Feel the rhythm of New Orleans

By Dan Hilborn
Published Aug. 10, 2005


When the sun begins to set over Deer Lake Park on Saturday night, the stage lights will turn up bright and a musical phenomenon more than 50 years in the making will take to the big canvas-covered stage on the pristine lakeside.

The music will be smooth and polished when the Neville Brothers put the finishing touch on a hot August evening in the park.

Aaron, Art, Charles and Cyril Neville are four brothers who rose from the drug-infested slums of New Orleans to shine among the brightest lights in the American music scene.

And in a telephone interview from his home in the Big Easy last week, Aaron Neville, the muscular man with the angelic voice, agreed that he and his brothers are still a long ways from wrapping up their lives' work in music.

During a five-year hiatus from the recording studio, the brothers opened their own Neville Neville Land studio in 2003, where they recorded the self-produced CD, last fall's Walkin' In The Shadow of Life, a disc inspired by elder brother Art's brush with death and the band's desire to bring musical inspiration to a new generation of fans.

"Our songs talk about real life, but they're geared to younger people," Aaron said. "We've been there and done that, and we'd like to be able to help young people not go through some of the stuff we went through. It's like a message. Music to think to and to dance to at the same time."

Much of Aaron's inspiration comes from the gospel music he learned both in Catholic school and on his grandmother's lap as a child.

In fact, music was an integral part of family life when the four Neville brothers were growing up, Aaron said, and the entire family would sit around listening to gospel artists such the Blind Boys of Alabama, Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cook and other inspirational singers.

"That's the stuff I wanted to do. It was pure innocent music you could sing with your grandmother and grandfather, and nobody was offended," Aaron said. "But back in those days, it wasn't like it is today. Nobody was killing one another. We had morals back then, but there's no morals today.

"Our parents taught us the Golden Rule. It's nice to be nice and it doesn't cost a cent. That's what went into me and Art and Cyril and Charles. We even went to a school that taught the Golden Rule and to respect people, so we got it from every turn.

"Mom used to tell us stories too. She put a lot into us that's still there today, you know. As a matter of fact, I had a dream about my momma last night. It was real ... you know?"

Aaron said that solid grounding has lasted a lifetime.

"I used to hear the song Ave Maria in church, but I never knew the words. But the song would do something to my heart and, later on in life, during the dark times, that was my only salvation. I would sing that song and it would help to soothe me.

"Nowadays I get letters from people telling me how my own music helped them in the same kind of way. I tell them that music does the same thing with me. It's not me - it's the god inside of me touching the god inside of you. We're all connected."

While their newest music has elements of rap and hip hop in it, both of which may not necessarily appeal to their longtime fans, Aaron said it carries a positive message and reflects reality.

"Why do you hear so much rough stuff from the rappers? Because that's their way of telling it like it is," he said, paraphrasing the title of his 1960s chart-topping hit. "They're talking about what they've seen and what's going on around them."

Aaron also believes that he has a lot more music to come. "I want to record until I can't do it no more," he said. "There's no use retiring, unless my health goes, but thank the Lord I'm healthy."

The Neville Brothers will be coming to Burnaby with the same lineup that graced the stage of their hometown New Orleans Jazz and Blues Festival earlier this year - Aaron, Art, Charles and Cyril, third-generation Nevilles Ian and Ivan, plus Mean Willie Green on drums, Nick Daniels on bass and Makuni Fukuda on lead guitar.

"We've been playing all year, so everything is seasoned," Aaron said. "It's like a pot of beans that's been cooking all day. We're looking forward to coming up there and doing it."