The Brothers: An Autobiography

by Art Neville, Aaron Neville, Charles Neville

Born to a music-loving family, the Neville brothers grew up immersed in the sounds and culture of New Orleans, and the blended rhythms of the city are reflected in their wide range of musical styles. The result, like their native city, is a rich gumbo of Art, with his keyboard wizardry; Aaron, with his angelic voice; Charles, a spiritual seeker and jazz devotee; and Cyril, whose passion for music matches the intensity of his politics. In The Brothers, each tells his story candidly, recounting the early hits, the problems with drugs and the law, and the circuitous route to success. Along the way, the brothers tell the story of the New Orleans culture as well -- the birth of rhythm and blues, the folklore behind the fabulous Mardi Gras Indians, the painful racial climate, and the family whose legacy is now a part of our musical history.

Genres: Music, Biography, Memoir

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Phil Overeem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every music fan needs to read one of David Ritz's biographies. The best is DIVIDED SOUL, still the place to go for Marvin Gaye. This one's great about 67% of the way, when the seemingly endless tales of dope and women begin to blur and get boring. The big surprise for me, though, was how much sheer adversity (much of it self-created) delayed these musicians' access to the true fruit of their labors.

[Lil Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great storytelling style as Ritz compiles tales that bounce from brother to brother. One gets a picture of the Nawlins family & neighborhoods that bred & bled these brothers from their 1950's start in music on through their hectic periods of haphazard heroin use, robberies and record industry rip offs, to their height of successes & triumphs in the late 80's and 1990's.

[Shakespete · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love oral histories, especially the musical kind. The 4 brothers Neville have been playing music for 50 years. Their tales of growing up in New Orleans and being out on tour in the 50's and 60's are wild. I didn't realize what crazy junky criminals they all were. Except Art. He was too busy being a funky Meter.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really, really wanted to like this book. So much that I finished it, hoping it would turn into the book it seemed to promise. But, sadly, the bulk of the book dealt with each of the brothers' drug use, crime, jail time, and scattered children. Oh, there was music scattered here and there, but often fuzzily recalled as part of a drug score, before they went on stage.

[Ralph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent portrait of the New Orleans first family of funk. Fascinating insights into the history of the city's music scene from the 50s onwards. Told in the first person from the four brothers this is a document of America changing through the years and of the brothers' growth through these changes

[Roxanne Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is amazing they made it through their drug addictions.i enjoyed the book and was so eager for more inside perspective on music in Nola, but i would say 1/2 the book is about drug addiction. So sad

Loved hearing about Aaron s work with Linda Ronstadt .

Still a must read for the New Orleans music scene.

[Carlotta Ungaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

The format took some getting-used-to but I finally started appreciating it about halfway through the book. What a great story, or more like four stories. I finished last night and will be listening to the Nevilles all day today!

[Frances · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a Neville’s fan and this was a great book told in their own words. It explained who they were and how their music came about. It is a blessing that they made it through their addictions, arrests, and imprisonment. A great read.

[Driscoll (Joe & Jerry) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book by and about an excellent N'Awlins band.

[Murf Reeves · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I started reading the book to understand how the Neville Brothers made their various recordings, but what I learned was the power of family and love. The book follows the lives of Art, Aaron, Charles and Cyril from childhood to the success they achieved as the Neville Brothers and beyond and the journey it took to get there. Each of the brothers went through and intense and self-destructive journey to find peace with who they are. The glue holding them together individually, as a family and as a group is the deep love and support taught to them by their parents and relatives. No matter how far they slipped into darkness (drugs, crime, incarceration) the family never gave up on them. Sometimes there were hard ultimatums but family love and support kept them going, following their passion to make amazing, beautiful music.

[Mike Dambra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool read. Loved the format.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A+++++

[Diann Blakely]

One of the most interesting books about New Orleans to be published in the past dozen years isn’t a guidebook or a novel or a book of poems. It's THE BROTHERS NEVILLE, an oral biography of--guess who?--from 2000 edited by David Ritz. From their childhood in the New Orleans streets to their difficulties with drugs to their re-embrace of Christianity, the path each brother has been on is different but interestingly parallel—almost like a giant song, with harmony laid upon harmony. Such voices will be a small but sustaining comfort as New Orleans continues to reassemble its many pieces, even if many of them fit together peculiarly by outside standards. Michael Brown, the much-excoriated former head of FEMA, was revolting in his refusal to accept any blame he might bear in the man-made tragedy that followed Katrina. Nevertheless, he had a point when he called the state of Louisiana in general and New Orleans in particular “dysfunctional.” (As Randy Newman puts it, “New Orleans is not the place to go to get your car fixed.”) Why, after all, did the city’s founders elect to build one of the country’s most important port cities on land lower than the waters surrounding it? There are many answers to that question, and many explanations of how the situation became worse with the destruction of Louisiana’s wetlands and the construction of ever-higher levees. And yet that testifies to a crucial part of the character of the city, even of its literature: its stubborn immutability.









(originally published, in somewhat different form, in the NASHVILLE SCENE / Village Voice Media, 2005)

[Megan]

I love this book!!!!! Excellent read a/b evolution of r& b/funk, the civil rights movement, harsh realities of living in NOLA during Jim Crow, and heroin additiction. The format is very creative and engaging - a collective memoir of three brothers. Highly recommended, whether or not you're into the music. (Although how could you not be?)