Throwback Thursday: Maceo Parker at Jazz á Vienne 2005

This is the title track called Dark Horse. Just as in the album version it features sax and piano solos. It's a pretty wild performance, matching today's start of the Chinese New Year: THE YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE!Live at Bimhuis, we added a drum solo. Afterwards, I decided to seperate it from the song and post it as an extra video below. Why not in one video?Because the video would become very very long and experience shows that people will not stick around for longer that 6-7 minutes. Yoràn's free drum solo is actually really great and in this seperate video, the true drum lovers can watch and learn from his drum story telling. Sometimes people ask me; What are drummers doing in their solos? To give you an idea of what Yoràn is doing in his solo: He starts with a pattern, an idea. He keeps the pattern going and plays variations over it. Then he combines it with soloing over it with call and reponse phrases and slides in new patterns. Technically it's interesting because he demonstrates a lot of independence and speed, as well as dynamics and sound colours, while telling a story, which means in musical context that the solo has certain elements which can be recognized by the (trained) listener. Many people in the Western part of the world miss the melodic and harmonic context during a free drum solo. It's fair to say a free drum solo without any accompaniment is like an abstract painting. Within the given context you can hear and see what you can manage, depending on your own frame of reference and expectations. In the end, it's about: does it resonate with you? Because both, the painting and the free drum solo, they lack a clear subject (no lyrics, no recognizable image), both forms are highly subjective and open to the interpretation of the audience. They function as a conversation between the artist's feeling and the viewer's/listener's perception.But you also can listen to it with a pure analytical drum ear and try to follow the patterns and phrases. As a musician and human I (try to) do both :-) Enjoy!More info:Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij. - Line-Up: Maceo Parker: alto sax, vocalsRon Tooley: trumpetGreg Boyer: tromboneMorris Hayes: keysBruno Speight: guitarRodney Skeet Curtis: bassJamal Thomas: drumsMartha High and Corey Parker: backing vocalsFred Wesley: vocals, trombone, special guestWhat's happening in this video:This infectious piece of funk caught on video is one of the best I know of. Fred Wesley is performing his most famous song in a guest performance with his long time funk colleagues.. also a throwback for him i imagine. And the band is more than tight. The tune (House Party by Fred Wesley) starts out with one of the best funk guitar players in this world, Bruno Speight, always introduced by Maceo as Bruno Tattaglia Waynes. Bruno and drummer Jamal Thomas used to play together in S.O.S. Band, starting beginning of the 80's, that's where they met Fred Wesley, who did some horn arrangements for the band. Before they joined Maceo's group, Bruno and Jamal toured with Bobby Byrd (80's, beginning of 90's). Jamal played with Maceo until about 2010 when he started his own band with Dutch musicians. Normally Will Boulware is playing the keys but he must have been having another tour or project. So Prince-keyboarder Morris Hayes joins them for this tour.Fred and Maceo of course go back to the 60's when they played together with James Brown and continued playing during the 70's with Parliament Funkadelic and all it's many side projects and many other bands. If you want to dig deeper and get to know more, just look up each of their discography, for example on Discogs. The backing vocalists in this video:Corey is a son of Maceo and toured extensively with his dad in the 90's and early 00's. I just looked up some information about Martha High. I know she must be around for such a long time despite her youthful looks, she just seems not to age. Wikipedia doesn't tell us her age but: Martha High used to sing in a girl group called The Jewels. The Jewels went on tour with James Brown in 1964. What??? I thought she would be playing with dolls at that time..More Wikipedia anekdotes about Martha: They (The Jewels) visited the studios of Motown Records on the Detroit leg of the tour, hoping to record, but the building was closed that day. and They did record two singles while they toured with Brown, but after a year and a half with Brown the group split up. Harvin adopted the stage name Martha High and continued singing with Brown for the next 30-plus years. In January 2000, she stopped performing with Brown and went on tour with Maceo Parker.(...) Nowadays, she's often featured as a solo singer in Europe and Japan.Greg Boyer, the other trombone player is originally from Baltimore, just like bass player Rodney Skeet Curtis. A nice youth anekdote of them is that they were playing together in a band called Uncle Remus in the 70's which also included Bennie Cowan(trumpet), Greg Thomas (sax) and Dennis Chambers (drums). These excellent musicians joined George Clinton's P-Funk All Stars by the end of the 70's or beginning 80's. The horns, Greg, Greg and Bennie also toured and recorded with Chuck Brown (and others). Greg Thomas and Bennie Cowan remain performing with George Clinton, Greg Boyer has been touring with Prince but at this moment is often touring with Maceo and also seen with George Clinton again. Here is a list of P-Funk Members.Then Ron Tooley. He's also a jazz musician, played with a big range of artists from James Brown in 1964, Thad Jones&Mel Lewis Big Band, Jaco Pastorius and many many more.Skeet played with George Clinton until around middle of the 90's and stayed with Maceo ever since. More about Skeet another time. So many throwback thursdays and vinyl wednesdays to go!