BACK IN RHYTHM METERS BRING FUNK FROM BIG EASY TO L.A.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

`We're just regular dudes.''

Not even Art Neville can deliver the line without suppressing a chuckle. He's talking about the Meters, the supergroup he formed that put New Orleans funk on the map in the 1960s and '70s and became one of the greatest rhythm sections in pop music history.

The story of the Meters involves Schedule 1 narcotics, lawsuits, prison time, internecine warfare and paralyzing stubbornness -- and that was just on the way to the gigs. The backdrop was an American public and radio industry still reverberating with racism and completely oblivious to the brilliance under its collective noses.

While the Meters name has been bandied about by various members in assorted permutations over the decades, the original lineup -- founder/keyboardist Neville (also of the Neville Brothers), guitarist Leo Nocentelli, bassist George Porter Jr. and drummer Joseph ``Zigaboo'' Modeliste -- have reunited after almost 30 years and appear Wednesday at the Hollywood Bowl on a bill with the Neville Brothers (Art Neville plays in both groups) and the Bay Area's Brass Monkey Brass Band.

``It's the four of us, man,'' Neville said. ``When we played New York, there was a line around the corner. It's incredible there's so much love for the band. I don't know how to look at it because I don't see it as the people see it.''

The Meters' history dates back to 1967, when Neville recruited Nocentelli, Porter and Modeliste for a lengthy residency at a Bourbon Street club. After working with producer and studio owner Allen Toussaint on some Lee Dorsey songs, the quartet laid tracks of their own. Between 1967 and 1969, the Crescent City group recorded four consecutive hits: ``Sophisticated Cissy,'' ``Cissy Strut,'' ``Ease Back'' and ``Look-Ka Py Py,'' which all scored on the r&b charts.

``There's been a cohesiveness in terms of our sound from the beginning,'' Nocentelli said from his Burbank home. ``We knew it right away -- we didn't sound like anyone else. We could stay apart for decades (which they have) and get on stage and it would be right where we left off.''

From 1971 to 1978, the Meters -- sounding like a fusion of James Brown's J.B.'s, Booker T. & the MG's and New Orleans rumba-rock great Professor Longhair -- recorded five albums for Warner/Reprise, including the widely admired (and frequently sampled) ``Rejuvenation'' and ``Fire on the Bayou.'' During that period, Cyril Neville, Art's brother, joined as percussionist and vocalist, and the group helped create the acclaimed self-titled album by the Wild Tchoupitoulas, which was recorded with Neville's uncle, Big Chief Jolly, a celebrated member of the Mardi Gras Indians.

As the premier r&b rhythm section in New Orleans, the Meters were heard on albums by Dr. John, Robert Palmer, LaBelle, Dorsey, Toussaint, and a Mardi Gras single by Paul McCartney. The group also went on tour with the Rolling Stones. (I saw the Meters in a tiny club in Boulder, Colo., in '75 along with about a dozen other people -- and the musicians were clearly in severe need of a recovery culture that hadn't been invented yet.)

``When we started, we did it just because it was something good to do,'' Neville said. ``That's one of the main differences between New Orleans music and music from other places. People get into music in New Orleans out of the love of it, not for money, fame and fortune. A lot of the greatest New Orleans musicians never even left, and never quit their day jobs.''

That was before Hurricane Katrina struck the city last summer. Art Neville remained, but moved to a rental house he and his wife own down the street from his wind- and flood-damaged home.

``Things are still bad, and we're going to repair the damage, but New Orleans will never have the feel it had before,'' said Neville, 68, who has suffered debilitating back problems in the past five years.

Most of Nocentelli's immediate family -- including his 86-year-old mother -- relocated to Los Angeles following the disaster. He's been back several times and the scene still brings tears to his eyes.

``It's a tale of two cities,'' he said. ``On one side of town, it's devastation, with wind damage and people's roofs off their houses and stuff like that. Entire neighborhoods, whole communities, have been wiped off the map.

``People want to go back, but there's nothing to go back to, man,'' Nocentelli said. ``It's more than words can say -- we're talking maybe 40 or 50 years to come anywhere near the way it was. The only thing to do is bulldoze and flatten everything and start again -- then you might be able to get a facsimile of New Orleans.

``But the culture will never be the same.''

Fred Shuster, [phone]

fred.shuster(at)dailynews.com

THE METERS

Where: Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday (with the Neville Brothers).

Tickets: $5 to $120. [phone]; ticketmaster.com.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

The Meters -- photographed in San Francisco in November 2000 -- will play at a reunion performance, with the Neville Brothers, on Wednesday at the Hollywood Bowl.