The J.B.'s (sometimes punctuated The JB's or The J.B.s) was James Brown's band from 1970 through the early 1980s. On records, the band was sometimes billed under alternate names such as Fred Wesley and the JBs, The James Brown Soul Train, Maceo and the Macks, A.A.B.B., Fred Wesley and the New JBs, The First Family, and The Last Word. but failed to be inducted and can be considered for Musical Excellence in the future. They have been eligible since 1995.
Career
The "original" J.B.'s
The J.B.'s were formed in March 1970 after most of the members of Brown's previous band walked out on him over a pay dispute. (Brown's previous bands of the 1950s and 1960s had been known as The James Brown Band and The James Brown Orchestra.) The J.B.'s initial lineup included bassist William "Bootsy" Collins and his brother, guitarist Phelps "Catfish" Collins, formerly of the obscure funk band The Pacemakers; Bobby Byrd (founder of the original Famous Flames singing group) (organ), and John "Jabo" Starks (drums), both holdovers from Brown's 1960s band; three inexperienced horn players, Clayton "Chicken" Gunnells, Darryl "Hasaan" Jamison, and Robert McCollough; and conga player Johnny Griggs. This version of the J.B.'s played on some of Brown's most intense funk recordings, including "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine", "Super Bad", "Soul Power", and "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing". They also accompanied Brown on a European tour (during which they recorded the long-delayed live album Love Power Peace), performed on the Sex Machine double LP, and released two instrumental singles, the much-sampled "The Grunt" and "These Are the J.B.'s".
Later configurations
In December 1970, trombonist Fred Wesley rejoined James Brown's organization to lead the J.B.'s. Other former Brown sidemen, including Maceo Parker and St. Clair Pinckney, eventually followed his lead, while the Collins brothers and most of the rest of the "original" J.B.'s left Brown to join George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic collective. Wesley and Parker left in 1975. Brown continued to bill his backing band as the J.B.'s into the mid-1980s, when he changed their name to the Soul Generals, or Soul G's.
Recordings
In addition to backing Brown on stage and on record during this era, the J.B.'s also recorded albums and singles on their own, sometimes with Brown performing on organ or synthesizer. Their albums were generally a mixture of heavy funk tracks and some more jazz-oriented pieces. Nearly all of the J.B.'s recordings were produced by Brown, and most were released on his own label, People Records. The band scored a number of chart hits in the early 1970s, including "Pass the Peas", "Gimme Some More", and the #1 R&B hit, "Doing It to Death". Credited to "Fred Wesley & the J.B.'s", "Doing It to Death" sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA in July 1973.
Some of the J.B.'s releases have unusual characteristics. The 1974 album Breakin' Bread is unique in that most of the songs have a Fred Wesley spoken reminiscence dubbed onto the beginning of the song, each time over a canned backing track. It is in sharp contrast to James Brown's real-time dominance of the proceedings on the classic Doing It to Death LP. A similar oddity is encountered on the other 1974 album, Damn Right I Am Somebody, where that album have been spliced onto the beginnings of most of the other songs. Under the name A.A.B.B., the group released a single, "Pick up the Pieces One by One", which reached #108 on the U.S. chart in 1975. Both the song and the name—which stood for "Above Average Black Band"—were a tribute to and tongue-in-cheek reply to the then-popular Scottish funk group the Average White Band (also known as AWB) and its #1 hit single "Pick Up the Pieces".