Sax giant Parker: ‘We get funky’

Sax legend Maceo Parker is fresh from a foray into big-band music.

But on his current tour, it's a funky good time.

"We get funky, and we stay funky," said Parker during a phone interview from his home in Kinston, N.C. In his live shows, all of his influences are on display -- Ray Charles, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins and James Brown -- as well as his own material and that of his rapper son, Corey.

Parker, 66, fronts a tight nine-member band -- a departure from the lush orchestral arrangements of his February 2008 release, "Roots & Grooves."

The two-disc album was a collaboration between Parker and Germany's Grammy-winning WDR Big Band. One disc arranges his own funky music in a big-band setting. The other features such Ray Charles standards as "Georgia on My Mind," "Hit the Road Jack," "Busted" and "What'd I Say." And yes, Parker does the vocals on those tracks.

Parker's producer had worked with WDR Big Band and suggested the partnership. "As soon as I heard the phrase 'big band,' I said, 'If it happens, I'm going to do Ray Charles,'" he recalled.

Parker opened for Charles in Europe for several weeks during the mid-1990s. One night, he soloed during Charles' set.

"We could have been doing 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' or 'Happy Birthday.' I was on the stage with Ray Charles. That's all I wanted."

Parker has visited Richmond on numerous occasions over the decades. Ask him what he recalls, and he doesn't mention the Mosque or the Richmond Coliseum, but the city's legacy as the capital of the Confederacy. He's an unabashed history buff, "so anytime I'm through Richmond, all that stuff comes back to me. . . . There's just so much history there."

Parker's discography defies categorization. WDR Big Band is but the latest offbeat collaboration in a genre-bending career that also has paired Parker with indie folk songstress Ani DiFranco. But he's best known for his collaboration with Brown, who died Christmas Day 2006. Parker's horn riffs were a melodic and rhythmic foundation of Brown's earthy R&B and Clinton's interplanetary funkmanship.

In the wake of his Charles tribute, Parker says he has been asked when he's going to record an homage to Brown. "You know what? Every time I hit the stage, it's like I'm doing a tribute to James Brown," he said. "I can't move out of that shadow, nor do I want to. I'll always cherish the time I worked with him."

From Brown's pivotal anthem "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)" to the concert that helped spare Boston from rioting after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "I was there," Parker said. "I was part of all that. So I'm very, very proud."