Mobile jazz trombonist Fred Wesley has a long list of people he’s performed alongside. Ike and Tina Turner, Count Basie, and the “Godfather of Soul” James Brown are just a few. As a solo performer, Wesley also earned the nickname the “forefather of Funk.” The Alabama Humanities Alliance will honor this jazz icon next week. I sat down with Wesley for an interview that will air on “APR Notebook.” In this excerpt, Wesley talks about what it’s like to be recognized alongside Country music legend Emmylou Harris and Randy Owen of the band Alabama...
FRED WESLEY-- To be on on the stage with with Emmylou Harris, and I mean it's amazing to me too that I they would be I would be children. I I didn't realize how many people had even heard about me, you know, because lowly lowly trombone player that worked with James Brown. That then my monarch, my uh. claim to fame before now I'm all of a sudden I'm a member of the humanities council. You know that's that's great. That's great. I'm really proud. I'm really proud of this.
PAT DUGGINS-- Well, in addition to your accomplishments as a musician, and I could go on forever about that. You're also an author, and in your book, Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Side Man, you talk about some of the musical stars that you had a chance to work with over the years. We mentioned Ike and Turner earlier, but there there are two of them that I wanted to zoom in on because from what I've read, they kind of represent both sides of the. This is how I want to be as a boss kind of a coin. And the first one I wanted to mention was the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. How did you get the job working with him?
WESLEY-- Well, through a trumpet player, Wayman Reed, he he had we had run across each other in a in a jam session. I think in Mobile, somewhere in anywhere, he came through Mobile with a circus, and so at a jam session with with Ed Pratt, the baddest saxophone I ever met. We are kind of like each other, you know, because he he could really play play like Lee Marvin, actually, you know, and I could really play. He said I kind of play like JJ, you know. So, but we stay stayed friends, even though he left town and I didn't see him for a couple of years, you know, all through the army, I didn't see him, you know. But so a job came up. Come to find out, Waymond Reed was now playing with James Brown. What James Brown? You would you would expect him to be with Art Blakey or Horace Silver, somebody like that, but he was now with James Brown. I found out why later, but uh, so he he called me and asked me that I wanted a job with James Brown because James Brown later. That's that's how I got to get.
PAT-- Well, like you know, you were mentioning how Ike Turner was kind of tough with the band. I hear that that that James Brown was kind of like difficult to work with. Close. What do you think? Maybe.
WESLEY-- Yeah, he was. He was kind of, kind of hard on people, you know. But he he had a a sort of a mission, sort of in the mind. He wanted his his band to to look right and sound right, you know. He he wanted the band. Someone said it may sound funny, but he he wanted his band to be like white people.
PAT-- I've read I've read you know some observations from other band members about Mr. Brown. Are you telling me if this this stuff is true or it's not? He would perform without a set list of songs mapping out what would be in concert. He would use like hand gestures. Close, true. What do you think?
WESLEY-- Close, close. Sometimes you know we we would have a a set you know but he would change in in the middle of uh we we had it adjust look at he would rehearse so much that he could do anything with his band we we we uh we rehearsed everything so uh all the time so James Brown could give a hand gesture or or the leg gesture whatever and change whatever we were doing, you know. So he had a basic set, but he could change it either way he wanted, you know.
PAT-- Now I've I've heard okay. At one point, he would turn. He would say, "Hit me, Fred, and that would mean that was your chance to do do a trombone solo. I mean, did you remember? Did you all work that out, or was that kind of spontaneous, or how did that work?
WESLEY-- It was all spontaneous, spontaneous. So you know, in recording session, what he would do is get the song together, you know, saying it was like he wanted. Then he would arrange it by hand gestures, Hippy Fred, you know, one of those like Mayfield want you blow stuff like that, you know. So that that's how it happened.
PAT-- So let's let's move on to somebody that I've read is a nicer boss to work for, and that would have been Count Basie. How did how did you get the job with Basie?
WESLEY-- Same guy, Wayman Reed. Now he's gone from James Brown. Now he's after after he had left Dan Brown, and I was with Dan Brown. He went on around, around, around to play with uh, I can't think of the drummer's name, but anyway, he ended up with Count Basie, and so he called me again. Said, "Fred, you want to play with Count Basie? I said, "Count Basie. Now wait a minute! I've been playing with George Clinton, James Brown, Hank Battle in a minute, and so that was way. That was sort of out of the question, you know. But he knew me, and I knew him, you know. And I said, "Well, if he thinks I can do it, maybe I should take it, you know. So I took it. I said. The only way you get me out here to run me out of here, you know, because it was such a great gig, you know. They didn't pay much, but it it was a it was a sweetheart gig. I loved every minute of it.
PAT-- Now, now Basie was getting up there in years at that time. So for you, was it was this kind of like a once in a lifetime chance to work with somebody like him?
WESLEY-- It was once in a lifetime chance of working with somebody like it really was. I, I was proud to do it, and and I, you know, I had gotten accustomed to to a George Clinton salary, a James Brown salary, and so I had had my my family living on on that custom on that on that on that tip, and Count Basie didn't pay that, you know. I couldn't stay with it no no longer than a year. I stayed with with basically bad a year, but I loved every minute of it. I really did.
PAT -- So supposedly he was very kind to his soloists, and he was easy to work with. But I hear that he had a really dry wit. Close, true?
WESLEY-- Well, the word was if. if basically didn't like you, you would just disappear. He said, "So if if you stayed sitting longer than two gigs, then he liked you, you know. So I said, "Oh yeah, so he must he must have liked me just a little bit, you know, and I even recorded a a funk song with Count Basie tune called "Left Handy Funk.” Look it up, “Left Handy Funk,” 1979, live in Japan without, and he let me play a song on it. So I guess he I guess he kind of liked me, you know.
