How to create an 'awesome band'
By Chris Nixon
For The San Diego Union-Tribune
September 7, 2006
Ivan Neville currently lives in Austin, Texas, but his home will always be in the Big Easy. Hailing from the talented Neville family, Ivan and his kin are synonymous with the rich musical heritage of New Orleans.
The son of Aaron Neville, Ivan grew up surrounded by musicians well-versed in the traditions of the Crescent City. His father's band, the Neville Brothers, practically invented swamp funk and soul. Ivan himself started playing with the legendary brothers as a teenager.
“I grew up with music all around me,” said the 34-year-old keyboard player and vocalist from New Orleans, where his band Dumpstaphunk is recording a new album. “All my family was pretty into music, so it was pretty cool. I watched them do their thing for a long time. When you watch somebody that close, you see the mistakes they make. You learn from their trial and error. That's who I am. That's where I'm from.”
After receiving tutelage in the Neville Brothers, Ivan served as a journeyman musician with Bonnie Raitt's band, Rufus, Keith Richards & the Xpensive Winos (check out the excellent “Talk Is Cheap”) and the Spin Doctors.
But a last-minute call to perform at the classic New Orleans Jazz Fest led Ivan to form his own band, Dumpstaphunk.
“We came together about three years ago,” said Neville. “I got the opportunity to play Jazz Fest. So I put together this band, and it turned out to be Dumpstaphunk. We won the Best Funk Band in New Orleans at the Big Easy Awards, and we had only played like nine gigs. Everybody involved in this band loves doing this. So we figured we should find more time to devote to the Dumpstaphunk thing, because it's an awesome band.”
In New Orleans, most musicians moonlight in many different gigs. It's tradition. Along with Ivan's busy schedule, the band's other members also keep a busy calendar. Bassist Nick Daniels (Neville Brothers, Etta James), drummer Raymond Webber (Trey Anastasio, Joe Sample), bassist Tony Hall (Trey Anastasio, Dave Matthews) and Art Neville's son Ian on guitar (Funky Meters, Neville Brothers) have to scramble for time to devote to Dumpstaphunk.
But the Neville family torch has been passed to Dumpsta-phunk, and these guys have big shoes to fill.
“It's a natural evolution of family and music,” said Ivan. “We're just getting started with this band. We just got the torch in our hands. So we're ready to grab the torch and run with it a little while ourselves.”
With the most devastating natural disaster in American history ($30 billion in damage) just a year in the rearview mirror, Ivan is still feeling the pain of Hurricane Katrina.
“It's a year after the storm, and there's still a lot of work to be done,” said Ivan. “A lot of people are making a huge deal about the one-year anniversary. But really it's kind of sad, because a year later some of the same (stuff) is going on that was going on three months after the storm. A lot of people are still without homes. You have probably a third of the population here (in Austin), and a lot of people are not coming back.”
But Ivan and Dumpstaphunk are on a crusade to bring good times New Orleans funk to the world: “All we can do as musicians is write songs, play a little music and try to keep the spirit alive.”
Chris Nixon is a San Diego music writer.
