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George Porter, Jr. -- Boom-Bop-Boom-Bop!

George Porter, Jr.
MusicInsideOut.org
George Porter, Jr.

When George Porter, Jr. was a child, he wanted to become a Catholic priest. But an uncomfortably silent church retreat and an encounter with neighborhood blues musicians helped Porter find his musical calling.

He turned to funk and never looked back.

As the bass player for The Meters, Porter helped create a body of music in the 1960s and 70s that still resonates as some of the funkiest grooves ever recorded.

So what’s the secret to funk?

“You’ve got to allow for space,” Porter tells Gwen. “There should never be a bass note on the backbeat. If the drummer is playing on 2 and 4, that is his backbeat… So (the bass and drum) would be, ‘Boom-Bop-Boom-Bop!’”

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Gwen Thompkins is a New Orleans native, NPR veteran and host of WWNO's Music Inside Out, where she brings to bear the knowledge and experience she amassed as senior editor of Weekend Edition, an East Africa correspondent, the holder of Nieman and Watson Fellowships, and as a longtime student of music from around the world.