Search - Maceo & All the King's Men :: Funky Music Machine

The saxophone lynchpin of the James Brown band, Maceo Parker was the featured horn on such JB classics as Papa's Gotta A Brand New Bag and I Got You (I Feel Good). In May 1970, Maceo and his brother Melvin, dissatisfied with the lack of independent recognition achieved within the Brown band, decided to hit out on their own. Taking with them the majority of James' then band (a few others had left already including St Clair Pinckney, Sweet Charles Sherrell, Marva Whitney and Fred Wesley), Maceo formed his own aggregation - the appropriately-named Maceo & All The King's Men. Their first album was released on House Of The Fox Records and (also appropriately enough) titled Doing Their Own Thing. Two singles were released from that album - Got To Getcha and Funky Women. Their second album Funky Music Machine was recorded for Nashville's Excello label in late 1971 and released the following year. A groovy, dance floor affair of funky stuff, melodic jazz and soft rock, it failed to garner the success it so obviously deserved (different stories blame a variety of business or personal problems). The band broke up in May '72 and the members rejoined James Brown's new band The JBs (which included such youngbloods as Phelps and Bootsy Collins, recruited while the rest of the band were 'doing their own thang'). Maceo went on to play in the various George Clinton P-Funkster groups and more recently cut a new album - Southern Exposure - in the company of Pee Wee Ellis, Fred Wesley, a couple of The Meters and The Rebirth Brass Band. Funky Music Machine captures those early steps towards the musician's own identity.