Fred Wesley & The New JB's are the primary keepers of roots funk music. Wesley, one of the forefathers of funk, is the legendary bandleader, trombonist who helped make James Brown's music what it was and later played a key role in the development of P-Funk.

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.

Together at its core for more than 30 years, the band is a living celebration of this seminal music, as well as Fred's and others' soulful jazz, funk and blues compositions. Their repertoire ranges from danceable hits like "Pass the Peas” made with James Brown and the original JBs including Maceo Parker, to jazz compositions that reflect the be bop in Fred's heart.

Born in Columbus, Georgia, and raised in Mobile, Ala., Fred began his career as a teenage trombonist with Ike and Tina Turner. He later was music director, arranger, trombonist and a primary composer for Brown from 1968-1975, then arranged for and played with Parliament-Funkadelic and Bootsy’s Rubber Band.

With Brown, Fred became “the world’s most famous sideman, orchestrating the sinuous grooves and contributing the bold, surgically precise solos that defined the language of funk.” He helped take funk to the next level with George Clinton and Bootsy Collins."

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 Sideman." Today, Wesley continues performing with his band 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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