The Brothers

In a unique autobiography, the four Neville brothers--Art, Aaron, Charles, and Cyril--take turns chronicling their journey from a segregated, crime-ridden New Orleans to the heights of the music industry, as they offer an inspiring memoir about the importance of one's heritage and the bonds of family. 25,000 first printing.

A patchwork group autobiography by the noted New Orleans musicians.Blame it, perhaps, on the recent craze for oral histories: rather than write a straightforward narrative of the Neville Brothers' inarguably influential musical career, as he did with his fine life of Marvin Gaye (Divided Soul, 1985), music journalist David Ritz organizes this text in snippets, with each of the four brothers speaking more or less in turn to document their five decades' work. The brothers are markedly different: Artie, the eldest, has passions for technology, doowop, and science fiction; Charles, the next oldest, is a jazz aficionado; Aaron, an ex-junkie and would-be cowboy, brings a sweet tremulous voice to just about any kind of music that can be made; and Cyril, the baby brother at 51, is a master of polyrhythmic percussion and, in his off time, a voracious reader. To judge by this account, Charles is the great talker of the family, although all the brothers spin out fragmentary, sometimes unfinished stories that touch on old wounds, the costs of fame, the pains of growing up in the segregated South, life in prison (where a couple of the brothers spent time), and (in more detail than one might like) their sexual conquests. On a more upbeat note, the brothers also talk about healing the rifts that once existed between them as they struggled to carve out careers, individually and together. As they talk, the four are clearly aware of their key roles in having introduced zydeco, New Orleans soul, and other regional forms of music to an international audience, but they are generous in showering praise on fellow musicians with whom they've shared stages-among them Dr. John, Ray Charles, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and Linda Ronstadt.Loyal fans of the Neville Brothers will likely enjoy this book, disjointed though it is. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This oral history by the members of the Neville Brothers, currently New Orleans's most popular and well-known funk/R&B/rock band, is a must-read for fans and hardcore students of New Orleans music. Coauthor David Ritz, whose critically acclaimed biographies of Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin have established him as an insightful chronicler of difficult musical personalities, here lets each of the four Neville Brothers display "his voice, his musical personality, and his own story." While the brothers' lives and experiences often overlapAespecially when discussing the New Orleans of their youth, their various drug addictions and their run-ins with women, the law and all types of unscrupulous characters from the fringes of the music businessAthe book achieves Ritz's goal of capturing each brother's cadences and "distinct grooves." Art, the oldest, is a natural archivist of New Orleans musical culture. Charles, who spent some time in Mississippi's infamous Angola jail, captures the impact of "the hierarchy of skin color" in New Orleans, New York and Los Angeles. Aaron, whose recording of "Tell It Like It Is" immediately placed him in the pantheon of classic New Orleans singers, is the most sensitive to how their music has changed as the brothers pursued individual, then combined, careers. Cyril, the youngest, is the most articulate about newer political and musical influences on New Orleans. "In Their Own Words"-style biographies have been a staple of music books, usually quickly churned out to meet demands of current fans of disposable pop music, but, while it suffers from some repetition, this volume captures the fascinating lives of crucial players in the New Orleans tradition with candor and style. 16 pages of photos. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Driven to crime, drug addiction, and dysfunctional personal relationships by the relentless Southern racism of the 1950s and 1960s, the Neville Brothers survived to rise to their posts as New Orleans's premier musical ambassadors. Coauthor David Ritz, who assisted Aretha Franklin and B.B. King with their autobiographies, masterfully alternates passages from each brother to create a single coherent narrative populated by larger-than-life characters such as their Aunt Cat, Uncle Jolly, and rock'n'roll pioneer-turned-pimp Larry Williams. The brothers' musical careers circled around one another, occasionally intersecting in various combinations, before all four came together first as the Wild Tchoupitoulas and then as the Neville Brothers in 1977. Recently, they have found the personal and spiritual strength to battle their demons but are candid in describing the tensions that threaten to split the group and the deep fraternal bonds that keep them together. Despite the welcome discography, the book is skimpy on musical details, but the storytelling is as rewarding as any fiction.ALloyd Jansen, Stockton-San Joaquin Cty. P.L., CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Neville brothers, collectively a New Orleans institution, take turns telling their story in a chatfest that Ritz has molded into a wonderfully coherent book. Musically, the brothers are the kind of get-down aggregation that even a dignified professional--perhaps, say, the president of a national organization of information specialists--might shake booty with at an annual conference. Here their story takes on texture as brother hands its telling off to brother. In true pop-music-legend fashion, the Nevilles lived hazardously when young, indulging various vices in a city famous for its smorgasbord of them. Their mother's family "had Creole roots and were Catholic," and Big Arthur, their Methodist father, was a Pullman porter and a merchant mariner. The diversity of their extended family and New Orleans' gumbolike musical melange contributed to their famous mixture of musical styles. Today the Nevilles keep busy with various outside projects as well as their corporate career. Informative, moving, and noncontroversial, this is a nice omnibus of information on these beloved performers. Mike Tribby
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