Roots Revisited
Parker earned his reputation among R&B; insiders playing alto saxophone with James Brown off and on for twenty years, and almost no one figured the sideman deluxe would one day enjoy mainstream acclaim as a bandleader in his own right. This best-selling album produces pleasure with its funk-sauce and soul-stew grooves, but Parker is not low-down or burly enough to be the new King Curtis (as if that were possible), and his 'soul" doesn't run as deep as that O{ say, lesser- known saxophonists Hank Crawford, Arnold Sterling, or Houston Person. Replace Don Pullen's Hammond organ with some studio hack's electric piano and already marginal songs 'Over the Rainbow" and 'Children's World" would be excruciatingly cloying.-- © Frank John Hadley 1993--From Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD