This was a sensational night. Maceo Parker and his superb band did a three hour set oozing with Funk but also containing some jazz, some soul and some fun.

The main thing that for me differentiates funk from jazz is the groove and the obsession with the instrument. Maceo just calls the tune and plays it, and moves along with the groove. If the instrument is taken to the extreme so be it, he can do it but doesn't need to brag about it, but the feel, the funk is the overriding factor.

That Maceo has been performing for so long and still has this enthusiasm, not to mention fitness, is testament to the man and the plan. The band were so tight, so slick, so professional and so competent it was a joy to behold.

We had extended funky grooves, we had jazzy interludes (or were they just mickey taking!), we had smooth jazz that Grover Washington would have been proud of, we had fun (at the expense of Ray Charles and traditional jazz heads), we had jazz funk, we had some acid jazz with some hip hop breaks and beats, we had old and new, we had a funky good time. Compared to what! (a surprising Northern item funktified!)

The audience were taken on a journey whilst based in funk also took us through things like The Coasters, Otis Redding, Wilson Picket, Prince, Hip Hop. It was almost show band stuff but this was far far too good to
categorise it as such. And of course there was Maceo old and new, the funky Maceo that we all know and love.

To try and cover everything in a couple of paragraphs would diminish and not do justice to the event. Suffice to say the drum beat was hard, the organ was sweet, the guitar was screaming, the bass was pumping, the trombone and sax was sublime, and Maceo's son on vocals, particularly when freestylin, kicked up a beat and 'modernised' the whole thing.

Absolutely stunning performance.

The Forum was packed to capacity for this probably largely for Courtney but I was there to see at last Dennis Rollins Badbone and Co, who are kicking up a storm around the country with a series of gigs and a new album. If he's in your area check it out.

Personally I would rather have seen him in a club venue rather than a concert hall but so be it. Nevertheless there were no compromises either to the venue or the event. Not that there needed to be Dennis kicked off a storm, winning the audience over instantly will his jazzy but funky groove.

The band was tight and I particularly like the drum, percussion interplay, and Dennis led from the front, which is pretty easy when you're playing a sexy instrument like a trombone! (my tongue is firmly in my cheek!)

Taking us pretty much through the album but in a live stylee, to include extended instrumental breaks and individual highlights. Starting off with the heavier material showing the ability that Dennis has on his instrument, and building into a big time funky groove thang, with the likes of The Funky Funk, and Shake it Down (which sounds oh so familiar!).

Excellent stuff in all respects, in getting down in a concert hall, in playing so well, in having a good time.

'Jazz historian and critic Leonard Feather characterizes tenor saxists who indulged in this type of playing as 'audience getters'. Noting that almost all of them were capable of 'first class mainstream work' he continues 'but all of them found that by resorting to such tactics as the use of freak high notes, the relentless honking on a single note for an entire chorus, and the use of low notes with deliberately vulgar tonal effects, they have been able to achieve great popular success" Source Honkers & Shouters, Arnold Shaw.

Now I must admit to this kind of feeling at this concert. Now sure as hell he can play all the instruments, but I felt that Courtney was trying to ring every last thing out of the instrument(s). Ok so he can play both ends and I don't doubt that it's difficult and skilful but...........for me I want to feel, not to admire.

I think probably that I'm in the minority because the audience was more than up for it and he went down a storm. I kind of enjoyed it and I'm glad that I went but I would have preferred a funkier groove.