When George Porter, Jr. looks out into the audience, things don't look much different than they did three decades ago. His crowds are generally in their 20s.
"It's funny," says the bassist for the seminal funk band the Meters. "We are probably playing to the same age group we played to 30 years ago. That is something that is very intriguing."Since 1966, Porter, along with Art Neville, has served the group that became to New Orleans what Booker T. and MGs were to Memphis: They defined a sound for generations to come.
The Meters originally grew out of Art Neville and the Neville Sounds, a group that included Porter, guitarist Leo Nocentelli and drummer Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste as well as Aaron, Art and Cyril Neville. The group dropped vocalists Cyril and Aaron Neville in 1968, and the newly christened Meters became the house band for Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn's Sansu label. They also played a regular gig at the Ivanhoe Bar in New Orleans.
In the late '60s, the Meters drafted the blueprint for New Orleans funk through slinky instrumentals propelled by the powerhouse rhythm section of Porter and Modeliste -- whose use of the high-hat cymbal changed modern drumming -- and complemented by Neville's understated keyboard melodies and Nocentelli's rhythmic and assertive guitar playing.
"Cissy Strut," "Sophisticated Cissy" and "Look-Ka Py Py" were the Meters' highest-charting instrumentals, but the influence of their early years turned many musicians inside out. To this day, musicians spanning a variety of styles often cite the Meters among their primary inspirations.
The Meters were also key in modernizing the Crescent City's sounds after the city's great r&b era subsided. Other than James Brown and Parliament/Funkadelic, it's doubtful there's a more sampled group in hip-hop.
"I think the early recordings pretty much depict what we brought individually to the table," Porter says. "All those tunes were written in the same room, at the same time, with all of our presence."
The early '70s coincided with a shift in the band's focus that put vocal tracks to their already muscular grooves, making them more accessible but no less potent. Cyril Neville re-emerged in 1975, lending vocals and percussion. "In the 1970s, when both Zig and Leo felt that we were losing the battle of competing with the other bands that were out there, that were at one time opening acts for some of our shows, who now had big record deals -- they wanted to compete in that musical market," Porter says. "They were starting to write songs at home and bringing them to the sessions."
During this era, the Meters began incorporating psychedelic rock influences into the second-line funk sounds. "Hey Pocky A-Way," "Fire on the Bayou" and "Talkin' 'Bout New Orleans" have become anthems in their home town, but the quartet was never limited to a certain style or sound.
Their greatness didn't go unnoticed during that era. The Meters backed Paul McCartney and opened for the Rolling Stones on two tours. The Meters' excellent live album "Uptown Rulers! The Meters Live on the Queen Mary" (Rhino) was recorded at a party thrown by Paul and Linda McCartney.
In 1977, the Meters broke up. And by way of a group and record called the Wild Tchoupitoulas -- which included the Meters with Aaron, Charles and Cyril Neville as well as the Nevilles' uncle George Landry -- the Neville Brothers were formed.
The Meters returned as a touring unit after informal jams in 1990, with Russell Batiste on drums.