The Meters — New Orleans Funk Birthplace

The Meters — Art Neville, Leo Nocentelli, George Porter Jr., and Joseph Modeliste — formed in New Orleans in the mid-1960s as the house band for producer Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn's Sansu Enterprises label, and created a stripped-down, syncopated funk that has been sampled more times than almost any other American band. Their recordings for Josie Records from 1969 onwards — 'Cissy Strut,' 'Look-Ka Py Py,' 'Chicken Strut,' 'Hey Pocky A-Way' — defined New Orleans funk and became the rhythmic foundation for hip-hop a decade later. Dr. Dre, the Beastie Boys, and hundreds of other producers have built tracks on Meters samples.

The band existed in the specific New Orleans tradition of the groove as communal property — their music was danceable above all else, and the interplay between Modeliste's drumming, Porter's bass, Nocentelli's guitar, and Art Neville's organ created a rhythmic conversation unlike anything produced elsewhere. The Rolling Stones brought them on tour as an opening act in 1975; the subsequent exposure introduced them to a white rock audience that might not otherwise have found them.

The Meters' New Orleans geography is diffuse — they rehearsed, recorded, and performed across the city rather than at a single landmark location. Tipitina's on Napoleon Avenue is the venue most associated with the tradition they represented. Art Neville was a founding member of the Neville Brothers alongside his siblings Charles, Aaron, and Cyril, and the family's connection to the Treme and Uptown neighbourhoods of New Orleans is the most specific geography of the Meters' world.