Art Neville

Arthur (Art) Lanon Neville (December 17, 1937 – July 22, 2019) was an American singer, songwriter and keyboardist from New Orleans. Neville is a part of one of the notable musical families of New Orleans, the Neville Brothers.

Art Neville was a founding member of The Meters, whose musical style represents New Orleans funk. He also played with the spinoff group The Funky Meters. Neville played on recordings by many notable artists from New Orleans and elsewhere, including Labelle (on "Lady Marmalade"), Paul McCartney, Lee Dorsey, Robert Palmer, Dr. John and Professor Longhair.

Life and career

Neville grew up in New Orleans. He was the son of Amelia (Landry) and Arthur Neville Sr. He started on piano and performed with his brothers at an early age. He was influenced by the R&B styles of James Booker, Bill Doggett, Booker T. Jones, Lloyd Glenn and Professor Longhair. In high school he joined and later led The Hawketts. In 1954 the band recorded "Mardi Gras Mambo" with Neville on vocals. The song gained popularity and became a New Orleans carnival anthem. The band toured with Larry Williams. Neville performed regularly in New Orleans, joined the U.S. Navy in 1958, and returned to music in 1962. He released several singles as a lead artist in 1950s and 1960s.

In early 1960s Neville formed the Neville Sounds. The band included Aaron Neville, Cyril Neville, George Porter, Leo Nocentelli, and Ziggy Modeliste. Shortly after, Aaron and Cyril left the group to form their own band. The remaining four members continued playing at the Nitecap and the Ivanhoe nightclubs. The band backed many notable artists such as Lee Dorsey, Betty Harris and The Pointer Sisters. The band had a strong sense of groove and unlike traditional groups each instrument was free to lead and go anywhere musically. Over time the band's style came to represent New Orleans funk.

In the late 1960s the band changed its name to The Meters and released three instrumental albums. Early on, compositions were through live improvisation, however this changed in the early 1970s. The band gained notoriety in the rock music community including with musicians Paul McCartney, Robert Palmer and The Rolling Stones. The group released five more albums and disbanded in late 1970s due to financial, managerial and artistic factors. The band's musical style emphasized rhythm over melody and had a lasting impact on upcoming musical styles such as hip-hop as well as jam bands including Phish, Galactic and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In 1978 Neville and his brothers Cyril, Aaron and Charles formed The Neville Brothers. Previously, the brothers had worked on The Wild Tchoupitoulas album. The group's debut album, titled The Neville Brothers, was released in 1978. In 1981 music critic Stephen Holden wrote: the Neville Brothers' style of soul music combines "funk, doo-wop, reggae and salsa under the banner of New Orleans rhythm and blues". The group released several albums throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including Fiyo on the Bayou and Yellow Moon, and an album in 2004. During this period, Neville performed several shows with the original Meters bandmates including a 1989 reunion at the New Orleans Jazz Festival. Following that performance, Neville, Porter, Nocentelli and Russell Batiste formed The Funky Meters. The lineup changed in 1994 with Brian Stoltz replacing Nocentelli on guitar. Neville performed concurrently with both The Neville Brothers and The Funky Meters.

In a 1995 interview, Neville spoke about the joy of live improvisation. He said "The best part, to me, is when the [rhythm] just evolves into some other stuff." Neville received a Grammy in 1989 with The Neville Brothers for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. He received a Grammy in 1996 with various artists for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in "SRV Shuffle", a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan. He was nominated for a Grammy in 1999 in category Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 as a member of The Meters.

Neville retired from music in December 2018. He died in his home at Valence Street in New Orleans at the age of 81 on July 22, 2019, after years of declining health. He was survived by his wife of thirty three years, Lorraine, three children, a sister and his two brothers Aaron and Cyril. The Recording Academy and Louisiana governor John B. Edwards released statements in recognition of Neville's contributions to New Orleans music.

Personal life

Neville was married to wife Lorraine and had three children, Arthel, Ian, and Amelia. Arthel Neville, born from first wife Doris Neville, is a journalist, television personality and news anchor for Fox News. Ian Neville is a guitar player and a founding member of Dumpstaphunk, a New Orleans-based funk and jam band. He occasionally performed with The Funky Meters, Slightly Stoopid, and Dr. Klaw.

Biography

Extracted from “Art Neville, founding member of the Neville Brothers and the Meters, has retired” BY KEITH SPERA, Dec 19, 2018

The retirement of "Poppa Funk," the last of the Neville Brothers to call Valence Street home, marks the end of a remarkable career.
He was born on December 17, 1937, the same day as Booker. As a boy, he lived in the Calliope housing development and Uptown on Valence. He was drawn to the Orioles, the Drifters and other doo-wop groups, as well as the piano-driven music of Professor Longhair and Fats Domino.
He attended St. Augustine and Booker T. Washington high schools before earning his GED from Walter S. Cohen, where he’d hang out in the music room with fellow members of the Hawketts, the group he joined in 1953. He was barely 17 when, in 1954, he sang lead on the Hawketts’ remake of a country song called “Mardi Gras Mambo.” Local deejay Jack the Cat convinced the Hawketts to record "Mardi Gras Mambo" at his radio station. Little did they know that, more than 60 years later, the song would still be a Carnival staple.
Neville served six years in the Navy, including two on active duty. During three months at sea aboard the U.S.S. Independence, he worked as a cook. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he recorded a slew of rhythm & blues singles that are classics of the era, including "Cha Dooky Do" and "All These Things." By the mid-1960s, he anchored a band called Art Neville & the Neville Sounds. The Neville Sounds featured several younger musicians from the local scene, including bassist George Porter Jr., guitarist Leo Nocentelli, drummer Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste and saxophonist Gary Brown.cIn the 1970s, the Meters recorded songs destined to be New Orleans standards, including "Hey Pocky A-Way," "Fire on the Bayou," "People Say" and "Africa." Cyril Neville joined as a percussionist and vocalist before the Meters embarked on long tours of North America and Europe with the Rolling Stones. In March 1975, Paul McCartney, a fan, hired the band to perform at a party celebrating the release of his "Venus and Mars" album aboard the Queen Mary; the show was documented on a live album
For many years, the Neville Brothers closed the main stage of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on its final Sunday. Art, ever funky, ever cool, presided from behind his keyboards, flashing the Vulcan "live long and prosper" salute familiar to fellow Star Trek fans. He won a Grammy with the Neville Brothers and another for his contributions to a tribute to his pal Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Musical Origins

From “How political cowboys beget black Indians - Meditations on the Neville Brothers” By K. Curtis Lyle For the St. Louis American, Jul 14, 2005

There is no question that the Neville Brothers - who play the Roberts Orpheum on Thursday, July 21 - are the first family of music in New Orleans. How this came about is a story filled with strange influences that grew from cultural shape-shiftings of an especially American kind.
Just for the hell of it, let's begin with arguably the most famous and controversial man in Louisiana history, Huey P. Long. As a poor but ambitious young man, he walked the back roads of Louisiana selling Bibles and encyclopedias. He mingled with and made promises to the people that he would mostly fulfill when he later became governor. He became a hero to the people of one of the poorest states in the nation. As a thank you, thousands of poor Louisiana country folk named their young sons Huey. Two celebrated Louisiana Hueys who come to mind are Huey P. Smith, the leader of an R&B band called the Clowns, and Huey P. Newton, the legendary founder of the Black Panther Party.
What's this got to do with the Nevilles? This is really about influences and how to change anything into your thing. That's what the Neville Brothers are all about.
Aaron Neville had a cowboy fixation as a child. Add the melismatic yodeling of his cowboy heroes to his almost religiously sweet voice, and you've got the basis for his memorable versions of "Ave Maria," "Everybody Plays the Fool" and the George Davis/Lee Diamond classic that put him on the map in 1966, "Tell It Like It Is."
Then there's saxophone brother Charles Neville putting in his apprenticeship at the Legendary Dew-Drop Inn with Jimmy Reed and Little Walter. Oldest brother Art was the first to feel the tug of music, having encountered a church organ when he was four. By the time he was a teenager, he was absorbing the complex styles of every local "Big Chief," from Professor Longhair to Fats Domino. Art and his high school partners, the Hawketts, scored big with their first single, "Mardi Gras Mambo," which became a million seller. Cyril would eventually compose powerful consciousness-raising pieces, like "My Blood" and "Sister Rosa," the anthem honoring civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks.
All of these influences sit atop the underlying groundation - a rasta concept - of the Neville family. The heritage of African, American Indian, French, Spanish and Caribbean music and sensibility began with the Neville's mother, Amelia Landry. She and her brother George formed a dance team called Landry & Landry. After Amelia married Arthur Lanon Neville, George Landry and his brother-in-law joined the merchant marine, the two would bring home records from the foreign ports they visited, and tell the kids tall tales.
The boys couldn't help but pick up the sounds that were percolating in the street. As children, Art, Charles and Aaron would improvise on the classic street chant "Hey Pocky Way" while keeping time on cigar boxes. As they grew older, their uncle George would play an important role in opening the world of the black Mardi Gras Indians to them, thus creating a true basis for their mature art.
In 1966 someone gave George an old black and white Indian costume, which he wore for the 1967 Carnival season. He then took the suit apart and created a new costume from it, which he wore with the Black Eagle tribe the following year. In 1972 uncle George started the Wild Tchoupitoulas with men from his 13th Ward neighborhood. George Landry had become Big Chief Jolly - an uptown folk hero.
Big Chief Jolly brought Aaron and Cyril to his Indian practices and taught them to harmonize the chants. Art was working with a group called the Meters. He heard the Indian chants that uncle George was teaching Aaron and Cyril and thought they had commercial potential. Charles, then working in New York, was called home for the Wild Tchoupitoulas project. In 1976 producers Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn were engaged, a recording contract was signed and an enduring sound was born.
The Wild Tchoupitoulas recording brought the brothers together as a group. They then decided to form the Neville Brothers as a band, and in the summer of 1977 they started playing a series of shows at Tipitina's, a club right in their Uptown neighborhood. Word spread, and the place was packed every night. They hired a manager, who booked them to play the Bijou in Dallas for a one-month stretch. They got an apartment in Texas, and for the first time in twenty-three years they were united under the same roof.
Someone once defined a myth as a spiritual fact. Maybe now you can see Huey P. Long walking those back roads of rural Louisiana, selling his encyclopedias and Bibles, and watching his political promises changed, by the Neville Brothers, into musical history.

Obituaries

From “New Orleans legend Art Neville, founder of the Meters and Neville Brothers, dies at 81” by
BY KEITH SPERA, JUL 22, 2019 - 11:39 AM Nola.com

Art “Poppa Funk” Neville spent a half-century shaping the sound of New Orleans music. The keyboardist and singer was a founding member of the Meters and the Neville Brothers, and was the voice of the enduring Carnival season anthem “Mardi Gras Mambo.”
In the latest blow for a New Orleans music community that had already lost Dr. John and Dave Bartholomew this summer, Neville died Monday after years of declining health at his home on Valence St., New Orleans. He was 81.
"It was peaceful," said Kent Sorrell, Neville's longtime manager. "He passed away at home with his adoring wife Lorraine by his side. He toured the world how many times, but he always came home to Valence Street."
Two of Neville's children followed in his footsteps to become public figures. Arthel Neville, his daughter from his first marriage, is a prominent television newscaster. His son Ian is the guitarist in funk band Dumpstaphunk.

From “Art Neville, co-founder of The Meters, The Neville Brothers, dead at 81” 22 July 2019

NOLA.com reported that Art Neville is survived by his wife, Lorraine Neville; his three children, Arthel, Ian and Amelia Neville; brothers Aaron and Cyril Neville; and a sister, Athelgra Neville Gabriel. Funeral arrangements are underway.

Tribute

From Aaron Neville, posted on Facebook 22 July 2019:

My big brother Artie / AKA Poppa Funk was the patriarch of the Neville tribe, big chief, a legend from way way back, my first inspiration. I would try and copy his style, his high natural tenor that only he could do. He and Izzy Koo taught me how to do harmonies when we lived in the Calliope Projects. I was 13 years old when Art recorded Mardi Gras Mambo in 1954. He let me sing with his band the Hawkettes while I was still a wild one. When he went into the navy I took over, but was still joy riding in hot cars so I went to jail for six months and he took back over when he came home from duty. He went on the road with me as my Road Manager and keyboard player when “Tell It Like It Is” came out. When we got off the road he started Art Neville and the Neville Sounds which was Art, Cyril, Me, with Leo Nocentelli, George Porter, Zig Joseph Modelsti and Gary Brown. We played at a club called the Nite Cap for a couple of years then later on at The Ivan Ho club in the French Quarter. The club only called for 4 guys , so Art, George, Zig and Leo took that gig. Allen Toussaint got with them and that’s when the Meters were born. Me and Cyril got with Sam Henry and started the Soul Machine. Cyril later got to be one of Meters. In 1976, Uncle Jolly called us all to New Orleans to record his music; The Wild Tchoupatoulas Mardi Gras Indianans. In 1977 Charlie moved back home from New York City and that’s when the Neville Brothers band started. We traveled over land and sea bringing our music to the world. We played with people like the Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, Santana, Huey Lewis and the News, Tina Turner and many others. We went on the amnesty tour sponsored by the late great Bill Graham who opened doors for the Neville Brothers, our children and so many other folks. From the park bench in the Calliope to Valence St. in the 13th ward to parts unknown we brought our Music and inspiration to the world stage. We now can say that 88 keys were blessed by Poppa Funk. I know he’s in heaven with Mommee and Poppee, Big Chief, Cookie, Brother Charlie, Mac/Dr John, Allen Toussaint, and James Booker. So many great New Orleans musicians and singers are in the heavenly band now. I know they’re accepting him with open arms so he can take his rightful place as one of the greats. Artie Poppa Funk Neville you are loved dearly by every one who knew you. Love always your lil’ big brother AARON (we ask for privacy during this time of mourning).

Origins

From 'Buried history': unearthing the influence of Native Americans on rock'n'roll Jim Farber Wed 19 Jul 2017 05.00 EDT

An interesting segment of the film deals with the Neville Brothers, who are seen by most listeners simply as ambassadors of New Orleans, In fact, they boast a Choctaw heritage. Within the film, Cyril Neville stresses the importance of Mardi Gras to Indians. “Tourists think of it like Halloween,” Salas said. “But to these guys it’s the only time they’re allowed to dress like who they are and not get in trouble.”

References

• "Louisiana, Parish Marriages, 1837-1957," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VF4B-L96 : 11 March 2018), Arthur L Neville in entry for Arthur Lannon Neville and Carolyn Ann Boisdore, 19 Feb 1957; citing Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States, parish courthouses, Louisiana; FHL microfilm 4,412,539
• Florida Marriages, 1970 - 1999. Arthur Lannon Neville & Lorraine Patrice Ponce Marriage: Jan 1 1988 Monroe, Florida, USA Certificate: 138313 Volume: 6843 Husband: Arthur Lannon Neville Wife: Lorraine Patrice Ponce (Neville)
• “Fine Art” by David Lee Simmons. Apr 28, 2003

Art Neville (New Orleans, 17 december 1937 – Valence St. New Orleans, 22 juli 2019) was een Amerikaans soul-, funk- en gospelzanger en keyboardspeler. Neville is de oudste broer in de groep The Neville Brothers. Tevens is hij bekend van de bands The Hawketts en The Meters.

Neville begon zijn loopbaan als keyboardspeler en zanger (als vervanger van Li'l Millet) in 1955 bij The Hawketts en maakte met deze band de enige single die een wereldhit werd, Mardi Grass Mambo, ook al was dit een cover uit de countryscene. In de jaren daarna nam hij enkele solosingles op, waarvan het bekende Lights Out in 1958 verscheen. Rond 1965 was hij een van de medeoprichters van de band The Meters. Neville werd in 1966 tevens de manager en keyboardspeler van zijn broer Aaron Neville, die een grote hit behaalde met de single Tell Me Like It Is.

Nadat Aaron naar Florida verhuisd was, richtte Neville een nieuwe band op met de naam Art Neville and the Neville Sounds. Hij nodigde zijn andere broer, Cyril, uit mee te spelen, en korte tijd later kwam ook Aaron bij de band. Dit is eigenlijk de voorgeschiedenis van The Neville Brothers, die later, in 1977, opgericht zou worden. Neville beloofde zijn moeder namelijk aan haar sterfbed om “de jongens” bij elkaar te houden. Via hun oom, George Landry, begonnen ze met de wereldbekende band, die aanvankelijk alleen uit de broers Art, Charles, Aaron en Cyril bestond, maar waar later ook Aarons zoon Ivan zich bijvoegde.

Neville was geregeld een sessiemuzikant van onder anderen Labelle (op "Lady Marmalade"), Paul McCartney, Lee Dorsey, Dr. John en Professor Longhair.

In de jaren negentig waren er geruchten dat Neville longontsteking had en ernstig ziek was, maar dit werd nooit bevestigd. Later reisde Neville rond met The Funky Meters, een band bestaande uit oud-leden van The Meters en zijn zoon Ian op gitaar.

Neville bespeelde een Hammond B3. Hij overleed in 2019 op 81-jarige leeftijd in zijn huis in Valence Street in New Orleans.

Art Neville, född 17 december 1937 i New Orleans, Louisiana, död i sitt hem på Valence Street i New Orleans 22 juli 2019, var en amerikansk sångare, låtskrivare och keyboardist.

Art Neville började ge ut musik som soloartist under 1950-talet och utgav ett flertal singlar in på 1960-talet. Han var en av originalmedlemmarna i funkgruppen The Meters under åren 1965-1977, och blev sedan medlem i familjegruppen The Neville Brothers. Från 1989 och till och med 2018 spelade han åter tillsammans med The Meters, men nu under namnet The Funky Meters.