Happy 50th Jazz Fest everyone! Here are some very rare audio recordings of The Meters that I have cleaned up and corrected the speed on. Years ago I traded for 2 CDRs marked as “The Meters 11/28/80”, and it turned out to be 2 different recordings that seem to be incomplete. Also, both recordings were running fast, probably from a bad cassette transfer. I’ve slowed them down and cleaned them up as best I can. Enjoy this rare funk as you get your mind right for the 50th New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this year!
Download the recordings here and here.
The Metrics
1983 or 1984
New Orleans, LA @ ???
SBD > ??? > cassette > ??? > CDR > EAC > FLAC > WAV > Cool Edit Pro (pitch slowed down 0.9 semitones) > CD Wave Editor (tracking) > FLAC
01. People Say 7:27
02. Cissy Strut > 3:57
03. Love The One You’re With > 2:57
04. Hey Pocky A-Way 7:18
05. They All Ask’d For You 7:00
06. Big Chief 5:48
07. Standing In Your Stuff // 6:00
George Porter, Jr. – bass, vocals
Zigaboo Modeliste – drums, vocals
David Torkanowsky – keyboards, ?vocals?
Scott Goudeau – guitar, ?vocals?
Tony Dagradi and/or Fred Kemp – saxophone
We know that this group played at Jazz Fest in 1983 and 1984. There is an audience recording that exists of their 1984 Jazz Fest performance. I have not heard it, but I have seen the info file and it’s a totally different setlist with no Meters tunes really except Gossip. So this recording could be from Jazz Fest 1983 or at some other time from 1982 to 1984. I presume and assume this was recorded in New Orleans.
I found this as filler on the 11/28/80 Meters CDRs I traded for years ago. Upon closer inspection of my CDR’s, it was actually about 45 minutes of 11/28/80 and then this Metrics recording on the other side of the cassette.
The tape was also running too fast. This is my first attempt at shifting/fixing the pitch, so it may not be correct, but it sounds closer to reality than it did. It’s also an incomplete recording. I don’t know how much is missing from the end. 2019-01-19 – Funk It Blog
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The Meters (with Sam Henry subbing for Art Neville)
November 28th, 1980
New Orleans, LA @ Tipitinas
FM/SBD (WTUL) > 3rd Gen (presumably a cassette) > DAT > ??? > FLAC > WAV > Cool Edit Pro (amplified) > CD Wave Editor (tracking) > WAV > FLAC
01. WTUL radio intro
02. Rigor Mortis
03. Fire on the Bayou >
04. Jungle Man
05. talk & tuning
06. Africa
07. Cissy Strut
08. Just Kissed My Baby
09. People Say >
10. “Try To Get Over” >
11. They All Ask’d For You
Sam Henry – organ & vocals (subbing for Art Neville)
George Porter, Jr. – bass & vocals
Leo Nocentelli – guitar
Zigaboo Modeliste – drums & vocals
They are announced as “The Funky Disgusting Meters”! It sounds like George Porter’s group, Joyride, was the opening act because Zig calls them out during the jam into Jungle Man.
Here’s a little more info on the history between Sam Henry and The Meters (courtesy of the Home Of The Groove blog):
https://homeofthegroove.blogspot.com/2006/08/gospel-bird-vs-soul-machine-updated.html
Photo by Marc Millman.