In their 31-year history, The Meters have grooved their way around the globe. They have toured with such talents as The Rolling Stones, and have been a studio band for such diverse artists as Dr. John, Paul McCartney, Robert Palmer, and Patti Labelle.

Considered by many to be the founding fathers of funk, The Meters created a unique sound that lasted through the sixties and seventies and was reborn in the late eighties. Their trademark sound blends funk, blues, and dance grooves with a New Orleans vibe.

The history of this native New Orleans band dates back to 1967, when keyboardist Art Neville recruited George Porter, Jr., Joseph (Zigaboo) Modeliste and Leo Nocentelli to form The Meters. When Neville formed the band, he had already been a prominent member of the New Orleans music community for 15 years. He was still in high school when, leading The Hawkettes, he cut the 1954 hit single "Mardi Gras Mambo", which is still pressed every year at Carnival time.

After working with Allan Toussaint on some Lee Dorsey tracks, The Meters were told to lay down some tracks of their own. Between 1967 and 1969, they recorded four consecutive hit singles: "Sophisticated Cissy", "Cissy Strut", "Ease Back", and "Look a Py Py", which all reached the Top 10 on the R&B charts. Neville created a band that would rule the New Orleans music community for decades to come.

From 1971 to 1978 The Meters recorded five albums on the Warner/Reprise label. Cyril Neville, Art Neville's brother, joined the band in 1975 as a percussionist and vocalist for three of those albums, also recording the critically acclaimed The Wild Tchoupitoulas, which was recorded with Neville's uncle, Big Chief Jolly, the most celebrated member of the Mardi Gras Indians. Simultaneously, the band was widely heard playing on albums by Dr. John, Robert Palmer, King Biscuit Boy, Lee Dorsey, Allan Toussaint and a Mardi Gras single released by Paul McCartney and Wings.

In 1975, the Meters performed at a party for Paul and Linda McCartney aboard the Queen Mary in California. Shortly thereafter, The Rolling Stones requested that The Meters join them as an opening act on their (1975) American Tour and (1976) European tours-over 75 dates were played between both tours.

After twelve years and ten studio albums, The Meters disbanded in 1979 due to business problems.

The Meters have maintained an avid following of fans and other artists, and their music has been sampled by musicians around the world, including rap artists Heavy D, LL Cool J, and Queen Latifah. The Red Hot Chili Peppers pay homage to them in one of their hit songs, and bands such as the Grateful Dead, KVHW, Steve Kimock Band, Widespread Panic, Rebirth Brass Band and String Cheese Incident often played their music.

Musically, the next decade took the band members in different directions. Art Neville and Cyril Neville pioneered the internationally successful Neville Brothers, while Zigaboo Modeliste drummed for Keith Richards and Ron Wood on the New Barbarians Tour. George Porter, Jr. founded his first band, Joy Ride, and in 1990 recorded his first solo CD Runnin' Pardners for Rounder Records. George worked in the studio and toured with David Byrne, recorded with Robbie Robertson, and played on Harry Connick Jr.'s first funk/soul CD "She". In addition, George performed on three back-to-back Platinum CD's with Tori Amos. He has also released four CD's with his own with Runnin' Pardners.

The Meters reformed after an informal jam during the 1989 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. They were so pleased with their sound that they decided to regroup, but with a few changes. Joseph (Zigaboo) Modeliste was replaced by David Russell Batiste, Jr. on drums, a young, energetic drummer with his own distinct sound. Russell has recorded with Allan Toussaint, Robbie Robertson, Harry Connick, Jr.; performed on the last two Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians' CD's and two unlicensed CD's of The Funky Meters featuring the JB Horns, recorded live in Switzerland (without Art Neville); and played on two CD's with Porter's band Runnin' Pardners.

Also, with the departure of Leo Nocentelli in 1994, the Funky METERS welcomed old friend Brian Stoltz into the fold as guitarist. Stoltz, for close to a decade, was the guitarist for The Neville Brothers during the 80's. The 90's brought Brian to play and record with artists Bob Dylan, Edie Brickell, Dr. John and Linda Ronstadt, to name a few. Stoltz says "To be home playing with old friends and playing the music I always thought was the best thing to ever come out of New Orleans is for me the most exciting experience of all".

After the change in personnel came the change in name. In 1994, they were officially christened The Funky Meters. This lineup carried the funk torch until the spring of 2007 when Stoltz departed to pursue his solo career.

March 2007 saw Art's son, Ian Neville take over guitar duties. Growing up in the Neville house of music, touring for three straight years with his uncles, The Neville Brothers, as well as his cousin and their new band, Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, Ian was poised to step in to help bring the band into the future.

To further the fresh air blowing through the funky METERS musical landscape, 2007 has seen the band incorporate special guests such as Skerik (Critters Buggin', Les Claypool, Roger Waters) on horns and Derek Trucks (Allman Brothers) on lead guitar.

AND THE FUNK IS STILL GOING STRONG TODAY AS IT WAS YESTERDAY,
ONWARD AND UPWARD ! - November 2007

see also, related topics: view the Meters discography

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If you're lucky enough to be born in New Orleans, you've automatically inherited a lush tapestry of traditions, of which the richest, most varicolored and enduring motif is music. Arthur Neville came into that inheritance in 1937, but in his case the real luck fell to New Orleans, where he has spent most of a lifetime enhancing and expanding that tapestry. It's open to debate exactly where Art learned to weave such glorious new colors into such an already-vibrant fabric of sound - parents who supported and encouraged his musical quest? A childhood curiosity about music in general, and the keyboard in particular? Simply the intense and heady musical environment of the city itself?

What can't be argued that even as a kid he had already begun to shape the sumptuous patterns that the world now recognizes instantly as the Nevilles Sound. As a teenager, no amount of music - even in New Orleans - was too much for Art. He worked for a time in a record shop, where he absorbed the great doo-wop groups of the day: Clyde McPhatter's Drifters, The Orioles, The Clovers, as well as local piano rockers Professor Longhair and Fats Domino. In time he formed his own doo-wop group, and after school, after work, they would sit on a park bench in the crazy half-moon city and sing to the night.

In 1953, Art joined the Hawkettes, who recorded the classic "Mardi Gras Mambo" in 1954. That song turned out to be more influential to other musicians - and to the City of New Orleans - than even Art could have imagined. Listen to the music of his reflections on that historic (and now, very traditional) piece of pop culture:

"I became involved with the Hawkettes, I don't even remember the exact year but it must have been in '53. A friend of mine, one of the members of the Hawkettes at the time, George Davis. He was taking saxophone lessons from Alcee Wallace, one of my friends that we had the doo-wop group with. Mr. Wallace, Alcee's father, was teaching George Davis saxophone and so he told him about me and he needed a piano player." "And so he came to my home and asked me would I be interested in playing with the Hawkettes. I didn't know who they were at that point and I said "sure," and my mother and father said 'Yeah, go ahead.' And the rest is really history. We went on, and we were the hottest band in New Orleans and the surrounding area we played for every function like sororities, fraternities, and different other functions around New Orleans: Night clubs, little small clubs, large clubs."

"We recorded this song, 'Mardi Gras Mambo,' I don't even remember the year, I think 1953 or 1954, something like that, and lo and behold! 'Mardi Gras Mambo' is still here today."

Most of the Hawkettes went off to college and other pursuits after the recording was made, but Art kept the Hawkettes together, finding musicians where he could. And did. The Hawkettes got such a wide reputation that by 1957 they found themselves touring with Larry Williams, whose "Short Fat Fannie" and "Bony Maronie" had also gone into the pop canon, and remain there. Art came home from this tour (which included the Spaniels), to be drafted into the Navy Reserve's active duty for two years. "N.A.S., Oceana, Virginia Beach. Aviation," he remembers. "It was a good experience." In a recent discussion, Art remarked, "I was in the Navy Reserve - and I wasn't making the meetings that I should have been making - I was playing Rock 'n Roll.. So they drafted me on Active Duty and that must have been '59 or '60."

Brother Aaron hung in there with the Hawkettes, and when Art returned he rejoined his old friends. "Meanwhile, we started changing players, and we ended up with the guys who wound up being the Meters: Zigaboo, Leo, George," he says.

At the same time, Allen Toussaint and Joe Banashak approached Art with a song that's long since been a New Orleans staple: "All These Things." Art jumped at the chance to record it. "I can see it now," he says fondly.

By 1966, he was touring with brother Aaron in support of the hit single, "Tell It Like It Is." Another classic. Soon after the tour, Art took the first shot at a Neville Brothers grouping with "Art Neville and the Neville Sounds." The band consisted of Leo Nocentelli on guitar, George Porter on bass, Art on piano and organ, Zig Modeliste on drums, brothers Cyril and Aaron Neville and, on saxophone, Gary Brown. It was strictly a labor of love, and the band wasn't making money. But they were getting tighter, more streamlined musically, the sound was getting around. Eventually Art was offered a chance to play the Ivanhoe bar in New Orleans' French Quarter - a coveted gig among local musicians, except that the venue could only accomodate four musicians onstage. Cyril, Aaron and Gary Brown bowed out and went on to pursue their own musical paths, but what remained was a white-hot quartet with a solid rhythmic vision. There at the Ivanhoe, the Meters were born. The band developed a funk-infected R&B sound characterized by subtle shadings and the loose interplay among guitar, bass and Art's Professor Longhair-inspired keyboard figures. Producer/writer Allen Toussaint took one listen and wanted the Meters for session work.

With Toussaint at the boards, the band released The Meters (1969), featuring the signature instrumentals "Cissy Strut" and "Sophisticated Cissy." By 1972, big fish were circling and the Meters recorded their first of several albums for Warner Brothers. On the strength of this work, the Meters opened for the Rolling Stones' "Tour of the Americas" the following year. In 1976, the Neville brothers' revered uncle George Landry called the boys together to work on an album entitled "The Wild Tchoupitoulas," an aural documentary of sorts of the Mardi Gras Indians. Landry told Art then that the Neville's parents had always longed to see the four brothers work together, and in 1977 that dream became reality for everyone. With Art on keys, Charles blowing sax, Cyril slapping congas and Aaron, well, playing Aaron on vocals, the Neville Brothers groove at last wove itself indelibly into the tapestry. The Neville Brothers was released on Capitol, but so unique and unclassifiable was the sound that the corporate thinkers didn't quite get how to market it.

Not black or white, not strictly soul or R&B, not exactly pop but not rigidly rock either, the problem wasn't so much that the Neville Sound was neither here nor there as that it was here, there and everywhere imaginable. It was off the label's graph and therefore out of its grasp. Things got better. Radio, the national and then the international audience began to blossom with A&M's Fiyo on the Bayou and later Neville-ization. By the time of Uptown Art and the boys were sending their New Orleans sound around the world and back again, and they followed with more of the family groove in albums like the nearly flawless Yellow Moon. The basics stitched together by Art and his keys have created ripples of soulful patterns across every curve in the musical sphere, influencing artists as diverse as Santana, and the Rolling Stones. And Art weaves on. Maybe only the lucky get to be born in New Orleans. But Arthur Neville's vision has made it possible for the rest of us to share a little bit of the grand fortune he's given back to his city.

By Boo Browning
Research and Interview by Steven Chabaud

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"If I could not perform tomorrow, I know that I would still feel good about where I am today" -George Porter, Jr.

Unmatched and in a league of his own, his career has spanned nearly thirty years working with artists as diverse as Robbie Robertson and Earl King.

Further inspection at the roster of artist with whom he has performed is a virtual Who's who of the entertainment field. Beginning in the 60's, his career started with Eddie Bo and Irving bannister & His All-stars. His recording career also began at that time, recording hundreds of songs with Allen Toussaint,
Marshall Seahorn, Earl King, Lee Dorsey and Johnny Adams, Dr. John.

The seventies and eighties took George Porter, Jr. into the realms of Rock and Pop working with
Dr. John, Paul McCartney, Robert Palmer, Patti Labelle and Jimmy Buffett, amongst others.

The nineties might very well prove the most auspicious, as he gains further recognition due to his work with Robbie Robertson, David Byrne, Tori Amos, Gov't Mule and The Funky Meters and PBS | Porter Batiste Stoltz.

Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, George Porter, Jr. continues to live there; although his
career has kept him on the road a good deal of the time. When not touring he can be found in the
recording studio, performing in New Orleans, or sharing valued time with his wife Ara, and family.

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His father, David Batiste, was leader of a family band, David Batiste and the Gladiators, credited by many with being one of the most pioneering funk bands. The Batiste family is one of New Orleans' most prolific musical families, with the Batiste Brothers Band and David Batiste and the Gladiators now playing regularly. Batiste children and grandchildren can be found playing with scores of other bands as well as leading their own projects.

Russell began playing drums at age four and began sitting in with the family band at age seven. He was playing saxophone in the school band by fifth grade and can now hold his own on keyboards, trumpet, bass and guitar.

He attended St. Augustine High School and was a member of the nationally known Marching One Hundred Band, playing in the drum section and writing cadences that are still heard during Mardi Gras parade season even today. He attended Southern University of New Orleans on a music scholarship, studying under the renown Edward "Kidd" Jordan. He left collage after two years when he began traveling with the Charmaine Neville Band. He continues his love of marching bands by acting as assistant director of Redeemer-Seaton High School when his schedule permits.

Russell left the Charmaine Neville Band in 1989 to join with Art Neville and George Porter Jr. of the Meters and guitarist Brian Stoltz to form the Funky Meters. Russell was with George Porter and the Runnin' Pardners for many years and has played with a wide variety of performers including Harry Connick, Jr., Champion Jack Dupree, Robbie Robertson, Maceo Parker as well as local and regional bands too numerous to mention. Along with Vida Blue, Bonerama and his own band, Orkestra from da Hood, he continues to play with The Funky Meters and PBS | Porter Batiste Stoltz.