For his latest album, Aaron Neville, left, drew on the guidance of producer Don Was, center, and fellow doo-wop fan Keith Richards. (Sarah A. Friedman photo courtesy EMI)-- For his latest album, legendary singer
dug as deep as he could into his own considerable musical history, which started with doo-wop.
When young Aaron was just a boy in New Orleans in the late 1940s, his older brother Art was part of a doo-wop group that performed the popular sounds of the day. Simple songs with vocals way out front, in a style made popular by groups like the Orioles, the Penguins, the Fleetwoods and the Jive Five, to name just a few, and carried on later by acts such as the Moonglows and the Platters. Aaron (born in 1941, four years behind Art) was mesmerized when he heard the older guys rehearsing.
By JIM HANNAFORD
Correspondent
“One day he let me sing with them, and I was on from then and there. I must have been 9 years old, maybe 10,” he said in a phone interview last week.
It was a defining moment, not just for the brothers, but in a larger sense for American music as a whole.
“Doo-wop was like medicine to me. I would hear those harmonies and it just made my heart feel good,” he said. “If you listen, there’s doo-wop in all of my music.”
The Aug. 10 show also will feature bluesman Keb' Mo'. (Meghan Aileen Schirmer photo courtesy Ryko)Neville, who has toured and recorded for more than 50 years and is one of Louisiana’s top all-time musical exports, comes to the Saenger Theatre in Mobile on Friday, Aug. 10, in a show that also features blues/R&B stylist Keb’ Mo’. Neville’s five-piece band is made up of members of the Neville Brothers, including older brother Charles on saxophone, but without Art and Cyril, who is the youngest of the four. Expect a soulful representation of the various strains of soul, funk and R&B, for which Neville is best known, as well as a few doo-wop songs from his upcoming album “My True Story” and the gospel sounds that were the subject of his 2010 release “I Know I’ve Been Changed.”
While he certainly was inspired by other R&B greats like Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and Al Green, Neville’s velvety-smooth voice with its soul-touching vibrato is a testament in itself that he has few peers as a singer, whether living or gone.
The new album, scheduled for release this winter, was recorded at Jimi Hendrix’ Electric Lady Studio in Neville’s current home of New York City and was co-produced by Keith Richards and Don Was, a longtime Rolling Stones producer. Neville and Richards first became acquainted, he said, when the Neville Brothers were an opener on the Stones’ 1981 American tour. His son Ivan has played keyboards on two Stones albums and has recorded and performed with Richards’ side project the X-Pensive Winos. Was also had produced Neville in the past, notably a 1994 duet with Tricia Yearwood on the Patsy Cline hit “I Fall to Pieces” and a 1996 version of the Van Morrison classic “Crazy Love” for the soundtrack of the film “Phenomenon.”
Aaron Neville and Keb’ Mo’, 8 p.m. Fri., Aug. 10 at the Mobile Saenger Theatre
Tickets: $28-$60 (plus service charge), available at the Saenger box office and other Ticketmaster outlets. To order by phone, call 1-800-745-3000; online orders can be placed at www.ticketmaster.com. For more information, visit www.mobilesaenger.com or call the Saenger box office at 251-208-5600.
The title track of the new recording was first released by a group from Brooklyn called the Jive Five back in 1961, and their lead singer, Eugene Pitt, sings with Neville on the new version. Neville noted that Richards and Was were also very familiar with the song; the Stones guitarist and songwriter would play it repeatedly (and loudly) on the stereo system in his hotel room while the Stones were working with Was on the recording of the “Voodoo Lounge” album back in 1994.
“Don said he was in the hotel room below Keith’s, and he would hear it over and over,” Neville said.
The sessions for the new albums went very smoothly, he said. Richards played guitar, and he and Was assembled the other stellar musicians, including Greg Leisz on guitar, Benmont Tench (from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) on organ, George Receli (a Bob Dylan sideman who also toured with James Brown) on drums and Tony Scherr on bass. Later, Neville Brothers veterans Earl Smith Jr. and David Johnson recorded some additional parts, he said.
“It was cool, man,” Neville said. “All of the musicians on the project were seasoned musicians. We basically did it live in the studio and that was it, and we added some parts later. It was real fun.”
He said he enjoys living in New York City and has no plans to move. He was in Memphis when Hurricane Katrina struck in New Orleans in 2005, and he later moved to Nashville. He lived for a bit in Covington, La., but has no desire to return to New Orleans, for personal reasons. His wife of 48 years, Joel, died in 2007. He has since remarried.
“I have a new life now,” he said. “I don’t need the memories. I have plenty of memories of New Orleans.”
He does, however, cherish his first recollections of doo-wop music, which he said is characterized by sparse instrumentation, with a focus on close harmony vocals and with simple themes. Back then, the music had an innocent charm. “You could sit and listen to it with your grandmother and your granddaughter, and no one would be offended.”
On the subject of Mobile, where he has performed many times over the last half-century, he said, “Yeah, that’s where Mardi Gras originated.” He remembered playing the Saenger in the past, with one occasion in particular. “One time Natalie Cole fell ill, and they called us on short notice in to fill in.”
Jim Hannaford is a longtime journalist who also performs music in the area as Jimmy Lee Hannaford.