Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
When the joint is jumping, the heart follows suit, but it is the soul that is in command of the timing and the beat. The feast of music is enjoyed, the sound is respected, and it is down to soul, that inner being craving both peace and flavour, that cooks and brings fire to the very core of all who allow themselves to be captured by the sense of the exotic, and the rhythm of the mysterious and the mass musical effect.
Being a legend of any genre does not absolve you from sacrificing your belief in search of a constant, that steady sound that becomes so familiar to all, is a comfort, as well as holding the flame alive, the timed to perfection recipe that so many abandon as they search for the blander, safer, dish in which to plunge their taste buds into. Not for Maceo Parker, the dish gets hotter, the sides become more alluring, the taste becomes sweeter, the roast becomes illuminating; not surprising really, the chef is after all the king of his castle, and after collaborating with the best, the only place to go is beyond the top.
Soul Food – Cooking With Maceo, thefirst new album in nearly a decade, sees Maceo Parker continue to add spice to everyday life, and from the start of the recording, the listener understands that they are in for the sort of time that only a genius can guarantee will have them steaming under the collars and the sweat of greatness pulsing down their body. Rampant excellence, an excess of goodwill and strident panache, and tracks such as Just Kissed My Baby, Hard Times, Compared To What, Right Place Wrong Time, and the supremely confident and sublime Other Side Of The Pillow, what is expertly shown is transcendence, a supremacy of decision which comes off with a bang and foot-jiving smile.
From the sax to the words and via everything in between, Soul Food – Cooking With Maceo is class, divine and brutally frank, never wavering from the ability to turn heads and present the greatest of platters; absolutely cool.
Maceo Parker releases Soul Food – Cooking With Maceo on June 26th via Mascot Label Group/The Funk Garage.
Ian D. Hall