OTTAWA - Lawn chairs? At a Maceo Parker concert?

Whatever seating arrangements uninitiated jazz fans brought to Confederation Park last night didn't last long in "the Godfather of Funk" Maceo Parker's moshpit last night at the Jazz Festival's Concerts Under the Stars.

A disappointing crowd of 3,000 fans -- including blues heroes Tony D. and Colin James -- braved the early prospect of evening rains to bear witness to the festival's first real turbocharged booty-shaker. Parker played his alto sax as if it were a shovel and dug a deep groove all the way from the canal end of Confederation Park to the front door of the Lord Elgin hotel.

Parker, whose motto is "2% jazz and 98% funky stuff," has been one of funk's most ferocious forefathers since the early 1960s, when a chance meeting with the Godfather of Soul James Brown led to a place in Brown's band and later with Funkadelic's George Clinton and Bootsy Collins. Most recently, Prince recruited Parker for his record-breaking "Musicology" tour before the funk legend released his most dance-friendly album in years, School's In, in 2005.

Not surprisingly, Parker received a standing ovation as soon as he walked onstage and opened with the quietly soulful Fiesta and quickly picked up speed with Off The Hook, Pass The Peas, Uptown Up, Advanced Fan, What Do You Know About Funk?, Think (About It) and a plugged-in, souped-up version of Sly and the Family Stone's Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).

Accompanied by a seasoned eight-piece band, the heartbeat of the show after Parker was the rhythm section of Jamal Thomas on drums, Will Boulware on piano and Rodney Curtis on bass, who played a rhythm line that was so loud and had so much jump to it, I thought an earthquake was rolling through the park.

But occasionally, Parker did take a break from the funk to venture into more traditional blues that were just as satisfying.

In a surprisingly mixed setlist, Parker could slow things down with a sentimental version of Paul McCartney's My Love featuring Parker on sax, trombonist Greg Boyer and trumpeter Ron Tooley, and a cover of Ray Charles' You Don't Know Me with Parker providing vocals with the energy of a preacher.

Even Parker's manager Natasha Maddison got into the act, making a brief cameo as Shakespeare's Hamlet, performing his famous soliloquy during To Be Or Not To Be.

Parker's mentor James Brown was never far from the action, at least in spirit. There were constant references to the Godfather's spirit in Parker's own vocals that he accents with grunts and groans straight out of I Feel Good on Gimme Some Mo' with Brown's former backing vocalist Martha High.

Parker's two-hour-plus set was a terrific fun blast for festival fans, particularly those who have been looking for music with a little more energy. Which is what they got in spades from Parker, who kept the "dancing-only section" of the park hopping.