While the premise here is sound – a legendary American horn player fronting a very able European big band – the end result falls somewhat short of the quality of the personnel. The playing is more than adequate, and Maceo's piping hot, staccato drills in between his passable vocals are a thing of beauty, but the repertoire of ‘Soul classics’ is simply a bit too classic for its own good, and by the time we reach James Brown, by way of the Isley brothers, Aretha and Stevie, the gig feels like a 1970s jukebox spinning into stuck-in-the-groove predictability. The anthems are too time-honoured. What is really needed is a modern soul classic right in the middle of the set, something that maintains the JB link but shows how things moved on in the 1980s, 90s and beyond. Which is why a switched-on producer should have advised Maceo to draw on the fine music that he made with Young Disciples or De La Soul and drop a piece like ‘Move On’ or ‘I Be’ into the mix so that whoever listens to the CD could hear the crowd gasp with excitement at something it was not expecting. Those are the concerts to remember. Those are the gigs that are really worth recording.