Search - Maceo & All the King's Men :: Doing Their Own Thing

Doin' JB's Thing !

Eddie Landsberg | Tokyo, Japan | 02/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In 1970, when JB's band WALKED (later to come back), Maceo formed his own group carrying on the JB group, but with himself at the helm... In my opinion the group and production is sometimes a bit tighter than the PEOPLE recordings with JB at the helm (even more imaginative at times) though the absence of JB's groans and grunts and direction are definitely missing... that said the rhythm section no doubt is as tight as tight gets, I think a noticable difference is that the horns are a lot more together, while the rhythm section maybe a bit (just a bit) looser (more relaxed?) than on the JB recordings... still tight and sticky in the Tower of Power sense of the word... however, a bit Jazzy too.



All in all this great in and out of print recording is well worth having... Today Maceo stands on his own as a leader, but back then he was definitely JB's ever faithful sideman... and this album is one of the first times the serious question was ever asked... could Maceo make it on his own without JB? (In answer to the question, All The King's Men would eventually fall apart and he'd go back... Maceo would eventually join the P-Funk organization, but it wouldn't be until about 20 years that he was able to stand stage center and do his thing... the irony being that the entire roots of his sound of today can be heard on this album just as good and fresh.)



If you like this album be sure to read Fred Wesley's bio - - some great behind the scenes stories about the whole sound, era and experience !



p.s. In an effort at variety, Maceo tries to sing a ballad on this album... let's just say, leave the ballads to Bootsy, Maceo... and stick to blowing the funk... he got you on that one!"