Maceo Parker
"The Soul of the Black Man"

I believe that the first "funk" that we know and love began when Maceo Parker
joined JB's band, and the two began performing. (their first recording was 'new bag')
Rickey Vincent

Born in Kinston, North Carolina, in 1943, Parker was nurtured by a home environment rich with music. "My father played piano and drums and sang in church, and my mother sang in the church. They both could dance and keep up with the latest thing happening. Before we were teenagers, my brothers, Melvin and Kellis, and I had chosen our instruments (drums, trombone and saxophone, respectively)." The Parker's uncle had a band called Bobby Butler and the Mighty Blue Notes, which served as a role model when the Parker brothers formed their own band called the Blue Note Juniors. "My uncle would take us to nightclubs and we'd play during intermissions." By the time the Parker brothers graduated high school and began attending college at North Carolina A&T (majoring in music) they were seasoned professionals in performing and entertaining. "Maceo! Blow your horn!" That's how James Brown would dynamically signal his favorite horn player to take another stinging sax solo -- and Maceo Parker never once let his boss down. Parker's jabbing workouts in the midst of "Papa's Got a Brand New

Bag" and "Cold Sweat" made him a household name among '60s funk fans -- not bad for a kid fresh out of college who got the gig primarily because Brown coveted his brother Melvin's drumming chops. Now Parker is a star in his own right. His recent Verve albums "Roots Revisited" and "Mo" Roots" impeccably spotlight his soul-drenched alto sax on a sizzling hybrid of funk, R&B and jazz. And he's brought along his ex-section mates from Brown's band -- trombonist Fred Wesley and saxist Pee Wee Ellis -- to stoke the almighty groove. The North Carolina product quit Brown several times. Along with his bandmates, Parker mutinied in 1970 to form Maceo and All the King's Men, only to return to the fold three years later; later in the decade, he worked with Parliament/Funkadelic and Bootsy's Rubber Band. But when Brown was incarcerated, Parker was there for him, releasing a rap song that urged the Godfather of Soul's immediate freedom.In 1990 the album 'Roots Revisited' topped the Billboard Jazz Chart for two months. In addition Parker was named 'Best Jazz Artist Of The Year' by Rolling Stone magazine. Recently Parker's latest album 'Maceo' was released (accompanying the concertfilm of the same name). Maceo uses a Selmer MkVI alto. He has two of them, one gold plated. He uses a Brilhart "Ebolin" mouthpiece, #5.