Happy Birthday Fred Wesley

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I can’t imagine any musician who’s had a more interesting career than the great Fred Wesley, whose 63rd birthday it is today. (I tell you, it’s a shock to find a classic musician who’s only a couple of months older than me!)

But anyway, Happy Birthday Fred!

Fred was born on 14 July 1943, in Columbus, GA, but brought up in Mobile Alabama. He studied classical piano at a young age, with his grandmother. Then he studied trumpet, then trombone at school under the influence of his father, Fred Wesley Sr, who chaired the music department at Mobile Central High School and was a big band man. Fred Jr made his professional debut at the age of 12. After graduation, while still at University, Fred worked with Ike & Tina Turner and Hank Ballard & the Midnighters. He played with the 55th Army Band during military service, graduating from the Armed Forces School of Music. Back in civvy street in 1967, Fred formed his own band – playing a fusion of Funk with Hard Bop. A friend, Waymon Reed, recommended him to James Brown.

He joined James Brown in the summer of 1968, first recording on “Say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud”. He didn’t get on well with Brown, who was in every sense the boss, and made sure his musicians knew it damn well. Fred left Brown in 1969, then returned in 1971, to become the straw boss of the Brown band. It was under Wesley that the JBs were formed, producing instrumentals – some of which were huge hits; Fred Wesley & the JBs’ “Doin’ it to death” was the last jazz recording to make #1 on the R&B singles chart.

Once again, Brown and Wesley fell out. Brown fired Fred in 1975. You can hear what Fred has to say about this; “I love you like a brother” on Fred’s most recent album “Wuda cuda shuda” tells the story.

Fred, along with a number of other Brown band men, joined George Clinton. “Mothership connection” by Parliament was the first album Fred and the new recruits worked on, producing a classic of funk, “P-Funk (wants to get funked up)”. Fred’s noodling trombone solo on that is worth the price of admission; so is Maceo’s alto solo. Like Brown, Clinton set up Fred with his own band within the P-Funk organisation; Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns. It was while he was at P-Funk that Fred developed his contrapuntal funk style of arranging, a style that Clinton’s bands still carry on.

While working with Clinton, Fred made a fair number of albums as a sideman for Creed Taylor’s CTI and Kudu labels with George Benson, Hank Crawford, Idris Muhammad and David Matthews (a subsequent arranger with the Brown band). At the beginning of 1978, Fred went further into jazz, replacing Al Grey in the Basie band.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1981 and got a good deal of work once more in R&B, with Earth Wind and Fire, The Gap Band, Barry White and Curtis Mayfield. At the same time, Fred capitalised on huge street credibility, beginning to make his own solo albums, starting with “House party” in 1980. All his jazz albums have been made for small companies, many for Minor Music, a German firm for whom Maceo and Pee Wee Ellis also recorded, spearheading the funk revival in Europe. If you want to hear some really blistering, swinging jazz, try Fred’s “Swing and be funky” on Minor Music, a live album that leaps out of the speakers.

In 2002, he published his autobiography, “Hit me, Fred: recollections of a sideman” (Duke Univ ISBN 0-8223-2909-3). While continuing to tour, he is also adjunct professor (what’s an adjunct professor?) of jazz studies at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

Pay him a visit at his website; it’s full of good photos. And you can buy downloads from some of the rarer albums in his discography from him (he says).

http://www.fredwesley.com/

MG

[JohnS]

Let me join in the greetings.

I happy to own up to enjoying Fred too, a nice quartet cd on Hinote and some nice band discs on Minor Music and Antilles. Some interesting sidemen too like Hugh Ragin, Geri Allen, Robin Eubanks, Bill Stewart etc. Maybe not essential but happy, solid good listening music.

[JSngry]

In 2002, he published his autobiography, “Hit me, Fred: recollections of a sideman” (Duke Univ ISBN 0-8223-2909-3).

I've been meaning to plug this book here for the last four years...

An excellent read, and one that rings truer than many. The story of a young man who wanted to play jazz but ended up getting sidetracked from doing it by the financial lure/needs of going into R&B is one that I've seen happen god knows how many times (and one that I've participated in myself to a certain extent...).

What also rings true is Wesley's simultaneous respect and disgust for the various leaders he's worked with over the years (Basie excepted...). This is a very common phenomenon among career sidemen, as they see people with less "talent" but more "charisma" than them go into the spotlight, while they end up playing a crucial but less glamorous role.

I've seen reviews of this book that describe it as "bitter". Well, maybe it is. But that doesn't make it any less true. It's truly a "view from the inside" of what it's like to always be somebody else's employee, somebody who you want to think needs you more than you need them, while at the same time realizing that no matter how true that might be, if they weren't who/what they were in the first place, you'd not have a gig.

Highly recommended reading.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

In 2002, he published his autobiography, “Hit me, Fred: recollections of a sideman” (Duke Univ ISBN 0-8223-2909-3).

I've been meaning to plug this book here for the last four years...

An excellent read, and one that rings truer than many. The story of a young man who wanted to play jazz but ended up getting sidetracked from doing it by the financial lure/needs of going into R&B is one that I've seen happen god knows how many times (and one that I've participated in myself to a certain extent...).

What also rings true is Wesley's simultaneous respect and disgust for the various leaders he's worked with over the years (Basie excepted...). This is a very common phenomenon among career sidemen, as they see people with less "talent" but more "charisma" than them go into the spotlight, while they end up playing a crucial but less glamorous role.

I've seen reviews of this book that describe it as "bitter". Well, maybe it is. But that doesn't make it any less true. It's truly a "view from the inside" of what it's like to always be somebody else's employee, somebody who you want to think needs you more than you need them, while at the same time realizing that no matter how true that might be, if they weren't who/what they were in the first place, you'd not have a gig.

Highly recommended reading.

Thanks Jim. I didn't know about the book until I did the research for that piece today. I'll get that soon.

MG

[Hot Ptah]

I love Fred's book. It's very funny in many places. I do not consider it bitter, as Fred is perhaps hardest on himself, and gives a lot of detailed factual information about why certain musical situations were less than ideal--he doesn't just whine or complain.

I was lucky enough to see Fred live a few years ago. He was in a group with Rodney Jones (guitar), Arthur Blythe, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Idris Muhammad. It was a great concert. Fred sang on one song and played many great trombone solos.

That concert took place in a small theater, the same night that Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra were in town. I saw Wynton & Co., then drove to the Jones/Wesley/Blythe/Smith/Muhammad concert in another part of town. I had to park three blocks away and run through a pouring rain to get to it. I remember thinking, "boy, you really have to love music to do this." But it was totally worth it.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I was lucky enough to see Fred live a few years ago. He was in a group with Rodney Jones (guitar), Arthur Blythe, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Idris Muhammad. It was a great concert. Fred sang on one song and played many great trombone solos.

I had to park three blocks away and run through a pouring rain to get to it. I remember thinking, "boy, you really have to love music to do this." But it was totally worth it.

What a BAND!

MG