Maceo Parker is one of most prolific of all James Brown’s sidemen. Of course, ‘sidemen’ hardly does musicians like saxophonist Maceo and trombonist Fred Wesley justice, and they were two of the players Brown enjoyed shouting out the most (possibly, in part, because he liked rhyming “Maceo” with “blow”). In addition to his playing on records by three of the foremost foremen of funk—Brown, George Clinton’s Parliament Funkadelic, and Prince—Maceo’s solo discography stretches half a century.
Maceo’s albums are titled aptly, and excellently: 1992’s Life on Planet Groove was a testament to Maceo and his band’s ability to ride a groove, improvise, and keep a crowd engaged for 12, 14, even 16 minutes. 2007’s Roots & Grooves was split in two halves: the first explored Maceo’s connection to Ray Charles, an early influence; the second was a career retrospective (though Maceo continued to tour for many years afterwards). The 7-minute version of ‘Shake Everything You Got’ was a highlight, even if it did last less than half the time of the unhurried, jam-all-night version from ’92.
What a way to open the live album: a 16-minute footstomper. A third of the way in, Maceo gives Kenwood Dennard a couple of minutes to solo, referencing Brown’s exclamations of “Give the drummer some!” and the famous ‘Funky Drummer’ title. Maceo is full of his own golden lines – he introduces the song by saying, “We like to do 2% jazz, 98% funky stuff”, which became something of a mantra of his. After Dennard’s solo, he duets with Maceo, who seemingly pushes his saxophone and his breath to their limits, playing strained, urgent phrases. The song closes with Maceo and trombonist Wesley playing a weird stop-start riff that’s caught between celebration and panic.
The 2007 Roots & Grooves version is a little more urgent, the drums more compressed and the bass thumped more heavily. The horns’ main riff is faithful to the original, and indeed faithful to 1970’s ‘Southwick’. That track was released on Maceo & All the King's Men’s Doing Their Own Thing. So this 2007 version revisits a 1992 song which itself interpolated a track from two decades previous. Another thing Maceo learned from Brown: revisit, replay, rename, re-release for a new age. (Maceo pays further tribute to the The J.B.’s on the following track on this record, ‘Pass the Peas’, a concert staple for decades and also a favourite of Wesley’s. That song was originally released during Maceo’s two-year hiatus from Brown’s band. He also covered it on Life on Planet Groove.)
After a drum solo (briefer, but fun), the crowd get involved with the chant: “Shake everything you got!” And why not?
Top image from Discogs.