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.
The Meters acted as the house band for Allen Toussaint's New Orleans soul classics of the 1960s and are responsible for bringing New Orleans second line grooves into popular music.
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 influential on many other bands, both their contemporaries and modern musicians working in the funk idiom.
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.
Art and Cyril Neville left the band in early 1977, but The Meters still appeared on Saturday Night Live on March 19, 1977, during the show's second season.
After the Nevilles' departure, David Batiste Sr. took over on keyboards while Willie West joined as the band's lead singer. Porter left the group later that year and by 1980 The Meters had officially broken up.
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."
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.
The Meters – Fire On The Bayou - Reprise Records 1975
Guitar – Leo Nocentelli
Keyboards – Arthur Neville*
Bass – George Porter, Jr.
Congas – Cyril Neville
Drums – Joseph Modeliste
Arranged By [Horns] – Wardell Quezergue
Engineer – Ken Laxton, Roberta Grace
Executive-Producer – Marshall E. Sehorn
Mixed By [Remixed By] – Ken Laxton, Marshall E. Sehorn
Producer – Allen Toussaint, The Meters
Written-By, Arranged By – The Meters
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