Neville, Aaron

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AARON NEVILLE

Born: New Orleans, Louisiana, 24 January 1941

Genre: R&B, Pop

Best-selling album since 1990: The Grand Tour (1993)

Hit songs since 1990: "The Grand Tour," "Use Me"

With his trademark high falsetto voice, Aaron Neville is a unique talent in popular music. Influenced by the flowing style of 1950s and 1960s vocalist Sam Cooke, Neville uses his sweet, flexible voice to embellish his songs with melisma, the singing of multiple notes within a syllable. While Neville during the 1960s and 1970s remained a "cult" singer, little known outside of his native New Orleans, he succeeded in crossing over to the popular mainstream in the 1980s and 1990s. Since that time, he has recorded everything from country to gospel, keeping his unique sound intact.

Raised in a rough section of New Orleans, Neville's early life was difficult, marked by drug addiction and time in jail. Although a tough youth, Neville was a devoted Roman Catholic who frequently sang gospel music in church. He began recording around 1960, but it was his 1966 hit, the catchy "Tell It Like It Is," that gave him his first dose of rhythm and blues success. In the 1970s he teamed with brothers Arthur, Charles, and Cyril to form the group the Neville Brothers; together they released a series of critically acclaimed albums, in particular Yellow Moon (1989), an inventive fusion of R&B, rock, and gospel that critic Robert Christgau called "their masterpiece." During the 1980s Neville pursued solo projects in addition to working with his brothers, recording a hit duet, "Don't Know Much" (1989), with pop and rock star Linda Ronstadt. A smooth pop ballad that received extensive airplay on mainstream radio, the song earned Neville a solo contract with A&M Records.

Neville's first album for A&M, Warm Your Heart (1991), is a well-rounded collection displaying his facility with different types of material. "Angola Bound," a tough song culled from Neville's prison experiences, features a classic "second line" sound, a shuffling type of rhythm unique to New Orleans music. On the atmospheric "It Feels Like Rain" Neville creates a mood of warm intimacy through vocal understatement, achieving a kind of quiet power. The spiritual "I Bid You Goodnight" features Neville backed with a strong choir, his voice floating ethereally over the arrangement. Despite the diversity of material on Warm Your Heart, the production is smooth and uncluttered, giving the album a cohesive feel. Subsequent albums of the 1990s steered Neville into more of a mainstream pop direction, although his vocal performances were always compelling. In 1993 he had a hit on the country charts with a first-rate version of "The Grand Tour," a song associated with country legend George Jones. The high-pitched tug in Neville's voice was well suited to the country idiom, pushing the single into Billboard 's Top Country chart. Neville fulfilled a lifelong dream in 2000, releasing his first gospel album, Devotion. On traditional spiritual numbers like "Mary Don't You Weep" and "Banks of the River Jordan," Neville's classic falsetto remains in fine form.

With a gentle voice that belies his large physical frame, Aaron Neville has proven his talent time and again in a variety of musical settings. Perhaps the most commercially successful singer to come out of New Orleans, he is seen by critics as a gifted representative of that city's rich musical heritage.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Warm Your Heart (A&M, 1991); The Grand Tour (A&M, 1993); The Tattooed Heart (A&M, 1995); Devotion (EMI Gospel, 2000). With the Neville Brothers: Fiyo on the Bayou (A&M, 1981); Yellow Moon (A&M, 1989); Valence Street (Columbia, 1999).