"Actor: Pee Wee Ellis"

• Maceo Parker - My Name Is Maceo | DVD | (21/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  This is a rare kind of music film. A portrait of a musician who made his name first as a sideman than as a star. The classic recordings of James Brown are frequently punctuated with a cry of Maceo which listeners often assumed to be some funky catchphrase of Brown's own invention. In fact it was the cue for his long serving sax man Maceo Parker to step forward and blow his horn. When Brown was incarcerated in the late '80's necessity led Maceo to become a bandleader in his own right enlisting other funk pioneers such as trombonist Fred Wesley and tenor saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis. In 1994 Maceo and his band were filmed in concert in rehearsal and on the road. Though essentially a performance film My First Name is Maceo captures both on and off stage the warm generous personality that flows through Maceo's music. Interviews with Maceo his brother Melvin and the musicians who have worked with him fill in the background that began on a North Carolina Housing Project.

• Maceo Parker - Roots Revisited | DVD | (18/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Music which is a throwback to 60s soul jazz and features top musicians of the 80s.