The Brothers

"This is the autobiography of Art, Cyril, Charles and Aaron who are the four brothers who make up the Neville Brothers band. It was co-written with David Ritz. The Neville Brothers for many years were the standard bearer of New Orleans music. They were a classic story of a family up from the streets. They had some early success individually. Art Neville, the oldest brother, did a song called Mardi Gras Mambo back in the fifties that is still one of the songs that you hear every year at carnival time. It is one of the four or five songs that will be played at Mardi Gras forever. Aaron Neville is famous for his high fluttering voice and he had a hit in the early sixties called Tell It Like It Is . And then he fell on hard times, so the brothers came together in the late seventies and the early eighties and came to define New Orleans funk and rhythm and blues. They did a record called Yellow Moon , which is a beautiful evocative spooky record that really broke them on a national level. For over 15 years they have played at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. They didn’t do it for a couple of years after Katrina, which is why Fats Domino was booked for that spot. For many people, when they think of a band from New Orleans the Neville Brothers are the ones that spring to mind. You can pop into New Orleans just about any time and there will be great music going on in the clubs. I would say that on a nightly basis we have better music than any other city in the United States. Jazz Fest is when everything is essentially on steroids. There is so much more crammed into the clubs. There will be shows that start at 2 and 3 am and go until sun-up. And then at the horse racing track where the festival is held, you have got 12 stages going from 11 am to 7 pm. In recent years they have added popular acts not from New Orleans. So this year there was Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Eagles and Florence and the Machine. Mardi Gras is more of a spectacle and a street party, although there is, of course, music. It is more about the parade and being out on the streets. It is well worth checking out, but the Jazz Fest is definitely more about the music. It would start off on Frenchmen Street, which is a series of nightclubs just outside the French Quarter. There are probably half a dozen clubs which are free and you can wander in and hear people early in the evening and get a bite to eat and a drink. Then eventually I like to make it to Tipitina’s for the late show that goes on well past midnight. That is kind of the arc that I would take. So I would start with something mellow earlier on – maybe a jazz band and then move on to the funkier blues band."