Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Bonnaroo 2011 to feature reunited Meters backing Dr. John
The original Meters are slated to reunite for the first time in almost five years at the 10th anniversary Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee in June. The Meters will back Dr. John on a complete performance of his 1974 album “Desitively Bonnaroo,” from which the festival takes its name. The Meters were the studio band behind Dr. John on that original recording.
.The Meters – keyboardist Art Neville, guitarist Leo Nocentelli, bassist George Porter Jr. and drummer Zigaboo Modeliste – have reunited only intermittently since they laid down the foundation for New Orleans funk in the late 1960s and ‘70s. The most recent reunion ended in 2006 with Neville, for one, expressing doubt that they would ever reform again.
“I didn’t think it would happen after the last escapade,” Nocentelli said of this latest reunion. “But something that’s worthwhile, we should be able to not throw it aside. If it’s still alive and you still feel it, learn from what you did. I’m looking forward to some longevity.”
The original Meters disbanded in 1979 amid business and personal turmoil; variations appeared sporadically. In 1989, Neville, Porter and Nocentelli hired drummer Russell Batiste Jr. and resurrected the Meters name. After Nocentelli's departure in 1994, they continued as the Funky Meters with former Neville Brothers guitarist Brian Stoltz.
The original Meters put aside their differences to reunite for a single show – and large paycheck -- in San Francisco in 2000. In 2005, they came together again to perform at New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell. That show went well, and was followed by other concerts. A new generation of music fans already knew their riffs and rhythms via jam band tributes and scores of samples on rap records. The reunited band played for much larger audiences and fees than the Funky Meters.
But by 2007, the reunion had run out of steam. When one bandmember couldn’t make himself available for a proposed gig at that year’s Bonnaroo, the reunion appeared to have run its course.
However, the principals of Superfly, the New Orleans-founded firm that co-produces Bonnaroo, were determined to land the Meters this year. During their run in the mid-2000s, the reunited Meters performed at other Superfly-produced festivals. Thus, the musicians were well-acquainted with how the Superfly principals operate, and vice versa. Superfly approached the four Meters individually with a proposal for the 2011 Bonnaroo.
“I’m pleased with the way they’re handling it,” Nocentelli said of Superfly. “On a business level, we’re not a group any more. To be a group, you have to think alike. We’re four businessmen with different opinions. You put that in a group context, it doesn’t work. The group thing comes when we’re on stage playing music.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t be dealt with. You have to deal with us on an individual basis. That’s the only way you can have any success.”
The 10th annual Bonnaroo is June 9 - 12. Most of the tens of thousands attendees camp on the 700-acre site in Manchester, Tenn., 60 miles south of Nashville. The final Bonnaroo 2011 lineup will total over 125 bands and over 20 comedians performing on 13 stages over four days.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
NolaFunky Audio Lagniappe
Home of the Groove's Throw Me Some Second Line, Mister
Groovescape's The OG Vol. 1: James Booker
Groovescape's The OG Vol. 2: Professor Longhair
Groovescape's The OG Vol. 3: The Meters
NPR's Cedric Watson In Concert: GlobalFEST 2010
Home of the Groove's Under The Toussaint Covers
NPR's Irvin Mayfield Sextet: Live In Minneapolis
Burning Wood's Another Round Of Booker
NPR's Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Cajun Christmas
Burning Wood's ALLEN TOUSSAINT: Live At The Village Vanguard 
Burning Wood's John Scofield's Piety Street Band: LIVE IN THE NETHERLANDS 
Home of the Groove's Two More From Toussaint
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
50% Off Tix: Fat Tuesday Funk Jam feat. Henry Butler, Leo Nocentelli & George Porter, Jr.
Known throughout the music industry as the "funkiest, fast-fingered" guitarist there is, a musician who can control your mind, body and soul with his experience, superior talent, musical mastery and inimitable style, he is Leo Nocentelli. Leo is the lead guitarist, composer, innovator and the musical originator of the syncopated funk-style that won international acclaim for him and the band known as the "Pioneers of Funk", The Meters.
George Porter Jr.'s career has spanned nearly thirty years working with artists as diverse as Robbie Robertson and Earl King. 1965 began a collaboration that has lasted to this day with the Legendary Meters, considered by many, the best Rock-Fusion Band in the world.
Combining the percussive jazz piano playing of McCoy Tyner and the New Orleans style playing of Professor Longhair through his classically trained wizardry, Henry Butler continues to craft a sound uniquely his own. A rich amalgam of jazz, Caribbean, classical, pop, blues and R&B influences, his music is as excitingly eclectic as that of his New Orleans birthplace.
Adam Deitch is best known as the drummer of the John Scofield Band. He has played with the Average White Band and Lettuce. His drumming style is very funk oriented, and he plays some very unusual fills. In John Scofield's words, "He's got that jazz mentality and a 'take no prisoners' type of creativity - all combined with the groove of death."
Sunday, July 19, 2009
NolaFunk Lagniappe
Running the Meters 
The Meters, as stated above (and several times in this very space over the course of the history of Funky16Corners) were one of the greatest of classic era funk bands, laying down a few of what are undisputably (to any sane listener) the greatest grooves ever committed to vinyl.
New Orleans Survival Spirit
In this excerpt from the latest NYC Summer Scoops Live performance series, Terence Blanchard and Tammy Lynn talk about the unique spirit of community that persists in New Orleans.
No doubt about it: New Orleans to the bottom of their soul
The Iguanas hardly sound like the quintessential New Orleans band. There is a horn — Joe Cabral's saxophone — but the effect is more Mexican ranchera than Bourbon Street brass. They don't play funk, neither Dr. John-style piano funk, nor the Meters-type electric groove. The patois in New Orleans is spiced largely with French accents; when the Iguanas sing in a language other than English, it is Spanish. Only if you believe the line that New Orleans is the northern-most Caribbean city, does the Iguanas sound qualify as a New Orleans sound.
But the recent album “If You Should Ever Fall On Hard Times,” released in September, makes it plain how much New Orleans is a part of the band.
when kermit met louis
Kermit Ruffins was surprised to hear four Louis Armstrong tunes in a row on New York radio this past Monday morning, while in town to play at Lincoln Center. It didn't dawn on either of us that July 6th was the anniversary of Armstrong's death, in 1971, at 69. We realized it only later, standing in the bedroom of he house in Corona, Queens that Armstrong and his wife Lucille called home from 1943 on -- now lovingly preserved as the Armstrong House Museum.
"Didn't he....?" Ruffins asked.
"Yes, in this very room," said Deslyn Dyer, the museum's assistant director. "On this very day."
Just then, photographer James Delaria's Canon stopped working. A minute later, it abruptly clicked back into service.
I knew bringing Ruffins --a New Orleans trumpeter who has channeled much of Armstrong's approach to jazz as extroverted entertainment -- to this place would be a spiritual experience. But I didn't plan it that carefully.
I'd interviewed Ruffins a while back, and when I noticed he was going to be in New York, I mentioned the museum.
New Orleans bars feature great music seven days a week
A life in music: Wynton MarsalisOn inauguration day in Washington earlier this year, the Wynton Marsalis Quintet played a private party at the White House in honour of President Obama. The two men are the same age, but long before Obama came to prominence, Marsalis had been a national figure and so while he says "as a liberal and a Democrat I, of course, feel that things are better in America", he is experienced enough to know that change, particularly in the areas he cares about most, might not come as quickly as he would like.'If you lose the music you have lost everything. No amount of money would make up for losing something so important'
New Wave Brass Band adorns streets of İstanbul with New Orleans jazz
As one of the most important regions for the development of jazz, due to its unique history and culture as well as its distinctive character, rooted in the colonial period (originally as part of a French colony), New Orleans today offers a taste of its culture through the music of its homegrown New Wave Brass Band, which has been strolling the streets of the city since last weekend as part of this year's İstanbul Jazz Festival.
Five Questions with Aaron of the Honey Island Swamp Band
5. The band recently returned from a trip to the East Coast- how were you received by audiences up north?
The crowds on this first East Coast run were great. Sullivan Hall in New York, the 8 x10 in Baltimore, and the Federal Hill Jazz and Blues Festival, also in Baltimore, were all highlights. In a lot of these bigger markets, you’re almost expected to fall on your face the first time through. But everyone at those gigs, including us, was pleasantly surprised at the turnout. They all asked to have us back, and we’ll be up there again the last two weeks of August.
New Orleans Voices Podcast: Lumar LeBlanc Interview
Lumar LeBlanc is the snare drummer and founder of the Soul Rebels Brass Band. The Soul Rebels combine brass band music, reggae, r&b, and funk, into a style that's all their own.
Mo Beauty for Clap Your Hands Frontman Alec OnunsworthThe album was recorded in New Orleans and boasts of some Big Easy regulars. Ounsworth is backed by George Porter, Jr. on bass (The Meters), Robert Walter on keys (The Greyboy Allstars), Stanton Moore (Galactic) on drums and Matt Sutton on baritone and pedal-steel guitars. A few notables in the community including Mark Mullins, Craig Klein, Greg Hicks, Washboard Chaz, Shannon Powell, John Boutte, Al "Carnival Time" Johnson and Meschiya Lake also dropped in on the fun.
"...New Orleans informed the spirit of the record, as it should. It's not a 'New Orleans record,' though, because, besides "Holy, Holy, Holy Moses," most of the songs weren't written specifically for New Orleans," says Ounsworth. "...Any record can be influenced by its location aesthetically, and some are more than others. So it was with this record... it is New Orleans, after all."
Nathan Abshire's cajun blues
I started listening to cajun and zydeco music while I was in college at Case Western Reserve University. Nathan Abshire's "Pine Grove Blues" was a classic recording that I encountered back then. Abshire was an important figure in the revival of the accordion in post-World II cajun music. Here is a video of him at Fred's Lounge in Mamou, Louisiana. I don't understand French but one does not need to know the words to appreciate the soulfulness of his music.
Hart McNee, New Orleans flutist, saxophonist, dies at 66
Hart McNee, raspy-voiced bass flutist and baritone saxophonist who played with innumerable musical legends and made more than 40 appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, died Tuesday morning of liver cancer. He was 66.
Jonathan Freilich, who played with Mr. McNee in The Naked Orchestra and Los Vecinos, found him deft at improvisation, able to assert his personality within the music. "Hart was a master of that, " Freilich said. "He could be very playful, contemplative or tough."
In New Orleans, Mr. McNee recorded with his own band and played with the Storyville Stompers brass band, Mas Mamones, Moyuba, Coco Robicheaux and John Boutte.
NPR: Mapping your life by sound
Independent producers Jacob Brancasi and Heather Booth are mapping the city by sound for Open Sound New Orleans, an interactive audio project. Brancasi and Booth have asked New Orleanians to record what they hear in their neighborhoods, and then upload the audio to OpenSoundNewOrleans.com.
The contributed recordings, called "soundmarks," are linked to a map of the city, so others can explore the sounds of people, music and everyday life found around New Orleans.