MACEO PARKER: Soul Food - Cooking With Maceo (JAZZ): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Maceo Parker inaugurates Mascot's brand new label: The Funk Garage. Hard to find a better way to represent the genre and sponsor this new brand. Funk is almost Maceo's own creation. 25 years blowing a sax in James Brown's band is more than a line on a musician's CV, it's the story of a lifetime. A life dedicated to groove, prestigious collaborations and the stage. At the age of 77, Maceo Parker has kept intact the joyful and positive state of mind that characterizes his music. This sixteenth studio album, "Soul Food - Cooking With Maceo", demonstrates once again that funk is as much a music as it is a philosophy of life.

Certainly "Soul Food" is essentially a cover album. And yet, each composition seems to have been composed by Maceo Parker. For the American has created a style all his own, recognisable from the very first note. Maceo is not Charlie Parker. He was never the best saxophonist in the world. But none like him is capable of using the saxophone as a rhythm instrument. Just listen to 'Cross The Track' and you'll see that for yourself. This old track, composed in 1975 and covered in the opening track of "Soul Food", sums up Maceo Parker in a nutshell: a James Brown groove, a funky bass and the staccato playing of the saxophone that would make even a one-legged player tap his foot.

A master of funk, Maceo Parker revisits some classics and gives them a second wind, adding to the groove his warm soul voice (covers of the Meters' 'Just Kissed My Baby' and Aretha Franklin's 'Rock Steady') and typical New Orleans jazz phrasing ('Hard Times'). Maceo is as impressive in jazz funk as he is in pure funk, with the magnificent cover of Prince's 'Other Side Of The Pillow', with whom he recorded 6 albums.

The only reproach one could make to "Soul Food" is the redundancy of some tracks ('Maceo'). But that's very little compared to the positive energy shot that Maceo Parker is still able to offer us. And these days, we really need it. - Official website

MACEO PARKER

SOUL FOOD - COOKING WITH MACEO

MASCOT LABEL GROUP

JAZZ