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Biography

The Meters are an American funk band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Meters performed and recorded their own music from the late 1960s until 1977. The band played an influential role as backing musicians for other artists, including Lee Dorsey, Robert Palmer, and Dr John.

While The Meters rarely enjoyed significant mainstream success, they are considered, along with artists like James Brown, one of the progenitors of funk music and their work is highly influential on many other bands, both their contemporaries and modern musicians working in the funk idiom.

The Meters' sound is defined by an earthy combination of tight melodic grooves and highly syncopated New Orleans "second-line" rhythms under highly charged guitar and keyboard riffing. Their songs "Cissy Strut" and "Look-Ka Py Py" are considered funk classics. In October 2012, The Meters were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

History

The 1960s and 1970s

Art Neville, the group's frontman, launched a solo career around the New Orleans area in the mid-1950s while still in high school. The Meters formed in 1965 with a line-up of keyboardist and vocalist Art Neville, guitarist Leo Nocentelli, bassist George Porter Jr. and drummer Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste. They were later joined by percussionist/vocalist Cyril Neville. The Meters became the house band for Allen Toussaint and his record label, Sansu Enterprises.

In 1969 the Meters released "Sophisticated Cissy" and "Cissy Strut", both major R&B chart hits. "Look-Ka Py Py" and "Chicken Strut" were their hits the following year. After a label shift in 1972, the Meters had difficulty returning to the charts, but they worked with Dr. John, Paul McCartney, King Biscuit Boy, Labelle, Robert Palmer and others.

In 1975 Paul McCartney invited the Meters to play at the release party for his Venus and Mars album aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California; Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones was in attendance at the event and was greatly taken with the Meters and their sound. The Rolling Stones invited the band to open for them on their Tour of the Americas '75 and Tour of Europe '76. That same year, the Meters recorded one of their most successful albums, Fire On The Bayou. From 1976 to '77 they played in The Wild Tchoupitoulas with George & Amos Landry and the Neville Brothers.

They appeared on Saturday Night Live on March 19, 1977, during the show's second season. The band broke up later that year.

After the break-up, Neville gained fame as part of The Neville Brothers, Modeliste toured with Keith Richards and Ron Wood, while Nocentelli and Porter "became in-demand session players and formed new bands."

1980s and 1990s

In 1989 Art Neville, George Porter Jr. and Leo Nocentelli reunited as The Meters, adding drummer Russel Batiste Jr. to replace Zigaboo Modeliste. When Nocentelli left the group in 1994 they replaced him with guitarist Brian Stoltz, formerly of The Neville Brothers and renamed themselves The Funky Meters.

2000s

The Funky Meters coninued to play into the 2000s with Stoltz being replaced by Art Neville's son, Ian Neville, from 2007 to 2011 while he went to pursue a solo career. Stoltz returned to the band permanently in 2011.

In 2000, a "big offer" enticed all four original Meters to reunite for a one-night stand at the Warfield in San Francisco; by this time Modeliste wanted to make the reunion a permanent one, but the other members and their management teams objected. It wasn't until Quint Davis, producer and director of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, got them to "put aside their differences and hammer out the details" and headline the Festival in 2005. such as the 2011 Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in San Francisco, California.

In June 2011 The Original Meters along with Allan Touissant and Dr. John played the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The six men performed Dr. John's album "Desitively Bonnaroo" which was originally recorded with the Meters, to a sold out crowd. On May 5, 2012 The Meters returned to New Orleans for a performance at the Howlin' Wolf. Tickets went on sale and sold out in one and a half hours.

On October 31 and November 1, 2012, Zigaboo Modeliste, Leo Nocentelli, and George Porter Jr. played concerts with Phish keyboardist Page McConnell at the B.B. King Blues Club & Grill under the name The Metermen.

Currently The Funky Meters tour consistently performing songs by The Meters while The Meters perform sporatically. The lineup of Neville, Porter, Nocentelli and Modeliste typically bill themselves as The Original Meters to avoid confusion with The Funky Meters. When not performing with The Original Meters, guitarist Leo Nocentelli leads his own group, The Meters Experience which performs the music of The Meters.

Members

Current Members

Art Neville - keyboards, vocals (1965-1977, 1989-present)
George Porter Jr. - bass, vocals (1965-1977, 1989-present)
Leo Nocentelli - guitar, (1965-1977, 1989-1994, 2000-present) - currently only in The Original Meters
Zigaboo Modeliste - drums (1965-1977, 2000-present) - currently only in The Original Meters
Brian Stoltz - guitar (1994-2007, 2011-present) - currently only in The Funky Meters
Russell Batiste - drums (1989-present) - currently only in The Funky Meters

Former Members

Cyril Neville - percussion, vocals (1970-1977)
Ian Neville - guitar - 2007-2011 - only in The Funky Meters

Discography

The Meters (1969), Josie
Look-Ka Py Py (1970), Josie
Struttin' (1970), Josie
Cabbage Alley (1972), Reprise
Rejuvenation (1974), Reprise
Cissy Strut (1974), Island
Fire On The Bayou (1975), Reprise
The Best of The Meters (1975), Mardi Gras, Virgo
Trick Bag (1976), Reprise
New Directions (1977), Warner Bros.
Good Old Funky Music (1990), Rounder
Funky Miracle (1991), Charly
Uptown Rulers: The Meters live on the Queen Mary (1992), Rhino
Live At The Moonwalker (1993), Lakeside
Fundamentally Funky (1994), Charly
Funkify Your Life: The Meters Anthology (1995), Rhino
Kickback (2001), Sundazed
Fiyo at the Fillmore, Volume 1 (2003), Too Funky - as The Funky Meters
Zony Mash (2003), Sundazed

Influence

When hip hop and rap emerged it created a need for sampling. The Meters' music has been sampled by musicians around the world, including rap artists Heavy D, LL Cool J and Queen Latifah, Musiq, Big Daddy Kane, Run DMC, NWA, Ice Cube, Cypress Hill, EPMD, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, The Beastie Boys, Naughty by Nature, and Tweet. The Red Hot Chili Peppers covered the Meters' song "Africa" on their 1985 album Freaky Styley, and bands such as the Grateful Dead, KVHW, Steve Kimock Band, Widespread Panic, Rebirth Brass Band, Galactic, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jaco Pastorius and The String Cheese Incident perform songs by The Meters in their concert rotations.

The Meters' songs have also graced such movies as Two Can Play That Game, Jackie Brown, Drum Line, 8 Mile, Hancock, and Red.

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