When Cyril Neville performs in Salt Lake City this weekend, he’s bringing a lot of history along with him. Consider that he played with The Meters and opened for The Rolling Stones for a three-and-a-half month stretch (an experience he calls life-changing). Consider, too, that he was attached to The Neville Brothers with his siblings for three-and-a-half decades. He and his brothers released Wild Tchoupitoulas in 1976, which was added to The Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry, a stamp of approval recognizing it as culturally, historically, and/or aesthetically significant. This year marks its 50th anniversary.
When I spoke with him on the phone from Louisiana, Neville remembers a time when greats like James Carroll Booker III, Leo Morris (aka Idris Muhammad), and Kidd Jordan would rehearse in the living room of his Valence Street house in New Orleans on a near-daily basis. That affected him, too—and it was profound. There was no doubt in his mind about what he wanted to do early on, he says, as early as 10 years old. Music—especially percussion—would be his medium, his way of communicating with the world.
“We all have preordained gifts to share with the world. I feel like I’m living my purpose,” he told me. On tour with King Youngblood and his son Omari Neville & The Fuel for more than a dozen dates this time around, he says he’ll be bringing Mardi Gras along with them, all the elements of the root culture in New Orleans. There’s a good reason for that: it’s a celebration of life…