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Roxy, New York,
May 15, 1997
In the grand tradition
of jazz and soul headliners, legendary funk saxophonist Maceo
Parker gave his band a few minutes to kick into high gear before
joining them onstage. As musicians and audience alike shouted
"Come on, Maceo!" Parker, dressed to kill in a black
double-breasted suit, bounded onstage and wasted no time unleashing
a barrage of his signature, syncopated sax lines. Seems Parker
picked up a few frontman tricks during his years helping James
Brown
and George Clinton pioneer funk.
\\Sliding around
onstage like a man half his age, the 53-year-old Parker engaged
his audience in a marathon game of Simon Says Shake Your Groove-Thang,
serving up stylized soul covers and several of his own contributions
to the funk canon. With call and response chants, Brown-influenced
mantras, and a set list peppered with classics like Wilson Pickett's
"Mustang Sally" and Marvin
Gaye's
"Let's Get It On," Parker maintained the party atmosphere
of an age gone by for three solid hours.
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Maceo Parker:
The greatest funkin' show on earth.
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\\Unfortunately, both Parker and his audience pay a price for
the party. At the beginning of the decade, Parker was riding
high on the success of the jazz-oriented "Roots Revisited,"
which topped Billboard's jazz chart for more than 10 weeks.
It seemed the veteran sideman had finally found his niche, pushing
his music into a more sophisticated realm without completely
forsaking his bread-and-butter style. (The forty-somethings
who comprised the majority of his live audience in those days
often got more than they bargained for when Parker would announce,
after playing a couple of straight-ahead jazz numbers, that
he was going to play "two percent jazz and ninety-eight
percent funky stuff.")
\\But as a new generation explores the sources of the samples
that fuel hip-hop, Parker's audience has gotten younger -- and
his concerts have come to reflect that change. He all but ignored
his jazzier material in favor of crowd-pleasing songs in the
bass-heavy P-Funk vein. As his manager put it later, "Maceo
is catering to the kids who *think* that they have discovered
something new."
\\There's no question
that Parker puts on one of, if not *the* greatest funk show
on earth. But by catering to his new audience's preference for
funk flash and stunting his own musical evolution in the process,
he's in danger of turning into an oldies act -- albeit a very
entertaining one.\\\
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2000, RollingStone.com
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