George Porter Jr., original bassist with the Meters, will be this year’s recipient of OffBeat magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Music, during ceremonies to be held January 27 at Generations Hall in New Orleans.
An in-demand sideman, Porter has performed and recorded with Dr. John, Paul McCartney, Robbie Robertson, Robert Palmer, Patti Labelle, Jimmy Buffett, David Byrne, Johnny Adams, Harry Connick Jr., Earl King, Warren Haynes, Tori Amos and Snooks Eaglin, among many others. With Art Neville, he co-founded the Meters — one of the architect-bands of funk music — in the mid-1960s. The original Meters disbanded in 1977, but then reformed in 1989 with a different lineup as the Funky Meters, with Porter is still a member. He’s continued as a band leader with the Runnin’ Pardners, and is also a member of the 7 Walkers with Papa Mali of Killer Bees fame and Bill Kreutzmann of Grateful Dead fame.
He had a mini-Meters reunion just last year, too, appearing on the newest solo release by the band’s original drummer Zigaboo Modeliste, called New Life.
“Over the years, we spent a lot of time together, so it was like coming home,” Modeliste told us in a recent SER Sitdown. “He knew just from playing with me for years and years what I wanted the bass to actually do. He nailed it. I was really, really happy to have him. It’s always a pleasure to play with George Porter. He’s just a fantastic bass player.”
Porter will be honored as part of the annual Best of the Beat awards ceremonies. Other performers scheduled to appear include Glen David Andrews, the Soul Rebels and the Lost Bayou Ramblers, among others. Tickets are available here. They are $30 through January 26, and $35 the day of the event.
Joining Porter are Offbeat Lifetime Achievement recipients are Scott Billington (producer at Rounder Records, and Lifetime Recipient in Music Business); John Rankin (musician and music educator, Lifetime Achievement Recipient for Music Education); and Mary Howell (attorney and “Heartbeat” Honoree for her services to the music community).
Here’s a look back at our recent thoughts on George Porter Jr. and the Meters. Click through the headlines for complete reviews …
BILL KREUTZMANN, PAPA MALI, GEORGE PORTER JR. – 7 WALKERS (2010): A rousing fusion of Bay area jam-rock with greasy New Orleans rhythm and blues. This self-titled debut bills itself in the liner notes as a love letter to New Orleans — where many of the band members have connections: Kreutzmann’s mother was born there, and Louisiana native Mali has family from the Big Easy on his mother’s side, as well. Porter? He’s only the grandfather of the city’s head-bobbing signature R&B sound. But 7 Walkers ends up as much more than that.
THE METERS – REJUVENATION (1974): The Meters started out as the largely unknown rhythm section behind some of New Orleans’ most important R&B records, and eventually became, well … a largely unknown recording and touring act. Just why, after listening again to 1974’s Rejuvenation, continues to daze and confuse. On-the-one R&B combines with a frisky sense of adventure — the Meters, and Svengali producer Allen Toussaint, layer on fuzzy guitar, afro-shaking polyrhythms and these sizzling soul screams — to make a perfectly titled groover: “Rejuvenation,” which provided this pleasant morning jolt around my house, has lost none of its memorable heart-leaping joy in the intervening 35 years.
DR. JOHN WITH THE METERS – DESITIVELY BONNAROO (1974): Dr. John further defines an ass-shaking new synthesis on Desitively Bonnaroo. Even today, there’s really no roadmap for the crazy-eyed co-mingling of R&B, jazz, island beats, blues, boogie funk and hoodoo whackadoo splashed across this LP, recorded alongside fellow New Orleans legends Allen Toussaint and the Meters more than 35 years ago. At the same time, the grooves here are so sleekly ingratiating as to be therapeutic. Bonnaroo doesn’t aspire to the brash, edgy soul of contemporaries like George Clinton or the Ohio Players. No, it’s too sophisticated, too mysterious, for that.
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