By John D'Aquila
tipitinas.com

The great baseball pitcher Satchel Paige once said: "Don't look back, somebody might be gaining on you." Yet Cyril Neville -- singer, songwriter, musician, entertainer extraordinaire, producer and Grammy Award winner -- can't stop looking back.

"My music pays homage to those who came before me," he says, with both pride in his own music and admiration of former New Orleans music greats sparkling in his eyes.

The names roll off his tongue like sweet butter: Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Dave Bartholemew, Danny Barker, his Uncle Jolly Landry, brothers Art Neville, Charles Neville, and Aaron Neville, among many others too numerous to mention. He even includes those Africans who beat their drums in Congo Square in New Orleans many years ago in what Cyril calls "The first gig."

"They live within me," he says, touching his fist to his chest, as he lounges in a kitchen chair in his home away from home -- Tipitina's 8th Floor Studios. "I take them on stage with me every time I perform. I draw strength from what they have accomplished and passed down to us, who entertain people today."

Those who know New Orleans music can clearly see that although Satchmo, Fess, Fats and the rest once had center stage in New Orleans music, Cyril Neville has next.

Although he is known as the fiery youngest brother of the famed Neville Brothers, Cyril has mellowed with age, but is still his own man. Now 52, he revels in having freedom as an artist, something he has not always had. Over the years he has been most vociferous about having control over his music, battling managers and record producers for that control. Producing his own records and those of others has put a most appealing and permanent smile on his face.

Nonetheless, most people know him simply as, in his own words, "Cyril Neville, one of the Neville Brothers." But in fact, he has not only been the premier New Orleans entertainer over the last several years, but a producer, working on many musical projects with his wife Gaynielle, who also writes songs for him (Soulo and The Fire This Time), his longtime friends and band members, Nick Daniels III and Charles Moore, among others. He has even written original music for the well-received 1997 independent film Follow Me Home, staring Benjamin Bratt and Alfie Woodard.

His latest project is his own soon-to-be released album, New Orleans Cookin', which he produced in association with Tipitina's/Endangered Species Records and distributed by Louisiana Red Hot Records. It is comprised of songs, although not all original, that embody the spirit of those musicians that came before him. Two of those songs are Professor Longhair favorites, "Tipitina" and "No Buts, No Maybes." Then there is the hard-driving "Mellow Saxophone," a tune featuring Eddie Bo on piano, "Tell It Like It is," a couple Dave Bartholemew numbers "Sick and Tired" and "All By Myself," and the album's title song "New Orleans Cookin'," which Cyril co-wrote with long-time idol Allen Toussaint , who also plays piano on the piece.

"The music on this album is aimed at your belly-button," he says. "It makes you want to shake what your mama gave you."

This, of course, carries over to Cyril's stage act, where his Authentic New Orleans Rhythm & Blues Revue, which plays regularly at Tipitina's in the French Quarter, features these songs, along with other New Orleans favorites.

Cyril prefers to call his show a party, which usually starts off with the song "Welcome to New Orleans."

"Inside this song I introduce the audience to little tidbits of what the show is going to be like," he says.

But it all starts long before that. In typical Cyril straight forward fashion, he walks through the front door before a show and through the crowd, surveying the scene, instead of popping in through the back door.

"As I walk through the audience I feel the energy in the room and I locate the highest levels of energy, so when I step out on the stage I know where to aim the energy," he says. "When I get that hot group up on the dance floor, I know the others will follow."

Cyril Neville working the crowd is a very special thing and there are various segments of the show designed to keep the energy flowing. Just as "Welcome to New Orleans" is the band's greeting, "Second Line Soca" warmly embraces the audience. "Soca" music is a combination of Soul music and Calypso music, but with a New Orleans Second Line flare.

"When we play 'Second Line Soca,' if they have not gotten up to dance yet," he says, "they are going to get up on the dance floor. The music and what we do won't let them stay in their seats."

The "what we do" is a two-part effort to turn the temperature up in the room. First, Cyril steps down from the stage and invites the ladies in the crowd to join the band on stage and "shake what their mama gave them."

"When I come down from the stage and pull them up with me, that really turns the energy up," he says. "When they go back into the crowd that turns the energy up even more."

The second part is simply a reversal of the first. In New Orleans Second Line tradition, percussionist Earl Smith grabs a second line umbrella and ventures into the crowd inciting and Second Line Parade, with nearly every person in the room following behind the gyrating Smith in a long, pulsating train. There are times when Cyril grabs the umbrella and ventures out into the crowd.

"One time we went all they way out the front door and back in another door and when we came back we had more people in the line than when we went out," Cyril says, chortling. "All the new people were saying 'this is where the party is.'"

And they were correct.

It's all about "the party." The show, says Cyril, is designed to entertain 10 people or 10,000 people. And we have various elements of New Orleans culture we can bring to the stage to add to the entertainment value, everything from Mardi Gras beads, sometimes Mardi Gras Indians, to a Mardi Gras float for the big shows."

Cyril likes to say that people come in dressed in tuxedos to his show and by the time he is finished with them they are wearing the bow ties around there heads.

Cyril has taken great pains to not only give audiences a slice of New Orleans music and culture, but to tailor that to any crowd, from the very young to the very old. Hence, his show knows no boundaries.

"That is a tribute to this band and it's versatility," he says. "These guys, especially the horn players, can go in any direction. I feel blessed to have these cats around me."

These "cats" include the rhythm section: Charles Moore on guitar, Nick Daniels on bass, "Mean" Willie Green on drums, Earl Smith on percussions and George Rossi on keys.

"A band is like a gumbo and the rhythm section is like the roux of the gumbo," Cyril says. "Everybody knows that if you mess up the roux you ain't got no gumbo. These guys make the best roux."

The horn section is comprised of Brian "Breeze" Cayolle on both tenor and baritone saxophone, Mark McGrain on trombone, Roderick Paulin on tenor saxaphone, Tim Green on tenor saxophone, Tracy Griffin on trumpet and various other surprise quests.

Then there are the backup singers, who are essentially a group in their own right called "Diamonds." They include wife Gaynielle Neville, Yadonna Wise, Dorene Carter, and Dane Ruffins.

All of which makes up a spicy gumbo that generates oodles of energy through the audience. But that works both ways, says Cyril.

"The energy that comes from the audience the band feeds off of and when the people see the band having fun, they want to have more fun. Then it just keeps building. That's why we hardly ever play slow numbers because we don't want to slow that energy down. But if the audience requests it, we are more than capable of playing a number of really nice slow songs."

When the show is finally over, both band and audience are spent, but each taking something home that they did not have before.

"When it is all over we have great satisfaction in knowing we gave them something special that we are proud of -- a piece of New Orleans culture," Cyril says, leaning forward in his chair. "We invite the audience into our culture and they are part of it.

"So when they go home and tell their family and friends about what they experienced, they say 'next time you have to come because you got to come get some of this.'"

About this time someone strides up to Cyril, hiding something behind his back. Looking up at the intruder, a wry grin turns into an inquisitive look.

He is handed a copy of his brand new CD, New Orleans Cookin', He takes the CD in his hands and carefully turns it around, viewing all sides of it, looking at it as if it where his very first CD, his face a mixture of awe, exuberance and pride.

"Man, this is a beautiful thing," he says. "And look, one of my CDs with a quote from Fats Domino on it.

"I feel an electrical charge going through my body."

Now he knows how his audiences feel.

(Note: The title track to New Orleans Cookin' won OffBeat Magazine's Song of the Year for 2000)