Funk Overload by Maceo Parker

This CD is the epitome of old school funk. For those of you who don't know who Maceo Parker is, and you could've included me in that list a year ago, Maceo is a saxophone player who is most well known for his work in James Brown songs. This isn't James Brown music though. It is funk, not soul. I don't know how you separate the two, but this one is full of horns and even rapping. In it Maceo's son, Corey, does a few raps but nothing like the hip hop you hear now. All of his songs on this CD have a lot of horns, of course, but they also have the back up singers doing the "la, las." Most of the time it is Maceo with back up, sometimes it is Corey, and in one song Maceo does a duet. His sax though plays center stage for most of the songs. I am not a very good writer when it comes to describing music, as you may have noticed, but I can tell you when you hear this music you will want to dance. We saw Maceo Parker about a year ago at the Dakota. They played almost everything from this CD and people in the audience were literally getting out of their seats and dancing, which you don't see at the Dakota very much. They are, in general, a very mellow crowd that likes to appreciate their music sitting down. Well that night it was pretty impossible for people to stay in their seats.

My favorite songs are all of the songs on this CD. It is really hard to pick one. I do have a special place in my heart for "Elephant's Foot." After we went to the Dakota for that show, Ross would play this song all of the time. I thought it was so hilarious. In the song, Maceo teaches a herd of elephants to dance to raise some money. But then the inevitable happens, "Elephant stepped on my foot, you must give elephant a dirty look." What do you do when an elephant steps on your foot? Sing a song about it, naturally. Towards the end of the song the elephants get hungry so he feeds them some of his sax. It is just crazy but that is what music is all about. Suspending your beliefs for just a little while and traveling to a different world.

As you can tell, I am keeping this CD. I am sure Ross had this CD long before the show at the Dakota but after that show he would play it a lot. This is the one of the kinds of music he really enjoyed, jazzy, soulful, and danceable. Music you could get down with your bad self to. I never really listened to the CD when it was on, except for the Elephant song because I couldn't get away from it. It was fun to listen to the whole thing and really appreciate the fun(k) in it.

I couldn't find a YouTube of Maceo doing "Elephant's Foot" but this is he and his son doing "Maceo's Groove."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCQGYp_i2i0