Live In Bremen does precisely that. It celebrates 25 years since the release of Maceo Parker's breakthrough album "Roots Revisited", which propelled him forwards - from a career as a James Brown and George Clinton sideman to influential leader in his own right - and back towards the music that he listened to growing up. This Bremen show is a definitive distillation of the band Maceo took out on tour after the album's release, a tour which connected him to a younger audience, encountering for the first time his music, his showmanship and his authenticity.

Conguero Poncho Sanchez is one of the movers and shakers in Latin jazz. But while growing up in the 1960s, he was obsessed with the classic Stax and Motown sounds, and this influence peeks out from time to time in his music. Never more so than on Out Of Sight!, which actually functions as a tribute to his hero James Brown. Here Sanchez makes it funky with such soulful luminaries as Billy Preston, Ray Charles (who sings his classic "Mary Ann"), Sam Moore (of Sam And Dave fame), and Brown alumni Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis. Suffice it to say, Sanchez's band and guests dig a groove deep enough to make the Godfather proud. They don't rely on the hits either; instead, choosing some lesser-known 1960s boogaloo gems and Brown jams, as well as some groovy new originals. Sanchez is surprisingly impressive on vocals here, but it's the tight and funky Latin arrangements that make this so super bad.

With a title like "Body Talk", and a lead-off track called "Dance", George Benson - a guitar-god-on-the-rise when this album originally hit shelves in 1973 - makes it clear that this music is all about feeling the groove. While a good number of Benson projects on CTI benefited from Don Sebesky's arrangements, the guitarist needed a funkier feeling for this album, and Pee Wee Ellis was just the man to provide it. Ellis helped to create the sound that defined the music of James Brown in the late '60s, becoming an important presence as an arranger on Creed Taylor's "Kudu" imprint, making him the perfect person to tap for horn arrangements here.

Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis is an American saxophonist, composer and arranger. He was an important member of James Brown's band in the 1960s, appearing on many of Brown's most notable recordings and co-writing hits like "Cold Sweat" and "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud". He also worked closely with Van Morrison. His new album "In My Ellingtonian Mood" features amazing chemistry with N.Y.C.-based jazz pianist Danny Grissett.

There are quite a few risks that a musician can expose in his business. An abrupt change in style or genre is one of the reasons, the decision to supply the formerly acoustic instrument with electricity as well as in the eighties, the transition from analog to digital. In some cases, even a new hairstyle is enough. However, the biggest risk, at least beyond smooth polished productions for a TV audience, was, is and will be the recording of a Christmas record. Wham's Last Christmas is one of the most successful songs of the duo, but also one of his most hated. And when Jimi Hendrix once played Little Drummer Boy, one dared to send the single only for free to the members of his fan club.