"Doing the Best I Can" (PDF) from the James Brown album, The Payback.

(2021 revision) :
In his autobiography, Fred Wesley explains how working on film scores with James Brown ultimately led to Fred's exit from the band. Their first effort, or the lack of effort from Mr. Brown, forced Fred to compose much of the orchestral music for the Black Ceasar soundtrack without the bandleader's approval - it was a success. By the time its sequel went into production, Fred and Mr. Brown's working relationship had developed into an efficient routine: Mr. Brown would mumble ideas and Fred who would write music loosely based on some of those ideas as if the boss would even remember the brainstorming session. For example, the film's working title of Revenge became The Payback by the time Mr. Brown was done with it.

However, the true origin of the studio album that became The Payback occurred when Fred turned in the music for the film. After a brief listening session, the producers decided it wasn't "funky enough." Perhaps they had only listened to the song "Doing The Best I Can," a slow, bluesy and soulful groove that reflects the narrator at wits' end of the ongoing struggle and in desperate need of respite. Having been passed over by the studio executives, Fred and Mr. Brown were free to release the music on their own - it was a success. But as The Payback took off, the demands for Fred's work as Mr. Brown's musical director, both onstage and in the recording studio, met its breaking point.

Fred Wesley's trombone solo on "Doing The Best I Can" is the sound of a man who only wants to do one thing: to play his horn.

Recommended Reading: Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Sideman by Fred Wesley Jr.  Published by Duke University Press.