Pee Wee Ellis: Interviewed for Groove Nations at the Barbican Center
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From Mshale Dakota
What do you expect from an ensemble of legendary musicians paying tribute to a legend? You expect a performance that will keep you on your feet all night with your hands in the air as you raise the roof. -MORE

From Blues & Soul Magazine
Everyone knows James Brown was the law and a law unto himself. When fellow cohorts Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis touched down in Africa, in Abidjan, on the Ivory Coast, in 1968. “We were mobbed at the airport,” Wesley comments. “We'd see women doing our dances, you could tell how much they were influenced by America. James loved the drive of African music. They had the same beat and chords, but they had that hard drive.” -MORE

From Philly Burbs.com
Pee Wee Ellis knows the attempts have been numerous. In the almost two years since the death of “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” many have tried to honor James Brown with musical tributes. -MORE

From Twin Cities August 25, 2008
One of the hits of the 2008 summer musical festival season both in Europe and North America stopped in the Twin Cities for a one-night stand Monday at the Dakota: the cross-cultural James Brown tribute band "Still Black, Still Proud." -MORE

From The Bulletin (Philadelphia), August 25,2008
Pee Wee Ellis slowly shuffled onstage at the Perelman Theater last week, making this reviewer wonder if the last program in the Global Grooves series would be better named the Global Gramps series. After all, these guys have all been creating musical legacies for decades, collaborating with the likes of Miles Davis, George Clinton, George Benson, Van Morrison and the man himself, James Brown.
But as soon as Mr. Ellis put his saxophone to his lips and started to play on Thursday, he validated his nickname as "The Man Who Invented Funk"-MORE

From The Washington Post, August 25, 2008
Saturday night's concert "Still Black, Still ProudThe African Tribute to James Brown" at the 9:30 club successfully paid homage to the Godfather of Soul even though more than half of the program should have been labeled an "American jazzy-funk tribute to James Brown." Saxophone player Pee Wee Ellis and trombonist Fred Wesley, who both played with and helped with arrangements for the legendary singer, put together a large band that was billed as featuring Senegalese singer and multi-instrumentalist Cheikh Lô and Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré. -MORE

Spanish Newspaper Review, June 29, 2008
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From The Guardian, June 19, 2008
James Brown: funking it up for the Godfather
James Brown was a hero across Africa, and his exuberant soul-funk anthems and calls for black pride had a massive influence on performers like Fela Kuti. So it was an inspired idea to present an African Tribute to his work -MORE

From Author, Nick Hornby's Blog, June 19th, 2008
…people in their 60s at the James Brown tribute, some of them sitting directly in front of a couple in their twenties who danced manically (and, it has to be said, annoyingly) right from the opening bars. -MORE

From Author, Nick Hornby's Blog, June 18th, 2008
I spent a very happy Saturday evening at the Barbican, listening to ‘Still Black, Still Proud’, a James Brown tribute show that gave some of Brown’s old side-kicks – the horn-players Pee-Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley – the chance to team up with some of Africa’s finest musicians -MORE

From The Times, June 3, 2008
James Brown: funking it up for the Godfather
African artists are to pay tribute to the influence on their music of the late "Godfather of Soul", James Brown - David Hutcheon

As anybody who has been to one will testify, tribute concerts can be a mixed bag. On June 27, for example, Simple Minds, Queen and Annie Lennox will be playing in Hyde Park to celebrate the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela. As one of South Africa's most acclaimed young musicians, the jazz singer Simphiwe Dana might have expected to be there too. But not only was she not invited, she had not even heard of it prior to our interview.

“I guess the organisers just want to go with what they know works,” she says diplomatically, before turning the questions round to another London concert in which she will be taking a starring role. Billed as an African Tribute to James Brown, the Barbican's Still Black, Still Proud concert on June 14 is guaranteed free of Simple Minds. - MORE

The Argus: Dome Concert Hall, Brighton, May 6 Review
The Dome Concert Hall was transformed into an Afro-funk party for this explosive world premiere which paid tribute to James Brown.

The godfather of soul inspired a whole generation of African artists when he played a show in Zaire in advance of Muhammad Ali's Rumble In The Jungle in the 1970s.

And to celebrate his lasting legacy, his former arranger and co-founder of funk, Pee Wee Ellis and seminal trombone player Fred Wesley teamed up with some of West Africa's greatest musicians to throw Brighton a party they certainly wouldn't forget. - MORE