Redway today; Abu Dhabi in April!

The 39th Annual Summer Arts and Music Festival in the Benbow Lake State Recreation Area near Redway, CA, happens this weekend, and Fred will be there today as a guest of the band Motherlode.

In other news, the new Arts Center at New York University's Abu Dhabi campus has announced its 2015-2016 season, and Fred is in it. He is co-music director with Pee Wee Ellis of the project Funk: Evolution of a Revolution. The April 2016 event is the world premiere of the project, "an explosive multi-media show that tells the story of the evolution of music that changed the world, led by two of its most important architects."

Pee Wee and Fred in Koln, Germany, 2013. (Photo by Heinrich Buttler)

Flashing back to the '70s!

Benjamin Wheelock of Salon.com took Fred back to the '70s for a feature on this classic Horny Horns album.

Click here to see the interview and hear the music again.

Fred Wesley by Alex Hinchcliffe

In other news, fans in or near Stockholm should check out photographer Alex Hinchcliffe's new exhibition of portraits, which started with a portrait of Fred.

From a translated section of the exhibition's description: "Alex Hinchcliffes photographic work “Ett Steg Närmare” (One Step Closer in Swedish) consists of close to a hundred portraits of musicians. Among the photographs we find Bobby Womack, Amiri Baraka, Mark E. Smith, Robert Glasper, Lonnie Liston Smith and Thurston Moore. The project started in 2010 when Alex photographed funk master Fred Wesley in his hotel room before a gig."

Click here to view the Facebook invitation.

Cabins on sale now for Jam Cruise 14!

Click here to book your cabin now to join Fred on Jam Cruise 14!

Heading back to sea on Jam Cruise 14!

Fred will be in the company of Dr. John and a range of talented artists when he sets sail in January on Jam Cruise 14. Ahoy!

Many thanks to Sin Qua Non and Bohemian Caverns in Washington, DC, for a fun weekend of great music. Sin Qua Non is Michael Bowie on bass, Mark Prince on drums, Victor Provost on steel pan and Lyle Link on reeds. Special thanks, too, to guest vocalist Christie DeShields.

Michael, Victor, Fred, Lyle, Mark and Christy

Finally, thanks to Jack Carpenter, who straightened out Fred's slightly skewed horn on Friday morning!

Fred with Chuck Levin's brass technician Jack Carpenter