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New Orleans, Louisiana has always been a uniquely multicultural community. Only in New Orleans could the distinctly different cultural flavors, contributed by its African American, Caribbean, French Canadian, European, and Native American inhabitants, combine to create the rich gumbo from which such unmistakably American music as jazz, funk, R&B, and blues emerged. Within this atmosphere
many great innovators were free to try new things. Professor Longhair
added a Caribbean zest to what had come before him, creating the rumba-esque
style of piano-based R&B so closely associated with modern day Mardis
Gras. The funk bands of the 70's owe a heavy debt to the Meters; Art
Neville, George Porter, Jr., Zigaboo Modeliste, and Leo Nocentelli were
making it funky years before the major record labels made the scene.
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