As Quint Davis, fonder and head of the new Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival watching Mr. Neville perform at the 2025 Jazz Fest Congo Square Stage said,” He’s still got it.”

Cyril Neville is one of the founding fathers of the New Orleans signature funky soul, rock jazz sound that has influenced countless artists and entertained millions of fans over his 5-decade career. Mr. Neville is a vocalist, songwriter, percussionist, painter, cultural icon and activist who richly deserves his Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Born in 1948 in New Orleans, the youngest of the Neville Brothers was raised in a musical household, with his brothers Aaron, Art and Charles all making waves on the local musical scene. Their uncle George Landry was Big Chief Jolly of the Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indian Tribe, and young Cyril cut his teeth singing and playing percussion with the group. At 19, he joined his brother’s band, Art Neville and the Neville Sounds, and released his first single a year later.Art’s band soon merged into the seminal group, The Meters, with Cyril, guitarist Leo Nocentelli, bassist George Porter, Jr. and drummer Zigaboo Modeliste. Their early releases – the singles “Sissy Strut, “Look-A-Py-Py” and “Sophisticated Sissy,” as well as the Cabbage Alley and the Neville Brothers Fire on the Bayou have become classics, and their funky grooves built a foundation for a large swath of today’s American popular music. The Meter’s reputation was cemented when the Rolling Stones offered them an opening
spot on their 1975 world tour.

Art and Cyril left The Meters in 1977, and with Aaron and Charles formed the Neville Brothers. For 35 years the group rocked audiences from Tipitinas in New Orleans to Taipei playing venues all over the world with their imminently danceable funk rock. Their recordings such as the Grammy-winning Yellow Moon and equally successful follow-up Brother’s Keeper have entered the canon of classic American Music. The Neville Brothers have received four nominations to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and hopefully one day will receive their long overdue flowers there.