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A Gentleman and a Legend:
An Interview with Maceo Parker
by Jack Chester

Jack Chester: When did you first pick up a saxophone?

Maceo Parker: I must have been about twelve, maybe thirteen.

JC Who first instructed you?

MP I didn't take saxophone lessons. I just started fooling around with it and what I could do with the school band- the elementary school band- is the way I started. I just listened. I tried to imitate people until I became the age when I could start my own style- to create my own style. But I never had anyone to say, 'Do this, do that,' although I had a band director who was a saxophone player. And when he knew that I had the interest and maybe a little talent he often would have me come in and just play and I just listened; I did that for maybe a year. But it wasn't nothin' like, 'You do this, you do that; you don't do this, you don't do that.' He just played and I listened. And what I got out of that was- I guess he wanted me to get from that whatever I could- what I thought I could get from that was his sound. I didn't want to sound like a student, I wanted to sound like a professional. That's what I was striving for when I was fifteen, sixteen; I was striving to have a pleasing sound rather than anything else. I thought that was more important.

JC You come from a musical family; tell me about what part your family played in getting you into music and performing.

MP Well, my mom and my dad were vocal in the church. They belonged to the choir. And my father was in a group, a male choir and often they would practice at our home. But what got me into music that's not really religious was that my mother had a brother who had a band. And the name of the band was the Blue Notes. And me and my brothers and cousins got a bunch of instruments together and we formed a group; and we called the group Junior Blue Notes because we tried to imitate and do what they did. So my brother played trombone, another brother played drums, my cousin played trumpet, and my cousin that played trumpet had sisters and they sang sometimes; and there were other cousins who sang sometimes. Then there was a friend down the street who played piano.

JC Did you know from playing with your brothers and cousins that this was something you wanted to do for a living?

MP Well, I didn't know it then; I knew I had fun doing it and I knew It came easily to me. But, It takes a while before you know exactly what page you're on as far as in standards with other people and I didn't begin to realize that until I went to college- how advanced I was and could be. Because it's hard to place yourself when you work with the same people year in and year out. But then when you meet other people and you place yourself then. But when I first went to college it was as a music student, but it was to maybe become a music educator- to maybe have a band of my own somewhere in a high school or elementary level and teach half time shows at football games, parades, and stuff like that. But then I found out that my high school band director was getting ready to leave that position and get a job with Lord Price who had a big band at that time. So then I became a little bit confused; I'm trying to get where he is and he's moving on. So I said, ' Well, maybe there's more to it than this- than just getting a degree and then teaching.' And I decided that maybe I could do what I do today.

JC Besides your family and your high school band leader, who were your early musical influences?

MP Well, I listened to everybody. We as kids growing up, we sort of have to hear whatever's there; the neighbors had a collection of stuff, but your not in any position to make any kind of choice because you're young. You've got to listen to whatever is being played. But I heard everything and I liked everything. But I got serious about it from listening to Ray Charles. I really liked Ray Charles' sound, the way he introduced and.... Ray Charles has a lot of soul, he had a lot of soul and a lot of feeling when he sings. And if I could play saxophone like that- if I could have somebody say, 'Golly, Maceo has a lot of feeling when he plays...' Well, slow songs anyway. And that was what I tried to do. Boy, if I could just play saxophone like Ray Charles sings that would be o.k. But Ray had a group of musicians who were very outstanding to me, not only the saxophone player, but everybody in that group at that time were very outstanding musicians. Philip Gilbeau as a trumpet player, Marcus Belgraves as a trumpet player, but saxophone players just stood out because I played the saxophone, like David Newman, Hank Crawford, and Leroy Cooper. But then I heard Stanley Turrentine, I heard Cannonball Adderly, I heard King Curtis. They were maybe the most that I heard coming up.

JC When you were in college, what kind of music were you plying? Was it always the jazz and soul influence for you?

MP It was everything, but it was during the, I mean I was in a group and we played a variety of stuff, but in school we had to play the marches and the concert stuff like that. But I was in a group and we played whatever was current; whatever anybody recorded we played it.

JC You ended up playing with James Brown directly after leaving college. How did you first get that gig?

MP Well, my brother- I'm a year older than this particular brother who plays drums- but he and I attended the same school, but while I was a sophomore- my second year his first year- we ended up being in different gig bands although we played together in the school band. But we were in different bands and it just so happened that when James Brown came to town with his group and I was playing on that particular day, I was playing out of state somewhere. But Melvin was playing in town at like a late late after hours kind of a thing and it just so happened that James Brown happened to stop by for food at the same place where my brother was playing and James sort of liked all those guys, but especially my brother. And he made himself known. 'Hey I'm James Brown,' talking to my brother, 'I like your style, I like the way you play, I sure would like to hire you, but I know that you're a student and I don't want to take you out of school, but I do want to see if there's ever a time when you're not a student and if you want a job with me, you've got it. I like your style.'

JC That's a hell of an offer.

MP Yeah. So, it wasn't that surprising to me because we started playing, I must have been about twelve or thirteen and he must have been about eleven, ten or something like that. We had been playing every weekend since then. So we were like eight or nine years of trying to do something by the time we reached college age, so it wasn't surprising to me. So when I got back in town, ya know I've gotta check on my little brother- make sure he's cool and he hits me with the news. He says, 'Hey man, I met James Brown. Blah blah blah...' So after a year, another year past, we decide to get out of school and seek the job with James Brown, but like I said, I hadn't met him and it was the day that James came back to Greensboro, North Carolina where we went to school and we waited outside the coliseum for him to show up. And he finally showed up and Melvin said, 'James Brown, remember me? I'm the drummer, and I'm not in school anymore and I need a job like you said I could have.' And James said, 'Oh yeah, I remember, I'm a man of my word. Blah blah blah. Sure you got the job. We'll be going tomorrow. You have your clothes or you have to go back home?...

JC So James Brown really did hire Melvin on the spot.

MP Oh Yeah. And then somewhere in the course of the conversation he says, 'Oh yeah, I'd like you to meet my brother he needs a job too.' I think Melvin said, 'He plays saxophone.' So he says to me, 'Do you play baritone sax?' At that time my major was tenor saxophone, but to answer a question you can only say yes or no and I had already visualized my saying no and he would turn around and walk off. So I was only left with, 'Yes.' But this is the way I answered it, I didn't come right with a straight yes, I said, 'Uhhhh, yessir,' like that. So he said, 'Do you own a baritone saxophone?' And again I hesitated a little bit and said, 'Uhhhhh, yessir, I do.'

JC Which, of course, you didn't.

MP Which, of course, I didn't. And he said, 'I'll tell ya what. If you can get a baritone saxophone, you can get a job too. I'll give you a chance to go get it and then you can have a job too.' But then he tried to let us know where he was going to be- where he was going the next day and for the next week, or something like that. And he let me know where he was going to be for the next to weeks to give me a little more time to get a baritone saxophone. Plus, I think we had been recommended. He sort of needed a drummer and a baritone sax player and everybody knew by the fact that we were brothers we had been known throughout the town- we had played almost every club in town by then. But that was the way it was; that was the way I got hired; like that. I played "I Feel Good", a tune called "Out Of Sight", and something else I can't even think of.

JC How long did it take you to track down a baritone sax after you finished talking to James?

MP Oh, I just went back home and made arrangements with my mom and went down and made arrangements with the local guy- with the local music guy. It all took a couple of days if that long.

JC I'm sure it was a top priority.

MP Oh yes.

JC Part of the legend of James Brown is that he's such a tough and serious band leader. How true is that and what was your impression of him as a band leader?

MP Well, he was o.k., he just enjoyed being right. He just wanted to be right. Somebody came up with talking about him as the hardest working man in show business, ya know Mr. Dynamite. We had seen the show two or three times and we knew how they could go right out of one tune and right into another one and we had sort of the same kind of style a little bit in our group after we saw him; so we didn't mind that. We didn't mind all the rehearsals and the fact that you had to have your uniform clean and all that. It was just right. It taught you punctuality and taught you stage decorum, how to look on the stage and all that. And in order to run a tight ship, so to speak, he had to be kind of firm about it; if that's what you want to do. When you have anywhere from ten to fifteen guys working for you, somebody's going to be wrong. It's just the nature of life. And in order to keep 'em right you've just got to be a little firm. So that was o.k. Of course I wasn't but twenty-one years old anyway. At that age, you'll just about do anything.

JC How much of that did you take with you as far as your band leading?

MP None of it. I just sort... The guys sort of know me. We don't have rehearsals like that. I don't say, 'A guy's shoes have got to be shined,' I sort of leave that up to them. They know how to do all that. I don't write anything down nor do I verbally say anything, but they just know, from knowing me, what to do.

JC What about musically? When you're up there on stage, your band is right on the dime with every hand motion telling them when to cut the song and start something else up.

MP That's the way it is. I kind of like for everybody to be sort of on the same page although I try not to do it with an iron fist or a whip. But I do love for us to be at least on the same page. I don't want to appear- and I was just thinking about that last night after the show- I've got to kind of tighten it up a little bit more. I don't like to appear like we're just five or six guys- six, seven guys- just getting together and somebody calls a tune and you play it and somebody calls another tune and you play it. I want to really appear like a group. In order to appear like a group, you've got to do some group things. You've got to look like you're a group. And I don't mean just dress and all that, you've just got to have things that anybody just brand new could walk up there just can't do because you're brand new and you just don't know how to do it yet. But it's all in my direction. I tell if a tune is too long or too short or if I want to make it a little longer tonight than it was last night or this guy maybe soloed tonight rather than this guy last night. It's all my doing; I direct and control it all.

JC I caught both your recent show in Portland as well as the show in Seattle and you and your band look as tight as I've ever seen and I've seen you quite a few times.

MP Thank you very much, but I think we can be tighter.

JC I've read that while you were with James, you quit his band and rejoined a couple of times. Why was that?

MP I sort of look at James Brown as sort of being in an institution- like being at a college or a university. You're there for a while and then maybe, for whatever reason, you just have to stop for a while and I just wanted to try something else. Just doing his thing his way year after year after year, it gets dull. You just want to try something else and if it works, it works, if it doesn't you can always go back. Same with school; school's always going to be there. You get out for a quarter or a semester or whatever it is, you try something and then you feel like you want to go, you go back. So, it was just various reasons, I just wanted to try something else. If it worked, it worked; if it didn't, it didn't.

JC What was your relationship with Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis early on?

MP We were just in the same group. Nothing more, nothing less. We were in the same group. And I think people- when you're in a group, you're almost like family because you're there all the time and you're there together. You're staying together in the same motel, the same stage, the same traveling conditions- whatever they are- and you sort of go on through it and you do build up a camaraderie like family; like brothers. But then at the same time you know that it's just a job. I mean, we worked the same job. And you try to do what you can to make it as good as possible and so on and so on. It's almost like being on the same team. You know you're working on one team this year and that's fine, but you also know next year somebody from that team might be on somebody else's team; and that's the way it is.

JC You never know who's going to get traded.

MP Exactly.

JC What was it like playing with Parliament back in the Mothership days?

MP It was a lot of fun. George has a whole different concept way on the other side of what James Brown's concept was. George ain't nothin' but a party. You do what you want to do, come how you want to come and dress how you want to dress. If you feel like you just want to play and stand out and say, 'hey, I want to play,' cool, play. 'I want to do a solo,' fine, do it. But George's thing was loose, I mean really really loose; it's a party. Ya know, with James Brown you gotta have a bow tie, you've gotta have the same uniform, you've gotta have your shoes shined and all that. George didn't care if you would wear shoes or not; or one shoe.

JC Or any clothes at all.

MP Exactly, or socks. You feel like you want to come in socks tonight, that's cool. And it's really true. If you're there, you're there to have some fun and come on let's do it. Every now and then he may say, 'bring the volume down a little bit,' but other than that, that was it.

JC So Working with George was a very free musical experience?

MP It was a really free, fun kind of thing.

JC What did you learn from him as a bandleader?

MP From Who?

JC From George.

MP Nothin'. [Laughs] I really didn't learn anything other than... I learned his way. I know his style which is not necessarily mine. But as far as getting the crowd up and the funky music and all, it's the same. The same intensity, the same excitement and all that, but George just goes about it another way. And if I learned anything, that's what it was. You can approach it a different way, but still get the same thing.

JC One of the all-time greatest funk albums has to be the Horny Horns album, A Blow For Me, A Toot For You. You had worked with Fred Wesley before- going back to the early days with James Brown. How did you two get back together to form the Horny Horns and what was it like working with Fred Wesley again?

MP Well, he left at a time and I left at a time and one of the times when he left he met George or Bootsy or somebody and then when he found out I left he said, 'Well maybe we can get Maceo to come over here.' And that's what we did. And we were the same thing. Once you have a friendship or a camaraderie with somebody, you've got it. And I always enjoy working with Fred whenever the opportunity is there. So it was cool.

JC That is cool. I saw you about four or five years ago when you were playing Northwestern University and Fred Wesley was there and I couldn't help but notice the way that you two guys played off of each other and really added to each other's performance.

JC When you started up your solo recording in the early 90's, you seemed to be going for a jazzier feel than you had before was that a conscious decision or is that just the way your music was going at the time?

MP Somebody suggested it. In fact, a producer suggested that and I went with it because that's what time it was at that time.

JC Life On Planet Groove, the live album, was your first piece of real funk in your recent solo career. When you went back to that, was it a deliberate thing?

MP Well, I had done some other funky stuff- I wouldn't say that it was the first- we just felt that it was the time to do that then, so we did it.

JC On the new album, you covered Stevie Wonder's "Tell Me Something Good" as well as a few other covers. How do you go about choosing your covers?

MP Well, we have been playing all of those that are there other than the Stevie Wonder tune. Somebody suggested that one; they wanted to see what I could do with that. And I didn't know whether to try- in fact I did do just an instrumental thing on it- and the same somebody- some people over in Germany said, 'We think you ought to sing more.' And I was in the mood to say o.k. to just about anything that somebody could come up with, so I gave it a shot. And they liked it so we decided to keep it.

JC That one turned out to be one of the highlights of the new release.

MP Well, let me tell you something. The guy who engineered the stuff is named Dan Wise out of New York, he has his own studio. I sort of let him produce. And again I was in the mood to give it a shot and that's the way it came out.

JC ...I had asked you about the Stevie Wonder song and you were telling me a little bit about how you choose covers for your albums.

MP We have been doing the tunes on the album, except that one, anyway. And I had a guitar thing going on the instrumental Marvin Gaye tune, but then I decided to a saxophone thing for the album. We hadn't been doing that one, with the guitar, for a while... It's always nice to have that one in the background when you're making some kind of announcement about something, "Oh yeah, we're going to be in blah blah blah next week," or, "we're going to be coming back here da da ad." We had been doing it like that, for making announcements or somebody's gotta move their car or whatever. but then I decided to do a saxophone thing with it. But all the tunes we've doing except for "Tell me Something Good"- that was suggested by one of the guys who handled the album in Germany. They wanted to know what to do with that tune, I guess and, as I said earlier, I had done an instrumental thing on it. And then I decided to do a vocal on. And I sort of let the engineer, Dan Wise, I let him produce it a little bit because he sort of liked that song too and we just kind kicked it around and it came out like it is.

JC The European music market, historically, has always been hungry for American jazz. How much did the demand in Europe for your music have to do with your solo albums of the early 90's?

MP Europe is a very important market for us. They seem to like what we play and what we bring to the table. just like people here, they figure out- there's a lot of festivals over there, especially during the month of July, there's a lot of places to play and a lot of venues throughout the whole European market- but they like what we do. The college kids over there are kind of like the college kids over here and they like the funky side of how we do it and they just kind of flock around it.

JC You tour almost constantly and often play shows that run over three hours. How do you keep doing that all the time?

MP [Laughs] It's just our style. It's just the way we do it. I just like for people to leave with the feeling that they made a wise choice by coming to our concert. If they want to party, I want them to leave feeling like they have been partied and partied with. A lot of times, the situation is that there's a time limit on what we do, for whatever reason. But if we have the time, yeah, I'll try and get in as much as I can. It goes right back to what we've been talking about from the beginning. I chose to do this and I enjoy doing it. And I enjoy bring joy, happiness, peace and love and togetherness and I try and promote that through the music. I like it when people can put aside their political differences and religious differences and whatever differences you may have and just put them aside for a minute and they're all just one audience and they're having fun. And I like to see that. I enjoy that. It makes me feel good to know that I can be one of the reasons why people can get together and just have fun; congregate.

JC When did Corey [Maceo's son] start working with you musically?

MP It's been almost three years now. That's how long we've been doing those tunes and that' how we knew the sort of impact that they have. Ya know, "Maceo's Groove" and the Marvin Gaye thing, and there's a whole nother thing that we do at the end of the show that's not part of the album. He was an engineer major at North Carolina State in Raleigh, North Carolina. And he had been there for a while and started feeling that maybe he didn't want to be an engineer and one night it just came to him, "I think I can write some rap." And so he just started writing what was in his head. And then he decided- he let me know, "Hey man, I've written some stuff I think it would fit with some kind of groove blah blah blah. So I said, "Yeah, right, o.k. Since you wrote it, can't nobody perform it like you." He, "Well, o.k. I'll try." And he tried and like it.

JC Does having Corey in the band change the dynamic, on stage, between you and the rest of the band?

MP I don't think so, It's hard for me to no that if it did. It gives me an energy and it makes my family life closer. There's a small separation between my entertaining and my family and it sort of brings that gap a little closer together because now there's two interests, mine and his. But I don't what effect it has on other guys in the group; that maybe something you'd have to ask them.

JC What's going on with you next? Do you have any plans beyond the current tour?

MP Not really. This thing, "Funk Overload", is brand new so we're sort of jumping on that bandwagon right now; just trying to tour. That's what's on the front burner right now, just touring, trying to get in as many dates as we can while the interest is there. This thing we're doing right now is going to last weeks. We're right at the end of the third week and then once we finish the fourth week we have about ten, eleven, or twelve days home before we go and do a six week thing over in Europe. It's just go, go, go all the time. That's primarily what we do; we just tour, man. And like I said, as long as the interest is there we try and fulfill all that we can.

JC If the venue doors out here in the northwest are any indication, you can tour as long as you want. They were turning people away out front in Seattle, they sold out the seats and all the standing room.

MP I think we as a society, I guess, I don't know what others do at their concerts because I'm always at mine, but I like to try and give the audience a little bit more than what they could get at a traditional jazz concert. What we try to do with the funky music, we get you to wave your hands in the air, we get you to move from side to side, we get you to shake everything you got. It's about audience participation and all that kind of stuff, so they really really were worked and feel like they were part of it and felt like they had a good time. Again, I chose this form, this style because I like to have the audience be involved. I could stand there and play twelve, thirteen, fourteen jazz tunes a night like other jazz groups and a call a tune right up behind another and then, "O.K., time's up." I could do that, if I wanted to, but I want to give a little bit more than that.

JC Well, I can only speak for myself, but I, as a fan and as a music writer, I appreciate what you put out there of yourself every time you go out on stage.

MP Thank you very much. And it seems throughout that people do appreciate it when you give 'em just a little bit more then just going out there and playing the tunes and calling another and playing that tune. Because pretty soon the time is up. I remember somebody telling me, you go to some concerts and there ain't nothin but you call a tune. And what may be different is the form of solos, this guy's going to solo and then this guy's going to solo... I don't want all those people who come to see or show who have seen our show more than once- they kind of have an idea of what we're going to do, but sometime I'll throw in a surprise here and there and I still like for them to feel like they have really been part of it and had a good time. That's the plan.

JC I think your plan is working. I think that's why people keep coming back every time you roll through town.

MP Thank you very much.

JC Thank you very much for your time and enjoy your brief vacation after this tour.

MP Another thing too, I like to try to add- just like I do in the shows- something about on behalf of all of us, "We love you." I love to use that word, 'love'. I think it's important to let those listeners and readers know that I do love them and the guys in the group love them for the support that we've gotten. Not only people in the audience, but people like you who want to take the time to get a word in- an interview in- we appreciate all that.

JC Hey if I can be even a little part of spreading the funk, that's my part, that's what I'm here for.

MP O.K., partner....