It's week four of our six-week celebration of 60 years of funk. Let's party with a song that kickstarted a solo career and closes out shows 40 years later.
Fred Wesley’s most famous song may be ‘House Party’, the title track to his 1980 album. After the dissolution of Parliament-Funkadelic, Wesley had a solo career and continues touring today. He’s currently in Europe, still blowing his trombone at the age of 82, with his band The New JBs.
Since 1969, Wesley had played and arranged for James Brown and The J.B.’s, and then Parliament and P-Funk spinoffs, but he’d very rarely sung. For the first track on his first solo record, it was time to sing. Wesley’s Alabama accent shows (he was born in Georgia before moving), and he has a unique, soft sustain on words like “weekend” and “late”. It’s not a showy voice, but full of character. The hook is as catchy as some of the most celebrated in the P-Funk world: “We're gonna have a house party / We're gonna have a house partee-ee-ee”.
Throughout much of the song, there’s what sounds like a digital snare on the two and four – or perhaps it’s something like the famous P-Funk handclaps. Those brief, bitey moments give the song much of its groove, but the real magic comes on the One. Every other bar, there’s a sustained keyboard chord, and it’s joined by a deep bass note. It feels like a release every time – because of the staccato notes the bass has already played, and because it’s the only time the bass plays the root note (G). It feels like you’re coming home.
Home for a house party. Wesley tells the story of not having money for the movies and not having clothes for the disco, but having friends to call, a stereo, and a place to dance. After each chorus, Wesley solos, and his trademark rhythmic phrasing adds to the party feel. In his catchy solo starting at 2:04, the early, eager phrases make the sustained notes after 2:14 even sweeter.
On Monday and Tuesday, Wesley played the Union Chapel in London. He closed Tuesday night with ‘House Party’, feigning to go off stage before his bandmates convinced him to stay; Fred then delivered the “I gotta be at work at 8” verse. He and The New JBs were on exceptional form with each of the horn players—Wesley, trumpeter Gary Winters and saxophonist Charles McNeal—playing inspired solos. Peter Madsen was an always energetic presence on keys. Drummer Bryan Morris, bassist Dwayne McNealand, and guitarist Bruno Speight added extra stank to a cover of Parliament’s ‘Night Of The Thumpasorus Peoples’. One of The J.B.’s’ trademarks, ‘Pass The Peas’, segued into Brown’s ‘Cold Sweat’.
The band grooved relentlessly throughout, with Fred still fresh after almost 60 years of playing funk around the world. In a chapel full of pews, it was a seated concert in theory – and Fred himself sat for most of the night – but it’s hard to sit during ‘House Party’.
Top image from Discogs.