As members of James Brown's legendary backing band the J.B.'s, saxophonists Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker and trombonist Fred Wesley defined the sinuous grooves, bold horn arrangements, and relentless rhythms that are the foundations of funk. Many years (and myriad hip-hop samples) later, the three men reunited as the J.B. Horns, recording and touring outside of Brown's infamously dictatorial control. The oldest of the three core members, Alfred Pee Wee Ellis was born in Bradenton, FL, on April 21, 1941, and raised in Lubbock, TX; he was playing professionally by the time he reached middle school, and at 16 spent a summer under the tutelage of sax giant Sonny Rollins. After a brief stint with the Sonny Payne Trio, Ellis joined the James Brown Revue in 1965, assigned alto saxophone duties alongside tenorist Parker, who joined the lineup a year earlier. Born February 14, 1943, in Kinston, NC, Parker and brothers Kellis (trombone) and Melvin (drums) all cut their teeth with their uncle's jazz band the Blue Notes before jointly attending North Carolina A&T University. While still a student, Melvin was invited to join Brown, an offer he accepted only on the condition that Maceo be given a slot in the band as well. Wesley was the last to join: born July 4, 1943, in Columbus, GA, and raised in Mobile, AL, from age three he studied classical piano but much preferred the big band music played by his father, Fred Wesley, Sr., who also chaired the music department at Mobile Central High School. After moving to the trombone, Wesley made his professional debut at age 12 in a big band led by his school's music teacher, E.B. Coleman, and soon was sitting in with local R&B acts as well; after brief tenures with the Ike Tina Turner Revue as well as Hank Ballard the Midnighters, in 1967 he formed his own project, the Mastersounds, fusing R&B with hard bop. The group splintered within a year, and in 1968 he joined the J.B.'s.

When longtime bandleader Nat Jones quit the James Brown Revue in early 1967, Brown named Ellis his new musical director, resulting in significant refinements to the Godfather of Soul's sound. Ellis channeled the lessons of his jazz background to strip Brown's music to its bare essentials, showcasing dynamic, surgically precise horns and repetitive rhythms with a minimum of melodic embellishment. Hits like "Cold Sweat," "Licking Stick-Licking Stick," and "Funky Drummer" redefined the sound and scope of soul, pointing the way for its transformation to funk. Over the course of these records Parker emerged as a star in his own right. "Maceo! Blow your horn!" barked Brown, signaling another stiletto-sharp tenor solo. But Wesley bristled under Brown's authoritarian approach and the two men clashed often. Finally, the trombonist quit the J.B.'s in late 1969, briefly gigging with Sam the Goodtimers. Ellis was the next to exit, focusing largely on session work, and in 1970 Parker -- Ellis' replacement as musical director -- filed his resignation as well, forming his own project, Maceo All the King's Men. To the surprise of many, Wesley returned to the J.B.'s in early 1971, assuming the role of musical director and arranger for such classic funk outings as Black Caesar, Slaughter's Big Rip-Off, and The Payback. "I completed [Brown's] creations, I followed his blueprints," Wesley later said. "He would give me horn things to write, but sometimes maybe it would be incoherent musically and I would have to straighten it out, so to speak. When it came out of my brain, it would be a lot of James Brown's ideas and my organization." Wesley also headlined several J.B.'s records, including the classic Damn Right I Am Somebody and Breakin' Bread. But creative and financial differences again forced him to part ways with Brown in 1975, this time for good.

While Ellis continued his solo career with the 1976 Savoy release Home in the Country, Wesley and Parker reunited as members of George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic in time for the seminal Mothership Connection LP. Unlike Brown, Clinton encouraged his collaborators to pursue their own projects, even co-writing most of the songs comprising the trombonist's 1977 official solo debut, A Blow for Me, a Toot for You, credited to Fred Wesley the Horny Horns. After a second disc, 1979's Say Blow by Blow Backwards, both Wesley and Parker exited the P-Funk sphere, each returning to his respective jazz roots. But as their most influential and popular music returned to the collective consciousness via endless hip-hop sampling of their vintage James Brown sides, Ellis, Wesley, and Parker went on tour in 1988 behind longtime Brown backing vocalist Bobby Byrd as the J.B. Horns, debuting on disc with the 1989 Gramavision release Pee Wee, Fred and Maceo. A self-titled date followed a year later, but with the critical and commercial success of Parker's 1992 date Life on Planet Earth, the J.B. Horns worked under his name in the months prior to the 1994 release of I Like It Like That. Ellis, Wesley, and Parker spent the remainder of the decade pursuing their own projects, but in 2001 they teamed with Byrd, drummer Clyde Stubblefield, and bassist Bootsy Collins for the J.B.'s reunion effort Bring the Funk on Down, a convincing re-creation of their classic recordings. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi