Fred Wesley & the New Jb's

A concert by Fred Wesley & The New J.B.'s at the Howard Assembly Room in Leeds, marking fifty years since the album A Blow for Me, A Toot to You. The band draws on the funk tradition of James Brown's backing group.

Fred Wesley, an American jazz and funk trombonist and arranger, was James Brown's musical director. He is named here alongside The New J.B.'s, a group that carries on the name of The J.B.'s, the band that helped shape funk, soul and the sound later taken up by disco and hip-hop in the 1970s. The original J.B.'s featured Maceo Parker, Jimmy Nolen, Clyde Stubblefield and John 'Jabo'Starks, and their recordings include Pass the Peas, Gimme Some More and Doing It to Death, a 1973 single that reached number one on the American R&B chart.

The evening marks the fiftieth anniversary of A Blow for Me, A Toot to You, released in 1977 under the name Fred Wesley & The Horny Horns featuring Maceo Parker. The album was produced by Fred Wesley with George Clinton and Bootsy Collins. Its horn arrangements and interlocking rhythms are central to the programme.

The Howard Assembly Room is a concert and performance venue at 46 New Briggate in Leeds city centre, and the concert is staged there.