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George Porter Jr.'s career in music spans nearly four decades. As the bass player in the house band at Allen Toussaint's New Orleans recording studio he played on dozens of classic R&B records. As a founding member of the Meters he pioneered a style of laid-back, deep-pocket funk that has influenced everyone from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Galactic. With dozens of rap artists sampling Meters records, Porter has become one of the most sampled bass players in the history of the art form.
On his own, Porter has worked with a diverse range of artists that includes David Byrne and Tori Amos. He continues to perform often -- with his own group, Runnin' Pardners, with the Funky Meters and on countless sideman gigs and recording sessions.
On Monday, Jan. 8, InsideNewOrleans' Scott Aiges conducted an online interview with Porter. Here's part of their digital conversation:
Scott Aiges: Hi George.
George Porter Jr.: Hi Scott. Are you there?
SA: I'm here alright. Ready to do this?
GP: I will turn the keyboard over to David.
SA: That's cool. For the record, who is David?
GP: Hello Scott, I am David Stocker. I've worked with George for more than 5 years now as an engineer, computer designer and co-producer of his last two albums. And I type a whole lot faster than he does.
SA: Great. Did you design George's Web site?
GP: Yes, I did the original designs and layout, though the site is now managed by Stephen Poff.
SA: It's well done. George, you spend a lot of time on the computer, don't you? You're pretty web-savvy?
GP: Absolutely not. I ease my way through it.
SA: So this is your first "online interview"?
GP: Yes it is.
SA: How would you say using the computer and the Internet has changed the way you work -- either in composing music or handling business?
SA: (The cool thing about doing an interview this way is you can spend as much time as you want making your answers!)
GP: Yes, we have figured that out already...
GP: The computer in the studio has changed the way I think about writing songs. I haven't found a lot of help via the Internet per say in writing music but I also haven't spent a lot of time looking either.
SA: But I get the impression that you spend a fair amount of time on the computer -- you check e-mails every day, even from the road, etc. You don't consider yourself "wired"?
GP: Well being drug free, I don't like to call it being "wired" anymore, but I do find myself working on my laptop quite a lot. I'm sure my wife would like to see all of this technology go away.
SA: Why?
GP: She pays the doctor bills. She sees the computer related stress and injuries. I have threatened to kill this thing a couple of times.
SA: I know what you mean! Real injuries, like carpal tunnel syndrome? You mentioned to me the other day that you have surgery on your shoulder coming up soon -- is that injury related to the computer?
GP: No, it was an injury that occurred in the snow. And no, I wasn't skiing at the time.
SA: OK, I won't ask...
GP: Thanks.
SA: Are you familiar with the whole Napster issue?
GP: Only what I have read on the subject. And I do understand from (Funky Meters guitarist) Brian Stoltz that there are TONS of "The Meters'" samples out there as well as live Funky Meters to be had. How do I feel about it? I have not come up with an answer yet.
SA: Well, it's an interesting subject, especially for a person such as yourself. Back in the day, you experienced first hand issues of people not being paid for their music (not that I want to get into all that history now). And these days, people are using the Internet to trade music, usually without paying the artists. But even you give away audio samples on your own web site, so you understand the promotion value in free music. Considering what you went through back in the '70s, doesn't it sometimes give you the creeps to give music away for free -- as we're going to do on this site with that unreleased material you promised to let us upload?
GP: Well, Scott, there goes your free upload. :-) No, I don't know, Scott. My thoughts are that most of the music that we do comes from jams. And when I say "we" I mean Runnin' Pardners. As we speak of today, I would like to be able to give a taste of what's to come. And the complete version will come later.
SA: Ha! Very funny. Of course, a big part of your audience is from the "jam band" scene, which is a group that loves to trade tapes and MP3 files. Sometimes it's important just to get the music out there, by whatever means are available, and hope that it leads to bigger audiences when you come to the next town -- right?
GP: We do hope so. I mean, from the looks of this media, it's a matter of getting paid later and not today. Is that a good thing? Most of us live off of our record income because we aren't large touring bands playing to large audiences where the revenues are a lot bigger and immediate. So record royalties, although a quarterly thing, have been paying the bills for the last 10 or so years. Really that should read "the last 30 years," but that's another story.
Read the rest of this digital interview at InsideNewOrleans.com
And perhaps more importantly, sign up for their JazzFest mailing list, the best email list for trying to satisfy that craving for JazzFest this spring.
JazzFest...so much great music! so much great food! i'll take one of each!
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