Maceo Parker - Soul Classics

Renowned Saxophonist Maceo Parker is set to release a new live album entitled Soul Classics on September 18. This marks Parker’s reunion with the WDR Big Band who he worked with on the 2008 album Roots & Grooves. The album will feature nine songs that were recorded live at the Leverkusener Jazz Festival in Leverkusener, Germany in November 2011. The recording captures Parker with special guests Christian McBride (bass), and drummer Cora Coleman-Dunham along with a 15-piece Cologne-based orchestra led by conductor/arranger Michael Abene. “It’s great to make another live recording with the WDR Big Band,” Parker said in his statement. “I remember being very excited about Roots & Grooves, and I’m just as excited three years later about Soul Classics. This is a big band that truly understands the universal elements of American soul and R&B, and is able to convey them to an audience in rich, full and interesting arrangements. Listeners are going to hear some very familiar songs in an entirely new way, and in the process, they’re going to rediscover just how great the material really is. CD, Album