“He’s my trombone-playing buddy,” Wesley says. “I’m very excited to come back to Savannah. I have played Savannah, but not in this context.”
“From day one,” Wesley knew he wanted to be a musician.
“My grandmother taught me piano when I was 3,” he says. “My father was a musician and I wanted to play in my father’s band. That’s how I got to be a trombonist.”
A choir teacher at the local high school, Wesley’s father organized a big band in his spare time. One summer, he told his son that the band needed a trombonist and if he could learn how to play over the summer, the gig was his.
“I was playing with a big band at 12 years old,” Wesley says. “I played with my father’s big band until I graduated high school.”
Because Wesley excelled in his school band, the director helped him find gigs with other bands around town. After graduating from Central High School in Mobile, Ala., he earned an associate degree in music from Alabama State University in 1962.
His first major professional break came when Wesley was asked to play in the backing band for Ike and Tina Turner.
“As a teenager, I played with Ike and Tina Turner for about a year and a half,” he says. “That was where I really learned road experience.
“They traveled all around the world, around the South, through the Midwest. I never got to California with them because I left and went into the Army.”
When gigs dwindled, Wesley enlisted in the U.S. Army School of Music in 1964. He was stationed in Huntsville, Ala., where the commanding officer requested that he play in the base’s big band.
“I really didn’t want to go to Huntsville, Ala., because it was too close to home,” Wesley says. “I found out they had a big band, an Army band, and I was lead trombone. The commander had requested a trombone player who could play lead solos.”
The quality of the music and the strong friendships Wesley made in the group proved to be a blessing. He also gained a wife in Gertie Lee Young before being honorably discharged in 1967.
Back home in Mobile, Wesley was offered a job as the city’s first African-American milkman as part of an integration effort during the Civil Rights Movement. But not long after he started working, he was offered the trombone chair with James Brown’s band.
“I didn’t want to play with James Brown,” Wesley says. “My mother was a big civil rights worker and she wanted me to become a milkman.
“I would have rather played with Ray Charles or someone like that, but James Brown came out with an opportunity for me to get out of town. I took the job with James Brown, and it turned out to be a good job.
“He was a terror to work with,” Wesley says. “He wanted everything exactly like he wanted it and it had to be his way or no way.”
At one point, Wesley got fed up and quit.
“I’d been with him two years and he thought he was hot stuff,” he says. “But I didn’t agree with him, so I quit and moved to California.
“I found out I couldn’t make it in California, so I went back to James Brown. I was a little more humble and grateful that time.”
For three years, Wesley toured and recorded with Brown. When his friend Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis left the band, Wesley was promoted to band leader, but disagreements with Brown forced him to leave.
Wesley signed on to write arrangements for Bootsy Collins and George Clinton of the Parliament/Funkadelic groups.
“Playing for George Clinton was a good career,” Wesley says. “He was a wild man, but I enjoyed working with him.”
After a contract dispute with Clinton, Wesley began working with the Count Basie Orchestra.
“That was my most favorite gig,” he says. “I’d heard about him from my father and I always loved his music.
“When I got an opportunity to play with Count Basie, I took the gig and really enjoyed it. I didn’t play solos, but it was my favorite gig.
“Count Basie was a pleasure to work for,” Wesley says. “He was a great band leader.”
But Wesley’s salary with Basie couldn’t support his family, so he returned to Mobile and became a producer. In 1980, he released “House Party,” his first album under his own name.
In 1990, Wesley released his first solo jazz recording, “New Friends.” He reunited with former James Brown bandmates Maceo Parker and Pee Wee Ellis to record several successful albums, including “Life On Planet Groove” and “Roots Revisited.”
Today, Wesley continues to tour and record and has appeared with James Taylor, Soulive and Dr. John, to name a few.
“I’m really looking forward to coming to Savannah,” Wesley says. “Teddy and I play together and I know the band really well.”
“I started learning music in 1957 when I was 8 years old,” Monaco says. “I actually started with the accordion. I was introduced to music by a man selling accordion lessons door to door.
“I heard a Jimmy Smith album when I was 12 years old and converted to jazz and organ. Everything about jazz intrigued me.
“It was dynamic, it was electric, it touched me, it moved me,” he says. “It was then I decided I wanted to be a jazz organist.”
Completely self-taught, Monaco learned to play by listening to records.
“I scratched many records while I was learning,” he says. “I was playing gigs by the time I was 12. Whatever I heard, I could play.”
At one point, Monaco recorded himself and sent the tape to his idol, Jimmy Smith.
“On my 16th birthday, he called me,” Monaco says. “He told me I played too many notes and needed to learn the right chords. I was freaking out.
“But it got me turned on to it. He became my mentor and teacher. I had the talent and I could do it.
“And he did invite me to play at his club when I was 20,” Monaco says. “He and his wife, Lola, sat 10 feet from the stage. I was shaking in my boots because this was the man I admired and honored, but I played the gig.”
Others also influenced Monaco.
“Dr. Lonnie Smith was a big influence,” he says. “I was doing stuff with George Benson and Jack McDuff.
“I used to see Jack McDuff when he came through Columbus, Ohio,” Monaco says. “I learned from live performances, which unfortunately, a lot of kids today don’t get close to.”
Since then, Monaco has played all over the world and opened for Herbie Hancock and many more jazz legends.
“George Duke was my personal friend,” he says. “I got to meet and greet the most famous artists in the world.”
In Savannah, Monaco will play with drummer Harvey Mason and guitarist Howard Paul of Savannah.
“I’m great friends with Howard Paul,” Monaco says. “He’s quite influential. And Harvey Mason is a great drummer who played in Herbie Hancock’s band.
“It will be a great group,” Monaco says. “I can’t wait until I get back to my favorite city and see all those friendly people.”
