouflage what's really
happening, as far as not having enough and money and the things that you
want. You see we were poor, but we as kids never knew it. Along with
religion and close family ties, music was one of the tools that my parents
used to help create a happy setting. I mean we just sang all the time, and
singing helped make everything OK. I learned at a very early age how music
had the power to do that. Music made everything OK, all situations.
When you say we, how many brothers and sisters?
Maceo: Three brothers and one sister, and my mother and father. I was lucky,
in that it seemed like there was always a piano around, and my uncle had a
blues band, so they would often rehearse at our house, or we would go to
wherever they were rehearsing. So we had a chance to hear that kind of
music, and then there was church and Sunday school. Also, my mother and
father sang in church, and sometimes we had the church quartets rehearsing
at our home.
So you were singing in groups at a young age before you ever started playing
the saxophone?
 Maceo:
Oh yeah, yeah man, and playing piano, and now that I reflect back on it, I
guess it does sound like I came from a strong musical background. A lot of
times when you say music background you think of your mother or father
teaching elementary school band, but my background was nothing like that.
Just a lot of music in the home.
Your brother Melvin is a drummer?
Maceo: Melvin is a drummer and my other brother Kellis is a trombone player.
My other brother was a truck driver (laughs). I think he tried to play bass
for about a month. Yeah, for some reason he just didn't like it. He was the
youngest of all of us and could hear music, but just didn't want to perform
it. He went into the dry cleaning business with my father for a while. And
my father was the type of man where he didn't insist that we learn his
particular trade, especially since me and my brothers were so into music at
such an early age.
How old were you when you started playing saxophone?
Maceo: About eleven or twelve, and at that time, my brothers and I were all
playing nightclubs and making money with a group called the Junior Blue
Notes. We were playing gigs even while in grammar school.
Did you study sax with anyone back then?
Maceo: No, not until my high school band director, who also happened to be a
saxophone player. He saw something in me when I was in eighth grade, and
since elementary and high school were in the same yard, I had him for five
years as a teacher. I remember, he came in and took over halfway through the
school year. He just came in one day and said, "I'm Mr. Banks. I don't
know anyone but let's get started." He said turn to so-and-so page of
your book, he raised his baton, and some played and some didn't. But I liked
him, and he took a special interest in me right from the start.
Was your high school teacher more classically influenced?
Maceo: No, Jazz. He was really into Sonny Stitt, and if I can remember
right, Stanley Turrentine.
So he introduced you to the jazz artists?
Maceo: Well no, not really. I was at liberty to hear whatever records the
adults had. I might be coming home from school and hear something playing
two doors down from me, I'd just walk up, knock on the door and say, "Hey,
what is that you're listening to?" Oh, cool, that's Count Basie, or
Illinois
Jacquet, or whoever.
What horn did you start on?
Maceo: I started on alto in elementary school, then switched to tenor in
high school. But when I got to college, because they didn't write many
recital pieces for tenor as opposed to alto, I remember my music director in
college telling me I needed to get an alto.
What was one of the first aspects of playing you focused on in high school?
Maceo: Sound. What I noticed was that all students sounded like students,
and my teacher sounded like a professional player. I wanted to sound like
him as a student. I wasn't impressed by a lot of notes if it didn't sound
good. I worked on one note, and then two notes, just focusing on sound,
sound, sound. After five years of working with my teacher, by the time I
graduated high school, if we both played and you were blindfolded, you
couldn't tell us apart. That's how much I wanted to sound like him. I mean,
I was lucky to have this man as a teacher. He would tell me, "Look,
when you have recess, don't go standing around, or try and hold hands with
the girls. You come here to the band room." I did whatever this man
said. So at recess I would go see him, I would sit down, and he would play,
I would listen. I'd try and ask him a question and he'd say, "Shush!
Just listen," and so I just listened. Then the bell would ring and he'd
say, "OK, see ya tomorrow." This would be almost everyday I'd be
in that band room and he would play.
And you would just listen.
Maceo: Yeah, but he wouldn't let me ask any questions. He'd say, "Just
listen, just listen," but he knew that I would go home and try to
imitate what I heard him play. My mother told me that when I was six or
seven, barely able to see the keys on the piano, someone would play
something, and I could imitate it. She said it was amazing. What's really
amazing is I didn't end up being a keyboard player, though I play a little.
So at that time, were you a disciplined saxophone student working on long
tones and scales?
Maceo: No, I didn't really know what I was practicing, I just played. I
didn't know about long tones or stuff like that. But back then, we had our
group, me, my brothers, and my cousins, and we always played on weekends. So
a lot of times, playing was also my practicing, and I would try different
things, even in front of people. For example, I noticed great players that
could really play sound like they're having a conversation, or singing a
song, and I would ask myself, how did they do that? And I would try to get
some kind of concept as to how that was done. I'm asking myself, how do you
get from one note to the other note? What makes a player choose that
particular pattern? This was very early on, and after a while, I'd put my
own patterns together.
I've found that people who reach a high level of excellence in anything are
always asking questions.
Maceo: I didn't really ask people questions verbally. I just kind of asked
myself, then went about trying to figure it out.
I meant that you ask the question internally, and you take one step toward
the solution, then the solution takes a step toward you.
Maceo: Exactly. That's exactly what I did.
When did you decide to become a performer as a career?
Maceo: At one point I thought I would be a music education like my teacher.
It was either high school or college, but you get your degree, you get a
job, and you teach; that's it. I remember asking myself, maybe there's more
to it than that, you know? Just maybe. Then before I finished college, my
high school band director was trying to leave the teaching profession so he
could go on the road with Lloyd Price. Now I'm really confused. I'm trying
to get to where he is, and he's leaving to go on the road. That's when I
first saw Ray Charles and some of the other great players at the Newport
Jazz Festival, and I was like, man, I want to be like that.
Besides your high school teacher, who was your playing influenced by?
Maceo: I liked a lot of things that Hank Crawford did. I also liked David
"Fathead" Newman, and I heard a lot of Stanley Turrentine, and I
also liked the Ray Charles band. I liked all them cats, and had a chance to
see most of them live, and remember being in total awe. I also heard and
liked King Curtis and Junior Walker, though I wasn't really into the high
altissimo stuff. But I was influenced a little by a combination of what a
lot of players did, and not just saxophonists.
When did the funk direction begin?
Maceo: At about age sixteen, I was into the idea of Maceo Parker Plays
Charlie Parker. Now THAT has a good ring to it. But I soon realized a
million other cats were doing that and all of them were good. In fact, many
of them were better than me. But I wondered why there weren't more people
playing the funky thing. So I said to myself, maybe there's some room at the
top for Maceo Parker Plays Maceo Parker, which was funky.
How did you develop this funky percussive style? Did you practice taking one
note, and just bend it, gliss it, or funk it out?
Maceo: No, that was something I could just do day one, because I can hear
rhythms. I think I could have been a drummer, and I know I could have played
the vibes. I've always wanted to get a set of vibes and do that. But, when I
got to the point where I knew I could hear that funky stuff, and not
everybody could, I found my forte. That's one of the things you find out
when you're hanging out with forty or fifty musicians all the time; you find
out who can do what. I had the ability to make that one funky change kind of
interesting. When that came to me, I said to myself, instead of trying to
get real deep into the jazz thing, trying to play all those Charlie Parker
lines or riffs, I should just stay with what I'm doing. And if I wanted to
be extra special as a player, I thought, maybe I should hang in the funky
thing for a while. Since not many other players were into funk, I just might
get some recognition for that. I think that's how I realized that working
with James Brown would be my thing. James recognized my style when he first
heard me play, and that was just me, using my innate ability, talent,
whatever, to hear it and play it funky.
Can you tell us how you got the gig playing with James Brown? I heard he was
more interested in your brother Melvin at first.
Maceo: James Brown heard my brother, he hadn't heard me. I was playing a gig
out of town in Virginia when James Brown came to this after-hours club
Melvin was playing. James came in after his show looking to get something to
eat. I think the name of the club was the El Morocco, or something like that.
James really liked the band, and especially liked Melvin. James told my
brother how much he dug his playing and said if in the future he ever needed
a job, get in touch with him, refresh his memory, and he's got the gig.
Where did this take place?
Maceo: This was in Greensboro, North Carolina, my home state. I grew up in
and still live in Kinston. So when I got back into town, I thought I'd check
on little brother. You know we were both staying in the college dorm. So
Melvin says, "You're not going to believe this; I met James Brown
tonight!" Melvin went on about how impressed James was with his playing,
which didn't surprise me because I knew my brother could play. We both
worked at it and worked it for years, playing all those gigs. I mean, we
played a million gigs by the time I graduated from high school. In fact, I
even played my high school prom, which must have been real nice for my date.
(laughs)
You think that's bad, I played with my working band at my own wedding.
Maceo: At your wedding? Oh man, (laughs) I love it, you played your wedding,
man that's good.
I only played like four tunes, even brought my wife up to sing. Didn't
matter, I took a ton of grief for that one. Anyway, sorry Maceo. Continue
with the James Brown story.
Maceo: Well, about a year and a half later, my brother and I were looking to
take a break from the local thing, and we started talking about what James
Brown had said to my brother. We were like, "Cool, let's get a job with
James." That was like our ace in the hole.
You and your brother got along well?
Maceo: Oh yeah, real well. So when James Brown came to town next, we decided
to go to where he was playing, maybe about 90 miles away from our hometown.
Our plan was to drive around the coliseum until we see his limo or bus. So
after a while we see James Brown's limo, and James gets out of the car, and
Melvin walks up and starts talking to him. After a few minutes he remembers
my brother. James was like a kid at Christmas with a new toy, he was so
excited. They start making arrangements then and there for Melvin to join
him on the road. Then Melvin says, "Oh, by the way, Mr. Brown, this is
my brother Maceo, he plays saxophone, and he needs a job too." James
turns to me and says, "Sax player huh? Well, Maceo, do you play
baritone saxophone?" I really played tenor, but I said "Ahhhhh,
yes, Mr. Brown." James then says to me, "Maceo, do you own a
baritone saxophone?" I knew there was only one answer if I wanted the
gig so I said, "Ahhhhh, yes, Mr. Brown." James then says,
"OK, I'll give you two weeks to take care of things and get your
baritone sax." He said I could meet him in, I think it was Baltimore.
We went home all excited, told our parents we both got jobs playing with
James Brown. Around then, my high school band director was killed when a car
he was working on fell off the jacks and crushed him. Man that was horrible.
His wife gave me his brand new Mark VI tenor because she knew we were so
close. Everyone in the band was envious of that horn. I didn't even really
know what it was. I worked out a deal with a local store, got a baritone
sax, and took the VI tenor with me. Melvin and I thought we'd hang with
James six months, maybe a year, make a little money, then go back to school.
(laughs) We stayed a lot longer than that.
I know soon after joining James Brown you played both baritone and tenor on
your first recorded solo, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag". You had a
very funky style even then.
Maceo: By the time I graduated from high school, I was well into what you
heard on the early James Brown stuff. By then I had realized that I could do
more in the funky idiom than in the jazz idiom.
What year did you first record with James Brown?
Maceo: I was hired in 1964 and recorded "Papa's Got a Brand New
Bag" in1965. I played baritone sax for three months, then switched to
tenor when James's tenor man got sick and had to leave. James was going to
hire another tenor player to play solos until I let him know I could do it.
What made you switch to alto as your main voice?
Maceo: I always liked both tenor and alto, especially alto for ballads
because of Hank Crawford. James Brown was the one who suggested I play alto
as a major instrument after I was away from him for a while and came back.
One day he just said to me, "Maceo, know what? Maybe you should play
alto," and I said, "OK, cool," and that was it.
I always wondered about that, because for most players, choosing a horn to
focus on is a major decision.
Maceo: Yeah, James Brown did it. He suggested I play alto, so that's what I
did.
Do you still play tenor at all?
Maceo: No, but that's because I don't like the sound that I get. I have the
Mark VI, but I think I need to try a different mouthpiece, or just work on
it more, I don't know. If I ever get the time to work on it, and to the
point where I'm satisfied with the sound, I'll come out with something. A
funky something. (laughs)
How did you get started on flute?
Maceo: I was made to play flute in college because we had too many saxophone
players. The band director came in one day and said, "We have too many
saxophones and we need flutes for the upcoming concert season, so you, you,
and you are going to play flute." I was one of them. I just sat there,
I said man, I don't want to play no flute, come on. I'd never even held a
flute in my hand, and I'd made my choice - saxophone. So I sat there with
this flute, and I'd blow, and blow; nothing, that thing didn't budge. The
music was sounding so good, and I wasn't contributing, and I really do love
concert stuff. (Maceo begins passionately improvising a classical piece.)
The next thing I knew, I got a little sound, then another sound, then the
scales, so I'm like, "Cool, I got it." Now, I love the flute.
Who repairs your horns for you?
Maceo: I've got a guy out of Raleigh, North Carolina. His name is Rodney
Marrsh, at Marrsh Woodwinds. What I do is, after each tour, either myself or
my son Corey take both horns in, and sometimes the flute, to have them
looked at. They do a great job and are very proud of their work. I sent both
my altos back to Paris once to get overhauled, but that was years ago.
You play Selmer Mark VI's?
Maceo: Yeah, I've got two of them. One is gold-plated, the other is
lacquered.
Have you had the same ones for a long time?
Maceo: Yeah.
Can you tell us what the serial numbers are?
Maceo: No, I don't even get into any of that stuff.
How about your mouthpiece and set up? What is that comprised of?
Maceo: I'm using the same type of mouthpiece that I started with, although
it's not the same one. My pet pet, baby baby, pet pet, got broken when it
fell off an organ, but I have one that's similar. It's a Brilhart Ebonite #3
with just a stock ligature. Again, that's just because I started with that,
and it's what my high school band director was playing. He didn't use a Berg
Larson, or anything fancy. That was it; I was just trying to pattern after
him. I mean, whatever came with the horn was cool. (laughs)
You have such a big sound, it's just amazing.
Maceo: Thanks man.
What type of reeds are you using?
Maceo: I'm using Vandorn Java's 3 1/2. Way back when, I was using Rico.
Regarding your solo career, when James Brown was unable to tour, is that
when you first broke out on your own with the other JB horn players? (Fred
Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis.)
Maceo: When James went to prison, that's when, coupled with my age, I said
to myself, "Hey man, if you're going to get this solo thing on, now's
the time." All the George Clinton and Bootsy Collins stuff was fun, and
they made it really sweet for me, but that was their thing, which was fine.
If I was ever going to do a Maceo thing, I had to do it now, because it's
getting into autumn, and now the day is almost over, do you hear what I'm
saying? As well as playing the saxophone, you've become such an excellent
front man, singing, dancing, doing call and response with the audience.
Is this something you always knew you could do?
Maceo: Yeah, I knew I could always do that, which goes way back to
elementary school, when I lead the band. I had been in so many groups, and I
had a thing called Maceo and All the King's Men. You just get to a point
where you know what you can do.
So it must be liberating to take charge of the show and work the audience
instead of someone else always saying, "Maceo, blow your horn."
Maceo: Yeah, but it's like what I was saying before, it goes hand in hand
with your age. I didn't want to be the oldest guy in someone else's band,
unless it is James Brown's, because he's a little bit older than me, (laughs)
then I'm not the oldest cat. But to be the oldest cat in someone's band, ten
to fifteen years your junior, telling you what to do, I mean, it doesn't
always sit well.
Your shows are a hypnotic mix of music and dance, sometimes lasting well
over three hours and attracting a very young audience. Most of these kids
are unaware of your work with James Brown. Did you purposely look to appeal
to the youth?
Maceo: I tell you what happened; you know how a bunch of kids are friends at
high school and then when they graduate, they go in separate directions?
They stay in touch by phone or e-mail, especially the first year they're
away from home, they call each other and talk. They'll tell each other about
who's the funky groups to check out. The person at Florida State is talking
to the person at Penn State, and because we haven't played Florida State yet,
they feel left out, so they do whatever they can to get us there. These kids
just network each other and the word travels. Funky music has the ability to
really, really get kids involved. It allows them to "throw their arms
in the air, and wave them like they just don't care." It gives them an
out. I think a lot of kids even appreciate that funky saxophone that I play.
And it's true like you said, they don't even know about my relationship with
James Brown. We recognize their being into funky music, and I'm just trying
to keep it going, and ride the wave as long as we can. We are very, very
thankful for this, and I feel very lucky.
I've heard that your 1992 live CD "Life on Planet Groove" sells
more copies than each previous year. Do you plan on recording another live
CD?
Maceo: Probably. I mean, more likely, we don't plan it, we just say now's
the time and we do it. Album sales wise, I do really, really well in Europe,
almost four to one compared to here. Playing gigs, I play about the same
amount, but my CD's sell much better overseas.
On the Planet Groove CD, you play that amazing ascending chromatic solo.
People that I talk to who own that disc always allude to that solo, and how
incredible it is.
Maceo: Which solo is that?
On the first track, you play a solo with just the drummer, where you start
it by saying, "Me and the drummer, check it out."
Maceo: Oh, yeah, right, we were crazy. That drummer was Kenwood Dennard. (laughs)
It was cool.
That was some incredible stuff.
Maceo: I didn't know that solo was going to go as long as it did. But you
know how sometimes you can sort of be on the outside listening, at the same
time you're playing? I could feel it build and build. I mean, we started
small, and I was like, wow! Then I listened to the recording, and I was like,
man, that's all right. (Maceo shakes his head, then starts to sing the solo
note for note.) That was crazy.
I was just getting into your music when I bought that CD used, at a music
store. I took it home, listened to that solo, and went back and purchased a
new copy. I remember thinking, I have to make sure I pay the man for this,
because I was aware artists don't see any money on used CD sales. I knew
right away "Life on Planet Groove" was going to be a mainstay in
my library.
Maceo: (laughs) We recorded that live in Hamburg, Germany.
Do you have other recording projects in mind?
Maceo: My next concept - and I'm trying to get people like Ani DiFranco and
other artists that I've met or talked to such as the Artist Formerly Known
As, Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt and others - I'd love to have them each do
their own stuff, and at some point they would say, "Maceo, come blow
your horn." So like a compilation record of different artists, with me
playing on their tunes.
Your son Corey is an excellent rapper, and he conveys a very positive
message. How did recording and touring with him come about?
Maceo: Corey was an engineering major at North Carolina State for about six
years and got to the point where he wasn't sure if he wanted to become an
engineer. Some of his friends who graduated ahead of him were working in the
field and were not all that happy, and at the same time he was doing some
writing. What I would do is, in the early stages of making a recording I
would go into the studio, put it down, and then just let my kids hear it.
They would give some pretty good feedback, and Corey started writing some
rap stuff to the cut "Maceo's Groove", which is on the Funk
Overload CD. But at the time I said to him, "That's pretty good, but
you know, Corey, you're going to have to come out and perform this yourself,
cause I don't believe in someone else performing somebody else's stuff. If
it's your work, you're going to perform it, because no one is going to
interpret it like you." That's my concept, anyway. So I said to him,
"Come on out and do it," and he did.
How long ago was that?
Maceo: That was about three years ago. He came out on stage, started doing
it, and now he loves it so much, I can't even think about getting him to
stop.
Now that Corey is rapping and your music appeals to such a young audience,
have you thought of collaborating with any other rap artists?
Maceo: Only to work on that concept I was talking about earlier, with other
artists on a compilation. But then again, I might like to do a Puff Daddy
thing. Oh, I'll tell you somebody that I would love to work with is that
little Janet Jackson. She'd be over there on one side of the stage, doing
her Rhythm Nation thing, and I'd be on the other side doing mine. (Maceo
breaks into singing Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation.) Man, I love her, she is
so sweet, so talented. I would love to perform or record with her.
What is your biggest priority musically?
Maceo: The only thing that I really deem necessary is to perform. That's the
bread and butter. It pays these guys, and supports their families, keeps
those bills paid, and we do a lot of gigs, man. Now, if we do an album or a
video and it does well, fine, that's OK. But this is really it - performing
live! That's where it's at.
At that point, Maceo's manager came on the bus to let him know his son Corey
was about to go on and perform a number with Ani DiFranco. Maceo, proud
father that he is, got up and began to politely excuse himself so he could
go backstage and watch his son's performance.
Last quick question Maceo; what are your goals musically?
Maceo: Nah! I don't have any goals. That way I don't have to look back and
say I didn't do it. (laughs)
Well, where do you see Maceo Parker a year from now? Do you just want to
keep touring?
Maceo: Yeah, that's it.
I thanked Maceo for the lengthy time he spent with me and told him he was my
favorite saxophonist and performer. I also told him how I was looking
forward to catching his show in a couple weeks in Los Angeles. As we were
exiting the tour bus, Maceo turned abruptly and said, "Oh Dave, one
thing: make sure you tell the people that we really do love everybody, and
that's why we do this. That's our main message: peace and love. All
right?"
I'll make sure I tell them.
Maceo: Thanks, Dave. See you in L.A. |
Saxophone Journal
