Another Side is
Meters' guitarist
Leo Nocentelli's previously unissued debut solo album from 1971 with a backstory that threatens to overshadow the music. While
the Meters were on hiatus,
Nocentelli, armed with a basket of original songs, holed up in
Cosimo Matassa's Jazz City Studio in New Orleans, with
Meters' bassist
George Porter, Jr., drummer
Zigaboo Modeliste, and producer /pianist
Allen Toussaint (jazz great
James Black played drums on several cuts, too). Before these full production demos could be released,
the Meters signed with
Warner Bros. and the tapes were shelved at
Toussaint's Sea-Saint studio facility and forgotten. When Hurricane Katrina drowned NOLA in 2005,
Nocentelli assumed the tapes lost. However, 16 boxes of tape -- a quarter of the studio's vault -- had survived. They were bought by an entrepreneur and stored in Los Angeles, and auctioned in 2018 at a swap meet in Torrance, California where collector and DJ
Mike Nishita (
Money Mark's brother) purchased them.
Nocentelli's approach couldn't be further from
the Meters. Deeply inspired by
James Taylor's
Sweet Baby James, he wrote a singer/songwriter album drenched in folk, acoustic soul, blues, and roots rock. Opener "Thinking of the Day" is simpatico with the music of
Terry Callier, with its soulful reflection on frustration and stasis amid fingerpicked acoustic guitars, rolling bass, and drums. One can hear
Bill Withers' influence on the spidery, low-key, folksy funk of "Riverfront," driven by
Toussaint's Wurlitzer piano. "Pretty Mittie" is a folk-blues that sounds like
Nocentelli had been listening to
Taj Mahal's
Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home. The tender "I Want to Cry" and "Getting Nowhere" are rife with
Taylor's songwriting influence. In the philosophical "Tell Me Why," the guitar sounds and stacked vocal harmonies readily reflect influence from Laurel Canyon and
Crosby Still & Nash''s self-titled debut album. These comparisons are contextual;
Nocentelli wasn't merely emulating his peers, but reflecting the era's influence -- this is the man who wrote "Cissy Strut" after all -- as
Another Side carries a loose, individual narrative line about a restless, working-class, broken-hearted young man. In "Til I Get There," the rhythm section takes a simple, rootsy country melody then adds heft and depth while
Nocentelli registers sharp, melodic fills behind his sung vocal lines. He solos with verve, inextricably binding country and R&B. His vocal on the folk-soul of "You've Become a Habit" makes use of a heretofore unknown yet expertly expressive falsetto. "Your Song" is big on bouncy backbeat shuffle, a sterling example of
Toussaint's production style with
Porter's bumping bassline driving the rhythm with a breezy NOLA groove.
Another Side is a true musical holy grail. Forgotten for decades by its creator, it opens a wide window on a previously undiscovered dimension of
Nocentelli's musical persona and registers what might have been had he sought to release it. This wonderful set is an intimate, left-field chapter in the story of the world's most influential funk guitarist. ~ Thom Jurek