keyboard skills ensuring The Meters and then The Neville Brothers took the funk and soul sounds of New
Orleans to the world.
The eldest son of Arthur Neville Sr and Amelia (Landry), Art grew up in the working-class Calliope
projects. Music was in church, bars and on the street and Art taught himself piano with his schoolmate
James Booker giving advice.
As a teenager he joined The Hawketts and began playing local bars and dances. The band were invited by
radio DJ Ken Elliot, aka Jack the Cat, to record “Mardi Gras Mambo”, a song celebrating the annual New
Orleans celebration, in January 1954. Sixteen-year old Neville handled lead vocals and, when released by
Chess Records, the song became an R&B hit and remains one of the great New Orleans anthems, played
and performed across the decades – although Neville later observed The Hawketts never received any
payment for recording it.
Success saw The Hawketts gain work across the US but they soon splintered and Neville signed a solo deal
with Specialty Records. Drafted into the navy, he served between 1958 and 1962, still performing and
recording in New Orleans when on shore leave.
Neville’s younger brothers Aaron, Charles and Cyril all became professional musicians – when Aaron
scored solo hits in the 1960s with “Over You” and “Tell It Like It Is”, Art would join him on the road as
keyboardist and band leader.
Art (centre) with brothers Cyril (left)
and Charles accepting the NAACP
Chairman’s Award at LA’s Shrine
Auditorium in February 2006 (Getty)In 1965 Neville formed The Meters with three exceptionally talented young musicians. They performed a
loose-limbed dance music that would soon be known as funk, and were hired by producer/songwriter Allen
Toussaint to be the house band in his studio as he created hits for local singers, including Lee Dorsey and
Irma Thomas.
So strong were The Meters’ performances on these records they began scoring instrumental R&B hits in
- The Meters are heard on hundreds of New Orleans soul and funk records, including Dr John’s 1973
hit “Right Place, Wrong Time” and Labelle’s 1974 US No 1 “Lady Marmalade”.
The Meters won the respect of many British rock musicians: Robert Palmer employed them as his backing
band, Paul McCartney hired them to play for the launch party of his Venus and Mars album and The Rolling
Stones took them around the world as support for their 1976 tour. Also that year The Meters and Art’s
brothers gathered to work on an album for New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian tribe The Wild Tchoupitoulas.