Fred Wesley Jr. is a legendary trombone player, who has since performed with and composed for some of R&B’s most successful artists. Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, he has described himself as a “jazz snob,” who grew up listening to Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington and the likes. He first started to learn the trombone at the request of his father, the leader of a big band, who needed a trombonist for his band. As a teenager, he played trombone in a band for Ike and Tina Turner, but he attributes his most important musical training to the time he spent in the U.S. Army, playing in the 55th Army Band in Huntsville, Alabama.
From 1968 to 1975, Wesley was music director, arranger, trombonist, and a primary composer for James Brown’s Band, The J.B.’s. And he is credited with helping the band to shift its sound from soul to funk, a style that would soon become dominant in R&B music. In 1976, Wesley and fellow horn player Maceo Parker left Brown’s band to join another artist on the cutting edge of funk, George Clinton. They worked with Clinton to create such influential Parliament-Funkadelic albums as The Mothership Connection and The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein. Fred has also played in Bootsy Collins’ Bootsy’s RubbeR&Band, Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns, and returned to his Jazz roots to play in the Count Basie Orchestra.
Wesley has arranged, collaborated, and/or written for an extensive “who’s who” of artists, including Ray Charles, Curtis Mayfield, Van Morrison, Cameo and Lionel Hampton, Pancho Sanchez, and New York Voices. Wesley shares his wealth of experience in his memoir Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Sid an (2002). Today, Wesley continues performing with his bands The New JBs and collaborating with a variety of artists including Abraham Inc., a klezmer/funk/hip-hop ensemble. In a 2003 interview for the NPR series “All Things Considered,” Wesley stated, “I’ve accepted my position as a funk trombone player, so even when I play jazz now, I don’t suppress the funk…. I’m a funky player who can play jazz.”
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