HAPPY 64TH BIRTHDAY, AARON NEVILLE!

[NightTrain]

"New Orleans is the true music. It’s been in my heart all my life, and nothing can turn me around from it because it’s freedom music."

--Aaron Neville

Aaron Neville was born in the Crescent City on January 24, 1941. Below is the bio of the Neville Brothers that I posted to my website (www.soulexpressradio.com):

With the music surrounding Aaron, Art, Charles and Cyril Neville in the streets, churches and schoolyards of their hometown, perhaps it was inevitable that they drifted toward music themselves. At home, their father sang around the house, while their mother and their Uncle George had a dance team when the boys were young.

Art Neville was the first to feel the tug. Having encountered a church organ when he was four, Art became the neighborhood terror as a kid in his never-ending search for a piano to play. By the time he reached his teens, Art was absorbing the ivory-tickling styles of such hometown luminaries as Professor Longhair and Fats Domino. In high school, Art joined the Hawketts, whose first single, "Mardi Gras Mambo," came out in 1954. It was such a strong local hit that, like Professor Longhair’s "Mardi Gras In New Orleans," the song is still reissued in the Crescent City every year, and eventually became a million-seller. At the time, it translated into steady work for the Hawketts, and ultimately won Art a solo deal with Specialty. His career was abruptly detoured, though, when Art was drafted into the Navy in 1958.

Meanwhile, his brothers had forayed into music themselves. Saxophone player Charles Neville put in his apprenticeship in the house band at the legendary Dew Drop Inn, and toured the south with bluesmen like Jimmy Reed and Little Walter. Meanwhile, Aaron grew out of his childhood cowboy fixation to develop his golden soul voice by singing doo-wop harmonies in school bathrooms. His influences included Sam Cooke (then singing gospel with the Soul Stirrers) and James "Pookie" Hudson of the Spaniels ("Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight"). True to his cowboy heroes, he also added the melismatic yodeling of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and the Sons of the Pioneers to his vocal style.

A high school teacher named Solomon Spencer plucked Aaron from the junior-high ranks to join the Avalons in 1955. He subsequently took over as lead singer of the Hawketts when Art went into the Navy in 1958. Aaron befriended Larry Williams ("Bony Moronie," "Short Fat Fannie"), and even appeared as Williams when Larry’s agent decided to pull in some extra money by booking two club gigs a night. Aaron also spent six months in jail for some unspecified offense before going into the studio to cut "Over You," his 1960 debut single for the Minit label. It reached #21 on the national R&B charts but was to be Aaron’s last chart single for more than six years.

Meanwhile, Art had reactivated the Hawketts and scored a strong local hit in 1962 with "All These Things," which became the lover’s ballad in New Orleans for the next several years. By this time, Charles Neville had moved to New York City, while baby brother Cyril entered the picture for the first time. He joined his brothers, who then gigged the black club circuit in New Orleans as an eight-piece band called the Neville Sounds.

Unfortunately, the group wasn’t together for long as an eight-piece ensemble was simply too big for the small clubs in which they played. Aaron and Cyril formed a new group called the Soul Machine, while Art took the rhythm section of the Neville Sounds, and signed on for a gig at a bar on Bourbon Street. The streamlined Neville Sounds caught the ear of record producer/A&R man Allen Toussaint, who signed the group and renamed them the Meters. Their wickedly syncopated second-line funk would produce a national hit with 1969’s "Cissy Strut," and would result in dozens of other fine recordings. The Meters also would do session work with Dr. John, Lee Dorsey, Paul McCartney and Robert Palmer, and were enormously popular with such fellow musicians as the Rolling Stones.

Meanwhile, back at the Soul Machine, Aaron and Cyril moved the group to Nashville for six months, and then went on to create a street-corner version of the Wild Tchoupitoulas in New York City featuring a saxophone, piano, conga drum, tambourines and washboard. (Cyril would ultimately join the Meters in 1975.)

By the middle 1960s, Aaron was back in New Orleans and itching for a record deal. He hooked up with writer/producer George Davis, who had co-written a song with bandleader Lee Diamond called "Tell It Like It Is." Aaron’s deep-soul reading of the ballad came out on the Parlo label in late 1966. By early 1967, it had peaked at #2 pop. On the R&B charts, it spent five weeks at #1. Aaron Neville had finally hit the big time—at least for the moment.

Charles Neville returned to Louisiana circa 1972, and promptly spent three years in prison for possession of marijuana. By the middle ‘70s, when Charles got out of the lock-up, he and his brothers began to rekindle their dream of re-forming a family act.
The four brothers got together and recorded their celebrated "Island" album as the Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indian Tribe. When some of the Meters balked at reverting to a backing-band role, Art and Cyril left the group in 1977--and the Neville Brothers were born. They went on to become one of the most popular live acts in the long, rich musical history of New Orleans.

In the fall of 1989, Aaron hit the national singles charts for the first time in 23 years, when his duet with Linda Ronstadt, "Don’t Know Much," hit #2 pop. It also spent five weeks at #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, which gives you an idea as to how far beneath Aaron’s ability the single really was. He also did well with subsequent hits like "All My Life" and a remake of the Main Ingredient’s "Everybody Plays The Fool."

[ixion]

1. Happy B-day, mr neville

One of those rare "musician's musician", or the "thinking man's musician".

cheers.

:bounce: :toast: :party: :smoke: :beer: :smoke: :party: :toast: :bounce:

[Bluzmann57]

2. Happy Birthday to Mr. Neville

and many many more.

[meganmonkey]

3. Ooooh, thanks for posting - I'm gonna have to listen to some Neville

Bros music now.

Time to get a little funky!
:smoke:

[JitterbugPerfume]

4. he has a truly

beautiful and soulful voice