Family Groove: Remembering Charles Neville... And His Brothers from New Orleans
New Orleans’ Neville Brothers—Art, Aaron, Charles and Cyril—are famed for their fiery soul and funk, blues and ballads, Caribbean and Crescent City rhythms. Saxophonist Charles Neville recently passed away. He first learned to play music in the family’s uptown Valence Street neighborhood, and quickly took to the stage. By 15 Charles was with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and later Bobby Blue Bland, B.B. King and Big Maybelle, among others, touring the Jim Crow South. A drug habit landed the sax player in Louisiana’s infamous Angola Penitentiary from 1963 to 1966. It was a reforming and learning experience for him, playing bebop jazz with other inmates and integrating prison bands. In the seventies, Charles and his siblings formed the Wild Tchoupitoulas and then the Neville Brothers, bands that blended the homegrown sounds of New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians and street life with modern soul, funk, and jazz. We pay tribute to Charles by revisiting our interviews with him and his brothers over the years, as the Nevilles tell stories of family life and their adventures in and beyond the city where they learned their craft.
HOUR ONE
Open Bed: Fire on the Bayou The Neville Brothers
Fiyo on the Bayou, A&M
Hey Pocky Way The Neville Brothers
Fiyo on the Bayou, A&M
Cow Cow Blues Paul Gayten
The OKeh Rhythm & Blues Story 1949-1957, Sony
Cha-Doo-Doo The Hawkettes
New Orleans Party Classics, Rhino
Tell It Like It Is Aaron Neville
The Very Best of Aaron Neville, A&M
Instrumental: Drums On Fire Donald Harrison, Jr.
Big Chief Donald Harrison, Jr. presents the New Sounds of Mardi Gras, FOMP
Meet De Boys on the Battlefront Wild Tchoupitoulas
Wild Tchoupitoulas, Mango
Brother John Wild Tchoupitoulas
Wild Tchoupitoulas , Mango
Fiyo on the Bayou The Neville Brothers
Fiyo on the Bayou, A&M
Instrumental: Healing Chant The Neville Brothers
Yellow Moon, A&M
Voodoo The Neville Brothers
Yellow Moon , A&M
My Blood The Neville Brothers
Yellow Moon, A&M
Big Chief Cyril and Charles Neville, Allen Toussaint, with Paul Schaefer Orchestra
From the Big Apple to the Big Easy: The Concert for New Orleans DVD, Rhino
Amazing Grace The Neville Brothers
From the Big Apple to the Big Easy: The Concert for New Orleans DVD, Rhino
Closing Bed: Saxafunk The Neville Brothers
Family Groove , A&M
HOUR TWO
Open Bed: Valence Street The Neville Brothers
Valence Street, Columbia
Family Groove The Neville Brothers
Family Groove, A&M
Little Piece of Heaven The Neville Brothers
Valence Street, Columbia
SEGMENT: Charles Neville
Run Joe The Neville Brothers
Fiyo on the Bayou, A&M
Steer Me Right The Neville Brothers
Brother's Keeper, A&M
Instrumental: Pop Top Dan Kennedy feat. Charles Neville and Greg Loughman
Bloom Road, Mt. Pollux Music
SEGMENT: Charles Neville Part 2
SEGMENT: Charles Neville Part 3
Instrumental: Progressize The Nic Nacs
Unreleased recording,
SEGMENT: Charles Neville Part 4
Hey Pocky Way (Live at Angola) The Jazzmen
American Routes Recording at Angola Prison 2016,
A Change is Gonna Come Aaron Neville
The Very Best of Aaron Neville, A&M
I Bid You Good Night Aaron Neville
Warm Your Heart, A&M
Closing Bed: Ol' Man River Charles Neville
Safe in Buddha's Palm, CD Baby