Cyril Neville & the Uptown Allstars with the Wild Tchoupitoulas
Waterfront Blues Festival 
Portland, OR. 
July 3, 2004

Broadcast by KBOO FM radio. No set list.


Percussionist Cyril Neville and his Uptown Allstars celebrate 20 years of New Orleans’ funk and R&B with help from the legendary Mardi Gras Indians, the Wild Tchoupitoulas.

Cyril Neville got his professional start in music in 1967 when he joined brothers Art and Aaron in the group Art Neville and the Neville Sounds. But when the group was offered a long-term job at a Bourbon Street club, the stage was so small Art had to let Cyril and Aaron go. Cyril and Aaron set out on their own, forming Soul Machine. When that group was ready to record, brother Art’s new instrumental funk group, The Meters, was the backing band.

After brief moves to Nashville and New York, Cyril returned to New Orleans and with brother Charles began to work on Mardi Gras Indian songs they’d learned from their uncle, Big Chief Jolly. When Art’s band, The Meters, was asked to open for the Rolling Stones’ 1974 U.S. tour, Cyril joined the group as percussionist. He was a full-fledged member when the group released the classic, “Fire on the Bayou.” When the Meters broke up a year later, the Nevilles teamed up to back the Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indian group, which led to the formation of the Neville Brothers band.

A few years later, Cyril started the Uptown Allstars with a sound that Cyril calls "Second-Line/Reggae." Cyril and his group have toured Europe and Japan and released their first album in 1994 on Cyril's own Endangered Species label. 

Wild Tchoupitoulas
“The Wild Tchoupitoulas, a group of Mardi Gras Indians originally headed by George "Big Chief Jolly" Landry, only released one album. But that one record caused a sensation upon its initial 1976 release. It was one of the first records of the album-rock generation that captured the heady gumbo of New Orleans R&B and funk. 

"Landry may have fronted the Wild Tchoupitoulas, but the key to the record's success was his nephews, Charles and Cyril Neville, who headed the rhythm section. They drafted their brothers Art and Aaron to harmonize, and, thereby, unwittingly gave birth to the band that became the Neville Brothers. 

"Still, the fact that the Wild Tchoupitoulas ranks among the great New Orleans albums isn't because of the Nevillles themselves but because of the way the Tchoupitoulas lock into an extraordinary hybrid that marries several indigenous New Orleans musical styles with swampy, dirty funk taking its place in the forefront. There are only eight songs, and they are all strung together as if they're variations on the same themes and rhythms. That's a compliment, by the way, since the organic, flowing groove is the key to the album's success.” 
— All Music Guide