Before the Neville Brothers became a group, Art Neville had his own little group called the Hawketts. This was back in the 1950s, and I was basically just getting started. Artists like me, who didn’t have their own bands, would work with various groups around New Orleans. Wherever we had gigs where the Hawketts were the backup band, Art–who died on July 22 at 81–was always the guy who wanted to get it right. They were a very popular local group in Louisiana, and over the years I watched him grow...