The stage at Jazz Alley was cramped for a nine-person band. Before funkified sax master Maceo Parker and his crew hit the stage, the drums were shoved hard against the rear curtain like a belt buckled tight around a pair of empty pants. When Jerome Thomas took to his kit, he had to squeeze through and climb around, and he played much of the set like only the funkiest rhythm could release him. It was fitting accompaniment to a set that included songs with titles like "Off the Hook," "Make it Funky," "Shake Everything You've Got," and "Funky Fiesta."

On the final night of a four-day engagement at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, Parker didn't mince notes. He entered from the back of the room, shades on, playing his sax all the way to the stage before joining his band for the song that would begin his set and, in reprise, end it two and a half hours later.

Backing up one of the widely recognized masters of modern funk is no easy task, but Parker's band was well prepared. Trumpet player Ron Tooley was in James Brown's band with Parker back in the day, and his solos were equal parts impressive restraint and unmatchable abandon. Trombonist Dennis Rollins delivered his own array of show-stopping solos. But, the most impressive moment was when all the instruments cut off, along with the lights, while Maceo meandererd his way through one of the funkiest sax solos we've heard. Ever! Then, just when we thought we might explode, the whole band came back in with one solid hit.

The only thing that came close the rest of the night was early on, when Parker delivered a dozen-or-so bars of solo on a single note, making it as dynamic and demanding as if he had been playing every note his horn could conjur. Making a single note interesting for that long is akin to making the repetition of the word "the" interesting. But then, we are talking about a master here. By the time he got around to "What You Know About Funk," we didn't need to be convinced that, if we were going to learn how to be funky, we'd come to the right place.