Zigaboo Modeliste has earned his moniker, “The King of the Funky Drums,” as well as a 2018 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, for his work as drummer and songwriter for the seminal funk band, The Meters, as well as a session drummer and bandleader in his own right. Modeliste, aptly named one of Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time, incorporates New Orleans street rhythms with his own creative genius to set the standard for contemporary funk percussion. He is widely acknowledged as a major player in bringing New Orleans second-line grooves into the popular music mainstream.
Born in 1948, Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste was raised in New Orleans’ 13th Ward. His grandmother gave him his first drum kit, and he absorbed the styles of local legends like Bob French and the great Smokey Johnson. Zig began playing around town, joining the Hawketts, fronted by Art Neville, after they had a hit with “Mardi Gras Mambo,” and started honing their chops with regular gigs at clubs like The Nite Cap. The group evolved into the Neville Sounds and then, in the mid-1960s, into The Meters, along with Leo Nocentelli and George Porter Jr.
The Meters’ prowess earned them a spot on Allen Toussaint’s Sansu Enterprises record label , and, perhaps more importantly, they served as Toussaint’s house band (and later with Toussaint at Warner Brothers) on a number of now-classic recordings, both their own (“Cissy Strut,” “Look-a-Py-Py”) and as the backing band for others, such as Dr. John’s 1973 blockbuster hit, “Right Place, Wrong Time.” In 1974, Toussaint launched his new Sea-Saint studio with Dr. John’s Desitively Bonnaroo and the Meters’ Rejuvenation, which cemented both New Orleans acts as national players. The Meters were thus firmly established as the purveyors of the city’s stylistic funk sound, with Modeliste as the masterful rhythmic architect. In 1975 and 1976, they were invited to tour with The Rolling Stones as their opening act, bringing New Orleans funk, with Modeliste on the kit, to a world-wide audience.
After The Meters broke up in the late ‘70s, Modeliste continued to tour with Keith Richards and Ron Wood as a member of The New Barbarians while he built a career as a journeyman drummer and solo artist. He has played with luminaries ranging from Paul McCartney to Professor Longhair, Erykah Badu, Bernie Worrell, Robbie Robertson, Aaron Neville, Herbie Hancock, and Harry Connick, Jr. Modeliste continues to record and tour with his own band, The Funk Revue, issuing several albums, including the critically heralded Zigaboo.com, with now-classic original tunes such as “Standing in Your Stuff.” Speaking of his songwriting, Modeliste’s tunes have been released on over 70 albums nationally and internationally, and have also graced such movies as Two Can Play That Game, Jackie Brown, Drum Line, 8 Mile, Red, and a Nike commercial.
The significance of Modeliste’s drumming has not been lost on subsequent generations of music-makers. His drum patterns have been sampled extensively by hip hop artists such as LL Cool J, Musiq Soulchild, Queen Latifah, Run DMC, NWA, Ice Cube, Salt N’ Pepa, Cypress Hill, EPMD, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys, Naughty by Nature, and Eminem (on the Billboard No. 1 single, “Berserk). His drum sound provided the main loops for Amerie’s “1Thing,” which was nominated for two Grammys and reached No. 1 on the R&B charts. In 2011, producer-musician Mark Ronson collaborated with Modeliste, Erykah Badu, Mos Def and Trombone Shorty for the song "A La Modeliste", an homage to Zigaboo’s influence on funk drumming and the New Orleans sound.
In 2018, The National Recording Academy of Arts and Sciences bestowed a Lifetime Grammy Achievement Award upon Modeliste and his fellow Meters, honoring their substantial contribution to the American musical landscape. After several decades living in Los Angeles and in Oakland, California, Modeliste returned to his native Louisiana, where he gives master classes and continues to perform and record regularly.
