Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Sideman [Hardcover]

Fred Wesley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 2002

With Hit Me, Fred, sensational sideman Fred Wesley Jr. moves front and center to tell his life story. A legendary funk, soul, and jazz musician, Wesley is best known for his work in the late sixties and early seventies with James Brown and as the leader of Brown’s band, Fred Wesley and the JB’s. Having been the band’s music director, arranger, trombone player, and frequent composer, Wesley is one of the original architects of funk music. He describes what it was like working for the Godfather of Soul, revealing the struggle and sometimes stringent discipline behind Brown’s tight, raucous tunes. After leaving Brown and the JB’s, Wesley arranged the horn sections for Parliament, Funkadelic, and Bootsy’s Rubber Band, and led Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns. Adding his signature horn arrangements to the P-Funk mix, Wesley made funk music even funkier.
Wesley’s distinctive sound reverberates through rap and hip-hop music today. In Hit Me, Fred, he recalls the many musicians whose influence he absorbed, beginning with his grandmother and father—both music teachers—and including mentors in his southern Alabama hometown and members of the Army band. In addition to the skills he developed working with James Brown, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, and the many talented musicians in their milieu, Wesley describes the evolution of his trombone playing through stints with the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, Hank Ballard, and Count Basie’s band. He also recounts his education in the music business, particularly through his work in Los Angeles recording sessions.
Wesley is a virtuoso storyteller, whether he's describing the electric rush of performances when the whole band is in the groove, the difficulties of trying to make a living as a rhythm and blues musician, or the frustrations often felt by sidemen. Hit Me, Fred is Wesley’s story of music-making in all its grit and glory.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Before hip-hop, there was soul and funk, which gave rise to such highly influential bands and popular stars as Ike and Tina Turner, George Clinton, Parliament, Funkadelic, and, of course, James Brown. Trombonist Wesley has been associated with all of these and more, serving as Brown's bandleader for many years and through his personal sound, compositions, and arrangements contributing immeasurably to the fabric of American popular music. Wesley has written a thoroughly engaging memoir of his life in music, using frank, opinionated, sometimes colorful language that reads as if he were sitting across the room reminiscing. Readers will be fascinated by his insider descriptions of working with the volatile Brown and by his vivid descriptions of the vicissitudes of life as a professional musician; musicians at all levels will find his comments on life on the road particularly compelling. Chapters on his tenure with the Count Basie Orchestra, his struggles with the L.A. music scene, and playing jazz in Denver after brother Ron helped him overcome a cocaine habit round out the picture of Wesley's musicianship and humanity without lapsing into "behind the music" cliche. Recommended for all collections, a real gem for music collections. Mark Woodhouse, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Hit Me, Fred is very enjoyable and funny. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”—Freddy Cole

“A MUST read for musicians and people who want to know the truth about being on the road. Fred Wesley is hands down one of the greatest.”—Christian McBride

“A soulful memoir abundant with all the warm humor, joyous passion, and insightful irony that flavors his music. Fred Wesley is funk’s first-string quarterback and an American treasure.”—Alan Leeds, talent manager and Grammy-winning music historian

“This book is straight up! Fred Wesley, he’ll tell you like it is, even if your feelings get hurt, but coming from Fred, for some reason it makes you wanna do better. The book is the bomb!!! Stories are stories but this is real life. Write on, Fred.”—Bootsy Collins

“Very informative reading! I’m glad and lucky to be part of this legacy. We took it to the bridge. Fred, thanks for the memories.”—Maceo Parker

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press Books; First Edition edition (September 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822329093
• ISBN-13: 978-0822329091
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,512,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hit Me, Fred!, October 23, 2002

By 

Richard Z. Johnson "zemry" (Mansfield, Louisiana USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Sideman (Hardcover)

I finished reading the book yesterday. It was a VERY interesting book......one that I recommend every aspiring professional trombone player or other aspiring professional musician to read.

The autobiography covers Fred's musical career from his musical beginnings learning or rather attempting to learn piano as a child to his present day professional musical career. We learn that Fred played professionally as a teenager with a jazz big band. His father was a high school choral director and profesional jazz pianist. His grandmother was a piano teacher.

He covers his days playing for Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, Bootsy Collins, George Clinton and their bands of Parliament/Funkadelic and Bootsy's Rubber Band. We learn of his playing days with the Count Basie Band.

Wesley is very candid regarding what he feels are the good points AND the bad points in his playing. He talks about his failed audition for a college band scholarship because of his playing shortcomings. He also talks about the major adjustment that he made from being a member of the Parliament/Funkadelic and Bootsy's Rubber Band bands to taking over the second chair that was previously vacated in the Basie band by Al Grey.

Wesley is also candid about the dual temptations of women and drugs that are faced by those musicians who are world famous or who are sidemen to the world famous. In addition, he talks about the ruthlessness of the music business, not only the managers and record company owners but also some of the fellow sidemen and the superstars that employ the sidemen.

The major thrust of the entire book is that Wesley managed to persevere with a combination of talent, hard work and a smattering of luck. He talks a great deal about his love/hate relationship with James Brown, The Godfather of Soul/Hardest Working Man in Show Business. It is positively hilarious to read Fred's accounts of disciphering James Brown's grunts into music that could be played by the band.

Througout the entire book, you get a feel about a man who has a deep love for music, especially jazz. However, his path always seemd to work its way back to the funk genre. He tells of solos that he played and that he recorded and that he was ashamed for his musical peers to hear. Hmmm......some of the solos that he was ashamed to play were ones that I found especially entertaining to hear and play when I was in high school in the early and mid 1970's!

He not only played trombone. He wrote and arranged music for several different bands. He worked as a studio musician and even scored a couple of movies. This is a frank and revealing book about a vastly talented man who worked extremely hard to make a living as a professional musician, supporting himself and his family.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fred's Funk, April 25, 2004

By 

trawic11 (Tuskegee, AL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Sideman (Hardcover)

Fred Wesley is "THE MAN". Here is a musical funk legend who has really paid his dues. He was the glue that kept the Funk going strong despite of James's legendary self-righteous super-ego and his harsh tyranny ways that interferred with the creative freedom and progressive potential of the most talented musicians that God has ever put on earth. James invented Funk which I will give him the credit he rightfully and respectfully deserves, but he definitely didn't do it on his own (thanks to the talented musicians of Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Alfred 'Pee Wee" Ellis, St Clair Pinckney, Waymon Reed, Richard 'Kush' Griffin, Jimmy Nolen, Al 'Country' Kellum, Clyde Stubblefield, John 'Jabo' Starks, Melvin Parker, Fillyau Clayton, Bootsy and Phelp Collins, Bernard Odum, Sweet Charles Sherrell, Johnny Griggs; the talented singers of Marva Whitney, Vicki Anderson, and the late great Lyn Collins; last but definitely not the least, I can't forget Bobby Byrd because if not for him, James life would have taking a bleaker turn since Byrd and his family not only helped James get out of prison and on parole, but got James into his gospel group which James would later become the frontman of and, with his ambition and talent, would take the group further than they had ever imagine. There are other James Brown musicians names that I can't remember but had a major influential impact on builting the structural foundation on the sound we now know as 'Funk'. This book honestly puts everything on the table with his experiences as a professional musician as well as how shady the music industry really is.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There's Fred!!!, June 22, 2003

By 

souldrummer (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Sideman (Hardcover)

What a wonderful book! I've seen Fred Wesley live playing with Maceo Parker and the JB horns. He's down with the funk and he's been everywhere and seen everything. JB, Maceo, Ike and Tina Turner, LA and trying to make it playing an acoustic instrument soulfully in an age of production. The great thing about this book is that Fred seems to write with a minimal agenda. He's not a charting artist who's trying to magnify his own star, he just lays it down honestly. Anybody down with James Brown will gain from his insights on why musicians stuck through and put up with James' abuse and degradation.

Surprises for me were the tales of Count Basie and his life in LA. I didn't realize that he had overcome so much personal stuff by the time that I had seen him. This is a very readable insightful book that I recommend without qualification to anybody interested in funk. Let's hope Fred gets his due and we get more books from the perspectives of the musicians that make the music we love happen.