He didn’t invent funk, but for five decades Bootsy Collins has been one of the genre’s most recognized ambassadors. From behind his signature star-burst glasses, outsized top hats and custom made “Space Bass,” his lilting vocals bespeak depths of mellow most of us mere mortals can only imagine.

From his lips, the Bootzilla can take a single word—“baby”—and transmute it into something divine, instilling it with all the glory and poetry of a Shakespearean sonnet.

And then there’s his bass playing. Collins’ progressions are perpetually shifting and inventive, yet unpretentious—firmly grounded in the classic funk traditions pioneered by the likes of James Brown and further spun out by Funkadelic—two acts for which Bootsy played before striking out on his own.

The iconic funk bassist, will headline San Jose’s 2014 Jazz Festival on Friday, Aug. 8, but when he speaks with Metro from his home outside Cincinnati, where the Mothership is refueling between stages of a European tour, he has his sights set on his next stop: Batumi, Georgia—a resort on the Black Sea, which once served as a playground for Communist Party bigwigs.

The 64-year-old Collins laughs, tickled by the notion that the Soviet Union is long gone, but he remains, and will soon spread his technicolor gospel to the former Eastern Bloc.

“There’re a lot of things going on that, you know, we can expose the funk to,” he says. “It’s gonna be a blast!”

It’s just the latest improbable episode in a life full of improbabilities. Born in Cincinnati in 1951, the son of a single mother, William “Bootsy” Collins was just 18, and didn’t even own a bass, when his group, the Pacemakers, was tapped to become James Brown’s backing band—a huge break, which the young Collins quickly turned his back on. Just 11 months later, in 1971, Bootsy walked.

As luck—or perhaps destiny—would have it, lightning struck a second time when Bootsy met George Clinton, the mad genius behind Funkadelic, whose acid-funk freakouts were attracting fans in the Detroit area. In Clinton, Collins found a musical mentor and collaborator, and with Collins, Clinton scored some of his biggest hits.

Collins finished the ’70s as the frontman of Bootsy’s Rubber Band. Since then, he’s done countless collaborations with artists as diverse as Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads, house-era charmers Deee-Lite, Snoop Dogg, and even the Reverend Al Sharpton.

By his own admission, music was Collins’ ticket out of a hard-knock life that seemed likely to land him in prison. But that’s not how it felt at the time: Then, as now, Bootsy was just following his bliss.

“It seemed like everybody was always happy around music and having a good time,” he recalls. “That pulled me toward wanting to play—watching people getting off and having a good time. That was a big part of it. And of course the girls—definitely.”

However, the biggest draw may well have been was Collins’ older brother, Phelps—also known as Catfish. “I was just trying to prove to [Catfish] that I was worthy of hanging with him,” Bootsy confesses. Eight years older than Bootsy, Catfish was already playing in bands when Bootsy was barely a teen.

Though the Collins brothers would ultimately enter into a musical partnership that lasted until his older brother’s death in 2010, initially, Catfish wasn’t so keen on Bootsy getting into the profession. “He didn’t take me seriously,” Bootsy recalls. “In fact, he was kind of like against it.”

But persistence and talent won over the skeptical brother. In Bootsy’s retelling, success was just an easy glide from there: “Once I did that, everything started clicking. Everything started, just, you know, working.”

Perhaps it’s true, because it was soon after that James Brown came calling. Virtually overnight, the Collins brothers went from obscurity to funk aristocracy.

Regarding his decision to leave Brown and join Funkadelic, Bootsy recalls the shifting sounds of the early ’70s: “Things were definitely changing. You used to have a solo artist and maybe, like, a saxophone. But Jimi [Hendrix] changed that. By him coming on the scene with the wild guitar thing, that led into bands wanting to be the front guys—like Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears. It was more than just a singer with a back-up band. The bands became the stars.”

It’s a crooked pedigree that traces itself from Hendrix to the marching-band prog-rock of Chicago to Funkadelic—but therein lies genius.

When asked how it felt to step out from the band and become a frontman, Bootsy laughs, saying, “In the first place, it was George [Clinton] who who talked me into the frontman thing. He always said I was a star—whether I wanted to be one or not. I never looked at it like that.”

It’s hard to believe a man with star shaped glasses doesn’t recognize his own star power, Bootsy insists with a laugh that he still can’t believe he’s come so far and lasted so long. “I don’t know what was happening,” he says. “I just went with it. I know I took a lot of LSD, though.”

This year’s San Jose Summer fest just got a little bit funkier with the recent announcement of Friday’s headliners. Performing on the main stage will be 70s funk hitmakers Cameo, San Francisco dance-fusion ensemble Afrolicious and Bay Area rapper Lyrics Born, who will be doing a special tribute to Godfather of Soul James Brown with the Jazz Mafia as his backing band.

Lyrics Born, a frequent collaborator with the Jazz Mafia and local DJ crew the Bangerz, has been a fixture of the Bay Area’s hip hop since his days with Quannum Projects in the mid 90s with collaborators Blackalicious, DJ Shadow and Lateef the Truth Speaker.

Lyrics Born’s live shows tend to be closer to a live funk band experience than the typical MC, DJ and hype man setup at most Bay Area rap shows, so it it will be interesting to see what he brings to the stage this year.

Lyrics Born:

Cameo:

Afrolicious:

Also new for this year, Gordon Biersch Brewery on San Fernando Street will host a stage featuring mostly classic jazz sounds, with a few eclectic, fusion artists in the mix.

The complete Summer Jazz schedule:

FRIDAY

Main Stage
6pm Afrolicious
8pm Cameo
9:45pm Lyrics Born presents Continuum: a Tribute to James Brown

Adobe Blackbird Tavern Stage
7pm Gypsy Allstars: Bamboleo to Bollywood (Jazz+ concert ticket required; $10 advance & gate)
9pm The Clifford Brown & Max Roach Project (Jazz+ concert ticket required; $5 advance & gate)

Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Stage
6pm Pandit Habib Khan
8pm Round Midnight
10pm The Commanders

Jazz Beyond Stage
9pm Miles Bonny + B Lewis
11pm Mark de Clive-Low presents CHURCH

Kaiser Permanente Salsa Stage
6:30pm Josh Jones Ensemble
8:30pm Louie Romero’s Mazacote

Swing Stage
6pm Swing Dance Lessons
7pm Sons of Jubal
9pm Swing Dance Lessons
10pm Top Shelf Big Band

Special Events
6pm Swing Dance Lessons, Swing Stage
9pm Swing Dance Lessons, Swing Stage

SATURDAY

Main Stage
12pm Mingo Fishtrap
2pm Rebirth Brass Band
4pm Artura O’Farrll & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
6pm Pink Martini

Adobe Blackbird Tavern Stage
12pm San Jose Jazz High School All Stars
2pm Raq Filipina
4pm Audiotrópico
6pm Laila Smith Quintet
9pm Yosvany Terry Quartet (Jazz+ concert ticket required; $10 advance & gate)

Bank of the West Next Gen Stage
11am Dixie Dominus Traditional Jazz Band
12pm Mr. Clifford’s Young Jazz Allstars
1pm Midnight River
2pm Monterey Jazz Festival High School All-Star Band
3pm Monterey Jazz Festival Honor Vocal Jazz Ensemble
4pm Folsom High School Jazz Choir
5pm SJSU Combo

Big Easy Stage
1:30pm Mitch Woods & His Rocket 88’s
4:30pm Zydeco Flames
7:30pm Frank Bey with Anthony Paule

Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Stage
12pm San Jose Jazz Allstar Big Band
2pm Slide Madness
4pm Sammy Miller & the Congregation
6pm No Bones About It
8pm Dara Tucker
10pm Bebop

Jazz Beyond Stage
8pm Audiotrópico
10:30pm Full Crate & Mar

Kaiser Permanente Salsa Stage
12:30pm Futuro Picante
2:30pm Orquesta Soboricua
4:30pm Pa’l Bailador
6:30pm Edgardo & Candela
8:30pm Ricardo Lemvo y Makina Loca

San Jose Rep Stage ($10 per day)
12pm Dafnis Prieto Proverb Trio
2pm Grace Kelly Quintet
4pm Charlie Hunter & Scott Amendola
6pm Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio
8pm Ben Vereen (Jazz+ concert ticket required; $20 advance & gate)

Silicon Valley Stage
1pm Brian Ho Trio
3pm Joel Behrman Quintet
5pm Jim Norton and Brilliant Corners Play Bill Evans
7pm Primary Colors with Nate Pruitt: a Tribute to Ray Charles, Nat King Cole and Joe Williams

Swing Stage
11am Los Gatos-Saratoga Big Band
1pm Swing Dance Lessons
2pm Ron Gariffo Orchestra
4pm Swing Dance Lessons
5pm Millennium Sounds Orchestra
7pm NASA Ames Jazz Band
9pm Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestrao (Jazz+ concert ticket required; $10 advance & gate)

YP Blues Stage
12pm Legally Blue
3pm Murali Coryell
6pm Tony Furtado Trio
9pm Rebirth Brass Band

Special Events
10am Latin Jazz Brunch Poolside, Fairmont Hotel ($25 sold at the door)
1pm Swing Dance Lessons, Swing Stage
1:30pm Big Easy Parade, Main Stage
4pm Jazz Mass, Cathedral of St. Joseph
4pm Swing Dance Lessons, Swing Stage
9pm Latin Jazz Jam with the John Santos Sextet, Bank of the West Next Gen Stage

SUNDAY

Main Stage
12pm Yosvany Terry Quartet
2pm Prservation Hall Jazz Band
4pm Javon Jackson with Les McCann and Special Guests
6pm TBA

Adobe Blackbird Tavern Stage
12pm Aaron Lington Quartet Plays the Music of Stevie Wonder
2pm Tammy Hall Quintet
4pm Derrick Hodge
6pm Transcendental Ensemble
9pm The Cookers (Jazz+ concert ticket required; $15 advance & gate)

Bank of the West Next Gen Stage
11am Monta Vista High School Jazz Combo
12pm Archbishop Mitty Jazz in the AM
1pm Kind of Blue
2pm Room 107 Vocal Jazz Ensemble
3pm San Jose Jazz High School All STars
4pm Synchronicity
5pm VCHS Jazz Combo

Big Easy Stage
1:30pm Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers
4:30pm Motordude Zydeco
7:30pm The California Honeydrops

Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Stage
12pm Gordon Biersch Big Band
2pm Times 4
4pm Natalie Cressman
6pm The JurassiC

Jazz Beyond Stage
9pm Derrick Hodge (Jazz+ concert ticket required; $10 advance & gate)

Kaiser Permanente Salsa Stage
12:30pm Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco
2:30pm Carlos Caro – Vission Latina
4:30pm Pellejo Seco
6:30pm Wil Campa y Su Gran Union

San Jose Rep Stage
1pm Le Jazz Hot
3pm The Cookers
5pm Stacey Kent
7pm Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Silicon Valley Stage
3pm Touch of Brass Big Band
5pm Joe DeRose and Amici
7pm Sasha Dobson Duo

Swing Stage
11am Full Spectrum
1:30pm Swing Dance Lessons
2:30pm Footnotes Big Band
4pm Swing Dance Lessons
5pm South Bay Big Band Jazz
5pm Lyratones

YP Blues Stage
12pm Livia Jean Slingerland: Youth Blues Band Contest Winner
3pm Paula Harris & the Beasts of Blues featuring the Big Ass Brass
6pm Fountain Blues All Stars

Special Events
10am Gospel Brunch, Fairmont Hotel ($35 sold at the door)
11:30am Jazz Mas, Cathedral of St. Joseph
1pm Swing Dance Lessons, Swing Stage
4pm Swing Dance Lessons, Swing Stage

Local band Monstrauss has been an odd addition to the South Bay scene since its inception in late 2009. They mix elements of grunge, ska, funk-metal and prog-rock. While it might be confusing for some listeners to hear a song jump between ska and grunge, all that’s needed to fully understand Monstrauss, is that these guys love the music of the 90s—all of it. That includes Stone Temple Pilots, Primus, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and many of the other alternative rock bands that decade gave us.

What is fascinating about Monstrauss is how they authentically treat each and every musically element in their songs. They play grunge like kids who grew up listening to nothing but. The same goes for ska, prog-rock and funk-metal.

Unfortunately, this is the last chance to catch Monstrauss for a while. Guitarist Noaa Rienecker is moving to the East Coast to attend the Berkeley School of Music for at least a year, maybe longer. In the meantime, you can still catch other core member, Jason Hallyburton, in any of his several other bands: 8:19, No One is Joking, and Hereticus.

Monstrauss performs at the Art Boutiki on Saturday, August 4th. The show starts at 7pm. Tickets are $5.

Maceo Parker has played with some of the most iconic and eccentric personalities in music history. As James Brown’s sax man, he helped write the rules of modern R&B. As the musical director of George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic, he led a sonic revolution in the ’70s. As part of Prince’s band, he’s helped him become one of the most in-demand live acts of this century. He’s worked on projects with everyone from Keith Richards to Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction.

The question is: how does he do it? How does he collaborate with pop’s oversized personalities without setting off a war of egos?

Duh, he’s Maceo.

“I’m easygoing,” said Parker by phone after winding up his extended New Year’s Eve duties. “I’ve got a real long, long, long, long chain before you get me out of my thing. I’m just one of those guys, I’ll open the door for you, you can go in the elevator first. If there’s a long line of cars, I’ll stop and let you in. I just do that.”

If Parker’s cool runs deep, it has also spread wide. “One of the things I never envisioned really is so many parents naming their kids Maceo,” he says. “Man, all over the world, I’m telling you. It’s crazy, really crazy. There was one time I had three little Maceos on stage. One of the left side of the stage, one in the center, one on the right. None of them knew each other, but they were all Maceo because of me.”

Parker has been recording with his own various bands off and on since the early 70s, winning a “Jammie” for Best Jazz Album in 2009 for his most recent album, the Ray Charles tribute Roots & Grooves.

When he comes to Montalvo in Saratoga on Wednesday, he brings a reputation for transcendent live shows that can stretch on for hours. He’s so known for epic partying he had to do four straight nights through New Year’s Eve last month, at Yoshi’s in San Francisco.

“People know what we’re going to bring, they know what we do. You’re going to get your party on, your dance on. That’s what we’re about,” says Parker. “I’m there for the people. They made a choice to come where I am, and I want to make it really worth their while. I’m there trying to give one hundred percent.”

It’s a work ethic that was certainly impressed upon him at a young age; he was only 21 when he started playing with Brown in the ’60s. Though the soul and funk icon was a careful arranger, he also relied on his legendary sidemen like Parker and trombonist Fred Wesley to keep his sound cutting-edge.

“When it came to ‘Maceo, time for you to blow,’ then I had to play what I hear, which is what is inside of me,” he remembers. “It was exciting, it was a little challenging. But then again, it wasn’t that much, because I was just playing me. Fred used to say ‘Man, I never seen anybody wake up out of a deep sleep and play as funky as Maceo.’ It’s all natural.”

It was a bit of a culture shock when he hooked up with Clinton’s spaced-out, psychedelic P-Funk crew, but he quickly made his mark.

“I really cherish the time I was with him. It was like a cult kind of thing, the following. It was cool, but coming from James Brown it was like ‘Whoa! Whoa! No, you can’t say that! No, you can’t do that! You can’t dress like that! You have to wear some kind of shoes. C’mon!’ I’m telling you, man, I was really thrown. Like, ‘what in the world is going on?’”

Parker has drawn from all of those experiences, but when he got the chance to set his own musical agenda, he discovered as a bandleader that the sound he really wanted to channel wasn’t so different from the one he had started out with in the first place.

“I’ve always had my concept of how I want to do it. It sort of resembles James Brown a little bit, because let’s face it, that turned out to be me, too,” he says. “It was James Brown, but it was also me.”

Rather than end up what he calls a “jack of all trades, master of none, “ he pushed his funk-based sound as hard and far as he could.

“That’s what I set out to do, and that’s what I did,” he said. “I guess it shows.”

Maceo Parker plays Wednesday, Jan. 11, at Montalvo Arts Center at 7:30pm; $44/$49.