Wednesday, 23 February 2005 BeauSoleil / Funky Meters: Live from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival Contributed by Brent Simon
Two separate concert discs from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, BeauSoleil and Funky Meters are both ideal experiences for music aficionados looking for something new.

Being hailed by Lake Wobegon Days author Garrison Keillor as "the best Cajun band in the world" may at first sound like the sort of tongue-in-cheek joke that belongs in Prairie Home Companion, but the National Public Radio staple's praise of BeauSoleil is sincere and deserved. World-renowned fiddler Michael Doucet formed the group in 1975 to help preserve what he saw as a sadly disappearing Cajun musical heritage, and their more than 100 live dates a year have helped preserve and carry forth an unfortunately waning musical subgenre to a new generation of listeners.
A sextet of precise musicianship, with Billy Ware on percussion, Jimmy Breaux on accordion and jack-of-all-trades Al Tharp on bass, fiddle and electric guitar, among other instruments, BeauSoleil is a perennial fan favorite in the area, their celebrated repertoire including both original material and stomp-worthy Cajun classics. This concert disc features BeauSoleil's 2002 show at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, a 12-stage celebration of gospel, zydeco, blues, jazz, R&B, funk and the like that's as memorably zesty and robust as anyone who's been lucky enough to sample some of the French Quarter's famous gumbo. Songs on display here include "Eunice Two Step," "AmŽdŽ," a crackling rendition of "Happy One-Step," "Grand Mamou," "Zydeco X," "Poison Love" and "La Danse de la Vie," among others, and extras include music videos and interviews with most of the band members.
Sold separately is the Funky Meters DVD. Born of The Meters, a group widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of the funk movement, Funky Meters trade in a unique musical style that incorporates heavy blues and dance grooves with a distinctly New Orleans vibe. The result is a sound both weighty and loose, inspiring both plebian booty-shaking and a following of esteemed celebrity fellow musicians like LL Cool J, Queen Latifah and Heavy D. The robust spirit and energy of the group, now comprised of keyboardist Art Neville, bassist George Porter, Jr., drummer David Russell Batiste, Jr., and lead guitarist Brian Stoltz, is captured in a stellar 2000 show on this disc. Numbers include their patented and popular show opener "Two (Funky) Minutes of Your Time," "People Say," "Africa" (with no Toto sample in earshot), "Cissy Strut," "Saturday Night Fish Fry," "They All Ask For You," "Little Old Money Maker" and the inimitably funky "Ain't No Use," on which Neville's keyboard work and Porter's bass intertwine to dizzying effect. The extras are less compelling here, but it all adds up to over three hours of fantastic jazz excitement. For music fans looking to perhaps explore a new genre, these two sets (at $20 a shot) are worthy diversions that even a newcomer can appreciate.