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Fred Wesley & The New J.B.’s

50 Years of Funk
i.c.w. Effenaar
Sun 28 May ’23 20:15 uur
Sun 28 May ’23
20:15 uur

Fred Wesley, ''the most famous side man in the world'', is coming to Effenaar with The New J.B.'s on Sunday 28 May. At a young age, Wesley began his impressive career as a trombonist with Ike and Tina Turner. Besides being a trombone player, Wesley became a conductor, arranger and a primary composer for none other than The Godfather of Soul: James Brown (1968 to 1975), after which he went on to work with George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic as well as Bootsy's Rubber Band.

As leader of James Browns' backing band The J.B.'s, Wesley has been praised for his flowing riffs as well as bold, surgically secure solos that were indicative of the sound of funk. Together with George Clinton and Bootsy Collins, he played a key role in taking funk to the next level.  Wesley can be seen in the documentary "Soul Power", as well as the Oscar-winning "When We Were Kings" and numerous other documentaries about James Brown and funk music.

With his contributions to break-through hits including "Big Payback" (Brown & The J.B.'s), "P-Funk" (Parliament) and "Stretching Out" (Bootsy), Fred Wesley is one of the most sampled musicians in the world. Artists who used Wesley's samples in their songs include Janet Jackson (''That's The Way Love Goes''), Nas (''Nastradamus'') and Tim Dog ft. KRS-One (''I Get Wrecked''). 

Today, he plays and records with his own jazz-funk band, the New JBs, and is one-third of the innovative "klezmer-funk" collaboration Abraham Inc. He also freelances as an arranger, producer and studio artist, sharing his wealth of musical knowledge with young musicians and music students in educational institutions around the world.

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