Maceo Parker -

Maceo Parker (born Feb. 14, 1943) is an American saxophonist and bandleader from Kinston, NC, who emerged in the ’60s-era backing band of James Brown. In 1970, Parker and fellow Brown-alumni formed Maceo and All the King’s Men, which released two albums on Charly R&B and Excello.

In 1974, Parker assembled Maceo & the Macks for the album Us!! on the J.B.’s imprint People. The following year, he joined Parliament, appearing on all the band’s 1975–79 albums. Concurrently, he played on the four albums by Bootsy’s Rubber Band and served as a backing player on titles by Parlet, Osiris, and Bernie Worrell. In 1977, Parker was the featured player on the album A Blow for Me, a Toot to You by Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns.

Background

Maceo Parker Jr. was born Feb. 14, 1943, in Kinston, N.C. His parents, Maceo Parker Sr. and Novella Parker, sang in the choir at St. Peter’s Disciples Baptist Church, where rehearsals often took place around the family piano. Parker learned church songs by ear on piano by age five and took lessons from Kinston librarian Mrs. White. He chose saxophone after he saw a marching band on Queen Street and began playing the instrument around age eleven or twelve in grammar school.

His older brother Kellis played trombone, and younger brother Melvin played drums. Their maternal uncle led a local band known as the Blue Notes, and the brothers attended rehearsals at family homes. Parker, Kellis, and Melvin formed the Junior Blue Notes and played intermission sets at their uncle’s nightclub dates by sixth grade. The group also played segregated clubs and fraternity events around North Carolina through high school.

Parker studied at Adkin High School under saxophonist James Banks, who took a special interest in him from eighth grade. He spent lunch periods in the band room with Banks for individual instruction. Parker enrolled at the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina in Greensboro as a music major after high school. He played in the college band and took club dates with the Disciples, while Melvin drummed with rival group Apex.

James Brown heard Melvin with Apex at the El Morocco in Greensboro in 1962 after a Coliseum show and offered him a standing job once he left school. Parker was out of state with the Disciples that night. The brothers approached Brown at Greensboro Coliseum about eighteen months later after Melvin left college. Melvin accepted the offer and told Brown that Maceo also wanted a place in the band. Parker played baritone sax on the May 1964 Brown single “Out of Sight.”

James Brown and All the King’s Men

Parker spent his first year with James Brown on baritone and tenor saxophone. He moved to tenor after roughly three months when Brown needed a replacement for an ailing tenor player, then played on the 1965 recordings “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” and “I Got You (I Feel Good).” The Army drafted Parker late that year and interrupted his first Brown tenure. Parker served in an Army band at a base in Augusta, Georgia.

Parker returned to the James Brown Orchestra by spring 1967 as a tenor saxophonist. He played on “Cold Sweat” in May, followed by sessions for “Get It Together,” “I Got the Feelin’,” “Licking Stick-Licking Stick,” “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud,” “Mother Popcorn,” “Ain’t It Funky Now,” and “Funky Drummer.” Parker played under bandleader and arranger Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis through much of this period and became a co-director of the orchestra after Ellis left in 1969.

Melvin Parker returned to Brown after military service and again joined his brother in the touring band. Disputes over pay and control divided the orchestra by early 1970. Maceo and Melvin left Brown in March with guitarists Jimmy Nolen and Alphonso “Country” Kellum and several other members of the 1960s lineup. Brown replaced the departing musicians with a new band built around Cincinnati players Bootsy Collins and Phelps “Catfish” Collins.

Parker organized the departing musicians as Maceo & All the King’s Men. The recording lineup centered on singer–tenor saxophonist Maceo Parker, drummer Melvin Parker, bassist Bernard Odum, tenor saxophonist Eldee Williams, trumpeters Richard Griffith and Joe Davis, and guitarists Jimmy Nolen and Alphonso Kellum. Producer and label owner Lelan Rogers signed the group to his newly established House of the Fox label in Nashville, with B.B. Cunningham Jr. and Ray Riley assigned as producers. House of the Fox issued “Got to Getcha” as the label’s first Maceo single and announced an album to follow.

Discography: