Fred Wesley
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Music
An evening of great jazz with the American trombonist and his extraordinary band
Within the event Spazi Aperti 2024 - Teatri di Pistoia, the great jazz enters the scene on July 17, at the Fortress of Santa Barbara:
Fred Wesley
Fred Wesley (trombone, voice)
Gary Winters (trumpet)
Jay Rodriguez Sierra (sax, flute)
Reggie Ward (guitar)
Peter Madsen (piano and keyboards)
Dwayne Dolphin (bass)
Bruce Cox (drums)
Born and raised between Georgia and Alabama, Fred Wesley began his career as a teenage trombonist with Ike and Tina Turner. He was later musical director, arranger, trombonist, and principal composer for James Brown from 1968 to 1975, then arranged and played with Parliament-Funkadelic and Bootsy's Rubber Band. With Brown and as leader of his backing band The JBs, Wesley "was the world's most famous sideman, orchestrating the meandering grooves and contributing with bold, surgically precise solos that defined the language of funk".
In collaboration with George Clinton and Bootsy Collins, he played a key role in making funk an international genre.
Author of the acclaimed memoir "Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Side Man", Wesley has also been a huge influence in contemporary music: the likes of Janet Jackson and Nas have sampled his music and turned it into successful hits.
