Jul 12, 2014

RhoDeo 1427 Grooves

Hello, as the Worldcup got to the finals , nobody really wants the losers final despite carrying a 2 million dollar bonus, the Dutch probably let the Brazilians have it. The final however should be a German win but i expect some Messi goals too..


These weeks it's all about "Soul Brother Number One," "the Godfather of Soul," "the Hardest Working Man in Show Business," "Mr. Dynamite" -- those are mighty titles, but no one can question that today's artist earned them more than any other performer. James was a guy who had self motivation written all over his back and front. And it came out of every pore of his music. The J.B.'s were the legendary supporting cast of musicians behind James Brown, earning a well-deserved reputation as the tightest, best-drilled instrumental ensemble in all of funk. The name J.B.'s is most often associated with three hornmen in particular -- saxophonists Maceo Parker, Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis, and trombonist Fred Wesley. One of the key sonic architects of funk, Maceo Parker first became a legend for his work with James Brown, whose impassioned shouts for a sax solo ("Maceo! Blow your horn!") would make Parker the Godfather of Soul's most famous sideman, though Parker would continue to enjoy a successful career long after leaving Brown's employ. ......N'joy

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One of the key sonic architects of funk, Maceo Parker first became a legend for his work with James Brown, whose impassioned shouts for a sax solo ("Maceo! Blow your horn!") would make Parker the Godfather of Soul's most famous sideman, though Parker would continue to enjoy a successful career long after leaving Brown's employ.

Maceo Parker was born on February 14, 1943 in Kinston, North Carolina. Parker's mother and father both had an appreciation for music and sang in their church's choir, but it was his uncle who had the strongest influence on the youngster's musical development. Parker's uncle led a local jazz and R&B band called the Blue Notes, and Maceo would sometime watch them rehearse; in time, Maceo would take up the saxophone, while his brothers Melvin and Kellis respectively learned to play the drums and trombone. Their uncle was impressed enough with the youngsters' abilities that he dubbed them "the Junior Blue Notes" and had them perform between sets at Blue Notes shows. The Parker brothers were seasoned professionals by the time they enrolled at North Carolina A&T, where they studied music. In 1963, Melvin Parker had graduated and was offered an audition with James Brown, who was looking for a new drummer; Melvin landed the gig, and when he asked if Brown could use a new sax player as well, Maceo was also offered a spot in the band.

Originally playing baritone sax, Maceo eventually switched over to tenor, and his style on the instrument was ideal for the band -- rich, rhythmic, and full of sharp, staccato lines that meshed with Brown's taut and funky sound. After lending an inspired solo to Brown's 1965 smash "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," Maceo became of the key members of Brown's recording and touring band, and his solos were an integral part of some of Brown's best-known songs, including "I Got You (I Feel Good)," "Mother Popcorn," "Sex Machine," and "Cold Sweat." However, Brown's well-documented reluctance to part with a dollar and firm hand over his sidemen led most of Brown's band to quit en masse in 1970; Maceo was one of the musicians who walked, and he soon formed his own group, Maceo & All the King's Men, with his brother Melvin on drums. Maceo & All the King's Men had released an album by the year was out, titled Doin' Their Own Thing, but despite the strength of their live show, they didn't fare as well as they had hoped commercially. In 1973, Maceo rejoined Brown's touring band, though he found time to cut a solo album, Us, in 1974. The following year saw another revolt sweep through the ranks of Brown's group, and Maceo, trombonist Fred Wesley, and bassist Bootsy Collins all jumped ship to work with George Clinton's various projects, including Parliament and Funkadelic.

By 1984, Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic empire was in tatters, and Maceo signed back on with James Brown for another four years, though he appeared as a guest on several of Clinton's solo albums from this period, and when Clinton produced the Red Hot Chili Peppers' sophomore album, Freaky Styley, Maceo stopped by to contribute some trademark sax solos. In 1988, Keith Richards invited Maceo to perform on his debut solo album, Talk Is Cheap, and as hip-hop acts began recycling James Brown's potent grooves, Parker found himself in demand with contemporary acts such as Deee-Lite, Living Colour, and Material, all of whom brought him in to play on their sessions.

In 1990, Maceo Parker stepped out as a solo act, releasing a jazz-oriented album called Roots Revisited through Verve Records and hitting the road in support. With funk back in fashion, Parker found he had a ready audience for his new music, and another jazz-flavored set, Mo' Roots, appeared in 1991. Parker upped the funk factor on the 1992 live set Life on Planet Groove, which featured fellow James Brown alumni Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis, and it documented the powerful show Maceo and his band were playing up to 150 nights a year. Through the 1990s, Parker released a steady stream of solo records and made guest appearances on albums by De La Soul and Brooklyn Funk Essentials, as well as less likely collaborations with 10,000 Maniacs and Bryan Ferry. In 1999, noted funk enthusiast Prince recruited Maceo to play on his album Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, and he would be a regular contributor to Prince's studio projects over the next decade, as well as performing with his live ensemble. Alternative folk diva Ani DiFranco also persuaded Maceo to sit in with her, with the sax man contributing to the albums To the Teeth and Reveling: Reckoning. And in 1998, Maceo and his band were the opening act on a concert tour by the Dave Matthews Band; Maceo would often join in with the headliners, and one of the shows from that tour was belatedly released in 2001 as Live in Chicago 12.19.98 at the United Center.

In 2004, Parker's impressive live show was documented on film for the documentary My First Name Is Maceo, which featured interviews with Maceo discussing his life and music along with extensive footage of him and his group in full flight. In 2007, Parker performed a series of concerts in Europe with the German ensemble the WDR Big Band; highlights from the tour appeared on the album Roots & Grooves, including a set of tunes made famous by Ray Charles, one of Parker's early influences. And Parker paid homage to a handful of other R&B greats on another collaboration with the WDR Big Band, 2012's Soul Classics, with Maceo putting his stamp on classic numbers by Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Isaac Hayes, and his former employer James Brown.

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Recorded and released after a mutiny by most of James Brown's late-'60s band, Doing Their Own Thing contains 12 slabs of superb early-'70s style funk. Mostly instrumental, radio play for the album and subsequent singles appears to have been blocked by Brown himself. (Credited to Maceo Parker.)



Maceo & All The King's Men - Doin' Their Own Thing  (flac 241mb)

01 Maceo 7:47
02 Got To Getcha 2:49
03 Southwick 3:29
04 Funky Women 5:42
05 Shake It Baby (Keep On Shakin' It) 2:12
06 Better Half 4:55
07 Don't Waste This World Away 6:19
08 Mag-Poo 3:20
09 (I Remember) Mr. Banks 5:29
10 Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself Again 6:17

Maceo & All The King's Men - Doin' Their Own Thing  (ogg 86mb)

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It's trouble when the liner notes mention Maceo & All the King's Men's "blending of R&B, pop, easy listening, and Top 40." Funky Music Machine does nothing to disprove that ominous foreshadowing. Their 1970 debut, the much better Doin' Their Own Thing, was recorded after the band left James Brown in a money dispute. Two years later brought Funky Music Machine; it remains to be seen whether that is the length of time it takes for Brown's influence to wear off, though this does seem to offer conclusive proof. If the two Beatles covers and somnambulistic rendering of the '70s AOR standard "Make It With You" aren't enough to dissuade you, consider "I Want to Sing." Some soulful sisters ask Maceo Parker to blow his saxophone, only to have him counter, as the music shifts into an approximation of the Up With People catalog, "I want to sing." And, true to his word, he does for most of the album. Even the mighty J.B.'s were human, after all.



Maceo & All The King's Men - Funky Music Machine  (flac 206mb)

01 Funky Music Machine 3:04
02 I Want To Sing 2:45
03 Dreams 2:35
04 Feeling Alright 2:40
05 Something 5:24
06 Born To Wander 3:02
07 T.S.U. 3:15
08 For No One 3:37
09 Make It With You 3:09
10 A Funky Tale To Tell 4:01

Maceo & All The King's Men - Funky Music Machine   (ogg 84mb)

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Maceo Parker's 'comeback' album celebrating his return to the J.B. fold. Credited to Maceo and the Macks, this really is a J.B.'s album, featuring pretty much the same fonky vibes of contemporay waxings such as 'The Payback' and 'Damn Right I Am Somebody". The big hit off 'Us' was "Soul Power '74", a fierce re-make of the Brown hit of 1971. Using the Bootsy-led backing track and adding a swoopin' dose of Maceo-styled saxy FONK, "Soul Power '74" is all the more remarkable due to the inclusion of a snippet of Martin Luther King's very last speech, held the night before his assassination in 1968.

Go-fer-yer-guns funk sums up the incredible groove bonanza "Parrty (Pt. 1 & 2)", a "Popcorn"-styled instrumental that swangs like crazy. Heavy on the one, drenched in Parker's sax riffin', it inexplicably failed to achieve much success as a single. As was the case with Maceo's prior album (the non Brown-produced 'Funky Music Machine') and with James Brown's own LPs in general, the groove is obstructed by some slower, more melodic instrumentals (a take on Joe Simon's "Drownin' In the Sea of Love", for example), but 'Us' redeems itself with the long finale, the "It's a Man's World"-inspired, brooding groove of "The Soul of a Black Man".



Maceo - Us  (flac 231mb)

01 Soul Power 74 4:07
02 Parrty 5:50
03 Show And Tell 3:08
04 Drowning In The Sea Of Love 3:57
05 I Can Play For (Just You & Me) 3:36
06 Doing It To Death 3:46
07 The Soul Of A Black Man 10:37

Maceo - Us  (ogg 85mb)

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Is it too greedy t ask for these Maceo albums to be re-upped as well?

Thanks in advance.