Search - Pee Wee Ellis :: Live & Funky

The Stone Cold Funk ...

Will Flannery | Berkeley, CA | 11/17/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Pee Wee Ellis must have played with James Brown for 100 years, and when James called for a sax solo it was always, to the best of my knowledge, "Maceo", and when the horn section finally decided to do something on their own it was "Fred Wesley, Maceo, and the J.B.'s". And yet, if you listen to the tenor solo on "Chicken" on Maceo's "Mo Roots", the player takes Maceo and Fred out, way badder, in my opinion then these very bad dudes. The tenor man was James' shadow man, Pee Wee Ellis. "Chicken" is a tune he wrote, he plays it again on this cd with the same results. He also plays a solo that is the essence of funk, the thing, dirty as you wanna be, down in the dirt, the stone cold funk, on "Pass the Peas". His style is funky, black as James Brown, but, at the same time, with chromatic post bop extensions that distinguishes him from the more traditional players (including Fred and Maceo). So you're funking along with the usual hard riffs, and then comes a flat nine and a sharp 13, and you're over the top, doin it, briefly in the grey area between harmony and dissonance, pleasure and pain, the real deal, and then, back to the funk. Here's the thing, it's jazz and it's funky and the setting is pure funk - this is the man to listen to to hear great funk sax."

A good album on its own, but as a live album, it's just ok

bubicus | Seattle, WA United States | 08/18/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The music on this album is pretty good, but I have to dock the album a star because it's a live album, yet it has a low-energy vibe. When compared to something like Maceo/Fred/Pee Wee on "Life on Planet Groove" or some of the other JB live recordings from the '80s or '90s, this album just feels... well, it kind of feels like they're acting (as in, like actors reciting lines) instead of jamming and improvising. One can barely hear the crowd, and so I'm not sure the musicians are gaining any energy from the crowd. I sure don't feel it. Also, I've heard Pee Wee do better versions of these songs on other albums, so I give the album a final rating of three stars."