Fred Wesley was born in 1943, the son of a high school teacher and big band leader. Like Alfred Pee Wee Ellis, his first love was jazz, until he joined the Ike and Tina Turner Review in 1962. A period with Hank Ballard and the Midnighters and Army service preceded his first term with James Brown (1968-70), a brief Los Angeles period led to a second (1971-5) stint with the Godfather of Soul, then the versatile trombonist went on to featured roles with both George Clinton as a member of Funkadelic and Count Basie as Al Grey's replacement.