The Meters
Why they matter
The Meters are the clearest demonstration that groove can be contrapuntal. Art Neville, Leo Nocentelli, George Porter Jr., and Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste rarely sound like four players agreeing on the same accent pattern. They sound like four independent rhythmic propositions whose gaps interlock. The pocket is not located in the drummer, the bass line, or “the one”; it is the composite.
That makes them a particularly useful bridge from jazz ensemble thinking. Treat each repeated part as a voice in an arrangement, not as accompaniment beneath a lead.
Historical context and personnel
Art Neville recruited guitarist Leo Nocentelli, bassist George Porter Jr., and drummer Zigaboo Modeliste into the group that became The Meters in 1967. After work on Allen Toussaint’s Lee Dorsey sessions, they recorded instrumental singles including “Sophisticated Cissy,” “Cissy Strut,” “Ease Back,” and “Look-Ka Py Py.” They also became a crucial studio rhythm section for Toussaint, Dr. John, Lee Dorsey, Earl King, Labelle, and others.
- Art Neville: organ/keyboards and vocals; harmonic punctuation, sustained color, and melodic riff.
- Leo Nocentelli: guitar; clipped syncopations, muted attacks, countermelodies, and selective chord fragments.
- George Porter Jr.: bass; thick tone, anticipations, melodic cells, and deliberate avoidance of already-occupied accents.
- Zigaboo Modeliste: drums; broken-linear funk, second-line inheritance, ghosted detail, and asymmetrical placement around the backbeat.
- Cyril Neville: later percussion/vocals, expanding the band’s vocal and polyrhythmic range.
Musical language
Composite rhythm
- Modeliste’s kick and snare do not merely mark a grid; they create questions that Porter answers, avoids, or anticipates.
- Porter has described learning to stay away from Modeliste’s snare. Bass and drums therefore orbit one another instead of doubling.
- Nocentelli often supplies the subdivision everyone assumes the hi-hat or keyboard should provide.
- Neville’s organ can be astonishingly sparse: one stab or sustained sonority makes the surrounding rhythmic detail readable.
Harmony
- Dominant, modal, and blues-derived fields keep harmonic rhythm slow.
- Guitar double-stops, organ color tones, and bass passing notes imply extensions and motion without frequent chord changes.
- A turnaround can be a unison riff or registral shift rather than a conventional cadence.
Form and improvisation
Many instrumentals are sequences of two- or four-bar groove cells with contrasting bridges, breaks, or melodic heads. Variation is cumulative and microscopic: one altered kick, bass anticipation, guitar mute, or organ entrance can change the whole ensemble perspective.
Sound and production
Dry drums, forward bass, clipped guitar, and restrained organ preserve transient detail. The mix teaches the arrangement: each attack has its own space and frequency role.
Essential listening
“Cissy Strut” (1969)
- Listen for: how the bass, drums, and guitar avoid exact unison while still making the head inevitable.
- Why it matters: the canonical composite-groove lesson.
“Look-Ka Py Py”
- Listen for: tiny variations inside repeated cells and the balance between laid-back surface and forward motion.
- Why it matters: the Meters’ time feel is more important than any single transcription.
“Tippi-Toes”
- Listen for: negative space and articulation; note how little harmonic information is required.
- Why it matters: an etude in restraint.
“Just Kissed My Baby”
- Listen for: vocal-era density, wah guitar, and a groove large enough to support a longer form.
- Why it matters: early instrumental language expanded without losing its cellular identity.
“People Say”
- Listen for: social lyric, backing response, and rhythm arrangement behaving like a conversation.
- Why it matters: the band’s songcraft deserves equal weight with the instrumentals.
“Hey Pocky A-Way”
- Listen for: Mardi Gras Indian-derived chant and percussion entering electric funk.
- Why it matters: local repertory, cultural context, and band identity converge.
“Fire on the Bayou”
- Listen for: expanded percussion and ensemble density while the pocket stays granular.
- Why it matters: the mature New Orleans funk statement.
Connections
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Personnel and production — Direct: Allen Toussaint ↔ The Meters — house-band work and Toussaint’s part-based production method sharpened the band’s economy.
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Personnel — Direct: Dr. John — the band backed him on In the Right Place.
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Historical lineage — Strong lineage: Rebirth Brass Band — cellular funk and New Orleans rhythmic independence translated to brass-band instrumentation.
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Historical lineage — Strong lineage: The California Honeydrops — composite groove, negative space, and social performance travel into Bay Area roots-soul through Toussaint/Rebirth and the broader network.
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Sonic connection — Musical connection: The Bros. Landreth — pocket depends on complementary restraint, though Landreth’s harmony and guitar language lean toward Little Feat and country-soul.
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Sonic connection — Musical connection: Tower of Power ↔ The Meters — both make groove from independent interlocking voices; Tower fills a designed sixteenth-note matrix with clipped horn/rhythm attacks, while the Meters make negative space and microscopic variation structural.
What to explore next
- Transcribe “Cissy Strut” as four separate one-line parts, then stack them only after each makes sense alone.
- Compare Zigaboo Modeliste with Jabo Starks and Clyde Stubblefield: New Orleans orbital independence versus James Brown’s interlocking discipline.
- Follow the sampling afterlife, but distinguish reuse of a break from inheritance of the ensemble’s live timing.