CURRENT STANDINGS: James vs. Maceo
Tonearm_Robbery
699 Posts
Caught the Maceo Parker show last night. Prince showed up, they played two songs together. Prince threw his guitar in to the crowd. Hit some lady on the head and knocked her out. Shit was hype.Maceo's band kills it. Quality.My friend, the Xtra Loop Genius, turned to me and said he noticed that Maceo isn't really playing that much James related material and I agreed. Then the question popped up, "What is the stattus of their current relationship" and I really didn't have an answer.Can anyone be so kind as to explain what was the cause of their whole relationship going sour and/or staying that way?Thanks.PS - The lady didn't get to keep the guitar after it knocked her out. Security came over and wrestled it away from the other fans that were throwing blows over her lifeless body and handed it back to the guitar tech on stage. 
Comments
Don't know specifics about Brown & Maceo, but we all know that James was very picky about his arrangements, and would walk around to each musician during a session and tell them how to play differently, the way he wanted. Maceo definately had his own style, and so it may be the kind of thing where he just likes his own music better, and doesn't want to play out the "I worked with James Brown" thing.
Right.
Remember Maceo got a chance to record a jazz disc back in the early 90s and it did very well. Off of that he was able to tour both jazz and rock clubs and play a mix of jazz and funk tunes and move away from the JBs sound he helped create. I saw him in the early 90swith Fred Wesley in a club, great show. I saw him about a year later with his son rapping on songs in a park. Not that great.
Is there a You Tube yet?
Yeah - I just find it odd that in this day and age where that JB's sound is so big, that he would totally abandon somthing he created.
And not to say he TOTALLY abandoned that sound, he did pull out "Pass the Peas" and kill it. I guess I was just expecting the entire set to be the James Brown show that we never get to see James do these days. I was pleasently surprised at Maceo's range and talent, his version of "Hey Jude" with a little breakbeat in the back was show stopping.
I wouldn't doubt that he did something for her
before the night was over, though.
A few years back, a girl got hit by a car waiting out
overnight for Prince tickets at the Tower Records in Boston.
Prince came and performed a $100-per-ticket show at a nightclub
in town, with the proceeds going to her family.
:notweaksauce:
Things have gone sour between Brown and everyone that he's ever worked with--he's simply a phenomenally unpleasant person.
Have you read Fred Wesley's book, titled something like Hit Me, Fred?
He pulls no punches, and has a surplus of candid stories (he even makes his own self look like a slacker fool on a few occasions - that's how honest he is). Anyway, even though he's proud of what he did with the JB's, I got the distinct impression that he had moved on, with other tricks up his sleeve.
I believe Maceo was in the same boat. I remember when those first two Verve CD's (that were mentioned earlier) came out in the nineties...those did relatively well for what they were.
Now that he's getting mad respect that he DID NOT get during the JB days, can you blame him for downplaying those years? The story goes that when Maceo left the JB organization the first time (at the beginning of the '70s), recording for Excello and House Of The Fox, James Brown paid DJ's NOT to play them records...and this was back when JB RULED black radio and had more street cred than a traffic light.
I remember seeing a recent JB documentary on PBS; they interviewed Lyn Collins, a former singer w/the James Brown show (who had a few JB-produced hits on her own), and the sadness in her eyes was too obvious to ignore...JB obviously did a number on her. (I'm being polite - see Fred Wesley's book, Hit Me, Fred, for the gory details.)
i mean really who could work with this guy day in day out.
yeah great book. I remember one of the stories that stood out about the difficulties of working with JB was Fred saying that James would convice band members to buy expensive cars or invest in bad deals so even if they wanted to, they could not afford to leave the band. crazy.
A well known cheapskate and a tyrant who apparently took credit time and time again for songs that artists in his employ wrote (see Lynn Collins, Vicki Anderson et al)...
Oh, it went beyond that. One of his favorites was to encourage them to invest in real property, which is generally a good thing, except that once they were saddled with monthly mortgage payments he would fire them... and then hire them back at a lower rate.
you aren't kidding! It's a great book, everyone should check it out.
I just saw Maceo / FRED WESLEY / Tyrone Jefferson play together as part of the Sunset Jazz Festival
They did not play any james brown tracks...I think they used to...the last time I saw Maceo it was the night of OJ/s famous LA freeway drive...at the end of the gig he says ...y'all pray for OJ ... at the time I was wondering what happened to Juice! my o my...
The recent Maceo show was incredible. He is playing more standards...and he does an incredible version of Ray Charles...sounds just like him!
The tracks they played ::: ...One nation Under A Groove / pass the peas / inner city blues / breaking bread ....
(nice to hear them do pfunk.funkadelic they sound better than george clinton these days...)
If your gonna see Maceo...make sure FRED is gonna be there....
cheers
strange
(I heard Prince also played with that matisyahu freak...I thought vegagoose was a jam band thang...)
vs
you check out any of the Vegoose festival?
Fantastic book. Fred was/is a jazz player at heart, and while he respects funk, his general attitude toward the stuff we would consider JB classics was that it was lightweight music--he mentions being embarrassed by how simple some of it is.
Maybe you're the one who mentioned this originally... when I met Maceo I wanted to ask him about this but the idea of taking him back to a bad time was out of the question. I brought a reish of the House of the Fox LP for him to autograph and it really took him back, he was telling me what's up with each band member pictured on the sleeve ("he's dead, he's blind, he's still around..."), it was obvious he hadn't seen that shit in a dog's age and he was just really chill in general.
Yeah, I only went on Saturday by myself but saw quite a lot.
Money Mark - Very slept on by the majority of the public. He came out and did this weird 20 min thing with just feedback.
Damian Marley - He sounded great but too many spinners and "rustic" types for me.
Mars Volta - Wow.
Black Crows - eh. Again, I respect but the crowd turns me off.
J5 - Man, I can't deny it. They went pop (who can blame them, they paid their dues and got mouths to feed...) with this last album but damn if they don't put on a hype live show. I can't front.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers -
Then ran over to the HOB and caught Maceo.
Needless to say, I was hurting the next day at work.