Neville Brothers

At B.B. King's Blues Club - NYC (10/04/02)

 


At 8:00pm, the New Orleans funk began with the Neville Brothers doing The Meters's "Fire (Fiyo) on the Bayou"........lots of churning funk organ (by Ivan Neville), fiery lead guitarisms, and tight drumming!! Ivan, Aaron, Cyril and Charles Neville all handled vocals for half of the songs in this show! More organ funk was the order on The Meters's "People Say"! The next Crescent City funk song featured a solid bass line with a guitar solo. Aaron provided his fluttery lead vocals on "Fever", featuring sax riffs by Charles and some good percussion by Cyril! The next song "Wildflower" (originally by New Birth) featured Aaron again on lead vocals with a reggae-style breakdown! The Carribean/calypso rhythm took over as the audience's earholes were dazzled by the sounds of "Iko Iko", mixed with the N'awlins lullaby "They All Ask'd For You" (too hilarious, as Ivan mentioned all of the exotic foods that N'awlins offer: crawfish, beignets, gumbo, creole soul food, po'boys, tomato paste) and some of that "Jambalaya"!!! For the next tune, Charles did a long sax solo against a backdrop of Latin rhythm & percussion, sounding like the War tune, "Beetles in the Bog"! Aaron did his famous cover of the Main Ingredient's "Everybody Plays the Fool". Charles did another song, this time in the vein of some mellow jazz. Cyril did the lead vocals on the funky Jimi Hendrix tune "Foxy Lady".....Cyril has a great voice!

The Neville Brothers did another ode to New Orleans......I don't know if it was "Wild Injuns" or not, but it was too irresistibly funky! It was a Mardi Gras funk feast as one of the members danced about onstage with a seriously decorated umbrella and an audience member strutted about with a purple and white feather mask with Mardi Gras beads! The encore featured some serious N'awlins funk called "Big Chief"........I wish I had one of those injun headdresses and some make-up!! Aaron got inspirational with the song "Amazing Grace". Cyril ended the show with everyone singing the Bob Marley tune, "One Love"!! The show ended at 10:15pm.



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