Pee Wee Ellis concert in Prague

Pee Wee Ellis was born to play music. In Texas Pee Wee got to see blues greats like Bobby “Blue” Bland and Fats Domino. With clarinet and sax lessons in school, he was skilled on reeds as well as piano when his family moved to Rochester, New York at age 16.

Pee Wee joined James Brown in 1965 and soon came up with the first pure hardcore Funk hit, Cold Sweat, followed by 26 others that defined what we think of as Funk to this day. Pee Wee has been called The Man Who Invented Funk.

Pee Wee’s effect on music was huge, leading directly to George Clinton, Sly Stone and, in a circular twist, Miles Davis 70s work.
By 1970 Pee Wee worked as arranger and musical director for CTI-Kudu records, the most popular jazz label of the 70s. He worked with Esther Phillips as well as George Benson, Hank Crawford and dozens of other CTI artists.

The Pee Wee Ellis Assembly regularly tours and he has worked with UK jazz singing sensation Clare Teal. In 2005 he visited Japan with the Cuban pianist Omar Sosa and in 2006 they played together again, in South Africa and at Yoshis in Oakland.

The father of Jazz you can see and hear in Prague within the International Jazz Festival 2007, in Lucerna Music bar, Vodickova 36, 25th November, 2007.