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Roots Revisited, recorded live at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart in Germany in 1991, offers ex-James Brown and George Clinton sidekick and alto saxophonist Maceo Parker with a lineup including fellow JB sideman Fred Wesley, as well as organist Larry Goldings, tenor saxman Pee Wee Ellis, and Rodney Jones on guitar. The German audience may be sedentary, and these fellows' wildest days may have occurred several years and 20 pounds ago, but they still know how to funk up a storm. The opener "Up 'n' Down East Street" sets the tone, a sweat-soaked soul stomper redolent of fried pig foot in East New Orleans, old-school style. Ditto "Everywhere Is Out of Town" and the old James Brown classic "Doin' It to Death" (familiar to anyone who's seen the Muhammad Ali documentary When We Were Kings), during which you're longing for the Godfather himself to slide on his knees onstage and hit the mic. Equally strong, however, are ballads like "Inarticulate Speech of the Heart," on which Pee Wee Ellis proves a thoroughly articulate soloist, and "Children's World," a thoughtful, jazzy upgrade of Brown's "Man's Man's World." Good to see that old soul soldiers neither die nor fade away. --David Stubbs, Amazon.co.uk
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