The Meters: Leo Nocentelli (guitar); Art Neville (keyboards); George Porter, Jr. (bass); Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste (drums).

Producers include: Allen Toussaint.

Recorded between 1969 and 1976. Includes liner notes by Don Snowden.

In the late '60s, New Orleans' The Meters became one of the main purveyors of the gritty, urban funk that would come to dominate 1970's black music. After working together as a session band, guitarist Leo Nocentelli, bassist George Porter Jr., drummer Zigaboo Modeliste and keyboardist Art Neville began to release soulful, instrumental party records in the marketable mould of Booker T. and the MG's. But The Meters' catchy, wicked licks, fiery rhythmic interplay and general hard-hitting pulse gave birth to an utterly new, influential sound.

Though the band would go on to refine their sound on Reprise discs such as REJUVENATION and CABBAGE ALLEY, their earliest releases are no less compelling. THE VERY BEST OF compiles some of the band's most irresistible jams from 1968 to 1976, a period which saw the creation of such classics as "Cissy Strut," "Look-Ka Py Py," both included here. The primitive production only enhances the rhythm section's in-the-pocket punch, and Art Neville's swirling organ. This is a funk blueprint--tight, rhythmic, straight-up good time music in the finest New Orleans tradition.

Q (8/00, p.120) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Matches the best of the Reprise era with some early and rare singles to make for a compelling package."

Uncut (p.111) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[With] irresistibly itchy gumbos of bare-bones bass/drums, swooping organ and chicken-scratch git-tar."

Mojo (Publisher) (8/00, p.115) - "...Still sounds great 25 years on...cherry-picking [CABBAGE ALLEY, REJUVENATION and FIRE ON THE BAYOU] and the earlier Josie instrumental hits..."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.130) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[A] loose yet explosive funk."