Disillusioned by the bullying that being James Brown’s arranger and trombonist entailed, Fred Wesley happily jumped ship (followed by legendary saxophonist Maceo Parker and Richard “Kush” Griffin) when approached by George Clinton to become part of his P-Funk empire. Augmented by trumpeter Rick Gardner, The Horny Horns blew a storm across a slew of Parliament and Bootsy’s Rubber Band projects before releasing two albums of their own in 1977 and 1979.
Reissued here as a slipcased double CD, tracks include instrumental reworkings of Parliament material (“Up For The Down Stroke”), tunes written by Wesley while in the JB’s yet never recorded (“Peace Fugue”), and a host of funky free-for-alls backed by fellow P-Funkateers such as Bootsy Collins.
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