24/7 Valencia:Could you tell us about your upbringing and musical education?
Maceo Parker: I was born into a musical family. Both my parents sang and played piano.  There was a trombone player brother and drummer brother and I started playing piano from a very early age. My uncle had a band.

24/7 Valencia:What did you most learn from working with James Brown?
Maceo Parker: Punctuality and uniformity in dress.

24/7 Valencia:What does Ray Charles mean to you?
Maceo Parker: The world.

 24/7 Valencia:Tell us about your book “98% Funky Stuff”
Maceo Parker: This is a memoir rather than an autobiography and tells the story of my life and growing up. How I met James Brown and so on.

24/7 Valencia: What memories do you have of working with George Clinton & Bootsy Collins of Funkadelic and Parliament? 
Maceo Parker: How the audience reacted to the landing of the spaceship.

 24/7 Valencia: How was Prince as a person and as an artist?
Maceo Parker: Beautiful.

24/7 Valencia: What is your approach to playing live and laying tracks down in the studio?
Maceo Parker: Pretty much the same thing. Form a structure and letting musicians do their thing. If I have to solo then I play what comes to me at that particular moment, inspired by the groove and the music.

 24/7 Valencia:Has there been real progress in the USA since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s?
Maceo Parker: Yes.

24/7 Valencia:Please define Funk.
Maceo Parker: Syncopated groove.

24/7 Valencia:What is Jazz?
Maceo Parker: Straight four.

24/7 Valencia: Could you tell our readers what the public experienced at your gig in Valencia at La Rambleta?
Maceo Parker: A funky show.  A little bit of this, a little bit of that. 2% Jazz  98% Funky Stuff.

Interview by Will McCarthy

Copyright 24/7 Valencia

  MACEO PARKER played LA RAMBLETA, VALENCIA

MACEO PARKER (alto sax, flute, vocals)
GREG BOYER (trombone)
WILL BOULWARE (keyboards)
BRUNO SPEIGHT (guitar)
RODNEY «Skeet» CURTIS (bass)
NIKKI GLASPIE (drums)
DARLIENE PARKER (vocals)

Click on this link for the documentary ‘My First name is Maceo’: https://youtu.be/dsRmL9mgxCU