The Pee Wee Ellis Funk Assembly Live

Pee Wee Ellis and The Funk Assembly will be playing live at Nells Jazz and Blues for a night of funky jazz!

Pee Wee Ellis has had 55 + eventful years as a musician, bandleader, arranger and composer. Born in Florida in 1941, Pee Wee by the mid 50’s was performing most nights and travelling regularly to New York City, the hub of modern jazz, where his musical heroes frequented the jazz clubs Downtown.

In 1965 he got the call to join The James Brown Revue. Within a few months he was appointed bandleader, co-writing with Mr Brown and bringing a jazz influence to soul music. When ‘Cold Sweat’ burst onto the R&B and Pop charts in 1967 they called it ‘funk’ and a new sound was born that has influenced every genre of popular music since.

After a four years with James Brown that produced 26 tunes – including the hit ‘Say It Loud I’m Black and I’m Proud’, Pee Wee left the band and took his skills to CTI Records who snapped him up as in-house arranger. The next few years was spent in the studio and on the road with acts like Hank Crawford, George Benson and Esther Phillips. In the late 1970’s Pee Wee got introduced to Van Morrison by mutual friend Mark Isham. Van invited him to arrange on his 1979 album; ‘Into The Music’ and so was born a successful partnership that saw Pee Wee become Van’s bandleader for five years.

In the 90’s Pee Wee reunited with band mates Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley as the JB Horns (later becoming Roots Revisted), a stunning live jazz funk act that toured the world. The mid ‘90s also saw Pee Wee back with Van Morrison for another five year string of hits, including the Pee Wee arranged ‘Days Like This’ and ‘That’s Life’ and by the end of the decade it was clear that his fame was truly worldwide.

As well as touring he is still busy in the studio, contributing horn arrangements on recent albums from Boy George, Sarah Jane Morris and George Clinton, as well as recording ‘Tenoration’, his own double album. Pee Wee holds a fine catalogue of solo albums (most of which are currently available on iTunes & Spotify).