Fred Wesley

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Fred Wesley (born 1943) is an American jazz and funk trombonist.

He was the son of a high school teacher and big band leader. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was a pivotal member of James Brown's bands, playing the trombone, serving at times as musical director. His slippery riffs and pungent, precise solos, contrasting with those of saxophonist Maceo Parker, gave James Brown's R&B, soul, and funk tunes their instrumental punch. He later left James Brown's band and spent several years playing with George Clinton's various Parliament/Funkadelic projects, even recording a couple of albums as a spin-off group, The Horny Horns.

Wesley became a force in jazz in 1978 when he joined the Count Basie Orchestra. He released his first jazz CD as a leader, "To Someone" in 1988. It was followed by "New Friends" in 1990, "Comme Ci Comme Ca" in 1991, and his latest two releases as a leader, the live CD, "Swing and Be Funky" and "Amalgamation" in 1994.

Wesley's 35-year career includes playing with and arranging for a wide variety of other artist such as Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, Randy Crawford, Vanessa Williams, The SOS Band, Cameo and rappers De La Soul, to name a few. Many other artists have sampled his work.

Wesley toured with his colleagues from the James Brown band, Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker as the JB Horns in the early nineties. With the departure of Pee Wee Ellis the band became The Maceo Parker Band. Wesley was featured trombonist with Maceo Parker until 1996 when he formed his own band, The Fred Wesley Group.

In 2002, Wesley wrote Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Sideman (ISBN 0-8223-2909-3), an autobiography about his life as a sideman. Also in 2002 he recorded an album with a group of jazz musicians calling themselves the Fred Wesley Band entitled 'Cuda Wuda Shuda.'

Currently, among his other projects, he serves as an Adjunct Professor in the jazz studies department of the School of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.