Our visit to New Orleans yesterday, put me in mind of another great musician who hailed from that city. Malcolm John Rebennack Jr., better known by his stage name Dr. John. was one of great exponents of the New Oreleans style. Growing up he found early musical inspiration in the minstrel tunes sung by his grandfather and a number of aunts, uncles, sister, and cousins who played piano. His father exposed him as a young boy to jazz musicians King Oliver and Louis Armstrong. Throughout his adolescence, his father’s connections enabled him access to the recording rooms of rock artists, including Little Richard and Guitar Slim. Later he began to perform in New Orleans clubs, mainly on guitar, and played on stage with various local artists. When he was about 13 years old, he met Professor Longhair. Impressed by the professor’s flamboyant attire and striking musical style, he soon began performing with him, and began his life as a professional musician.
Gris-Gris his debut album was released on Atco in 1968. The musical style of Gris-Gris is a hybrid of New Orleans rhythm and blues and psychedelic rock. Despite the New Orleans style, it was recorded in California, albeit with several native New Orleans musicians. Gris-Gris failed to chart in the United Kingdom and the United States. It was re-issued on compact disc decades later and received much greater praise from modern critics, including being listed at #143 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Three more albums, were released in the same vein as Gris-Gris. By the time the third of these The Sun, Moon, and Herbs was released, he had gained a notable cult following, which included artists such as Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, who both took part in the sessions for that album. This album served as a transition from his Night Tripper voodoo, psychedelic persona to one more closely associated with traditional New Orleans R&B and funk.
His next album, Dr. John’s Gumbo, with drummer Fred Staehle serving as the band’s backbone, proved to be a landmark recording and is one of his most popular to this day. Itv is an album covering several New Orleans R&B standards with only one original, is considered a cornerstone of New Orleans music. In his 1994 autobiography, Under a Hoodoo Moon, Dr. John writes, “In 1972, I recorded Gumbo, an album that was both a tribute to and my interpretation of the music I had grown up with in New Orleans in the late 1940s and 1950s. I tried to keep a lot of little changes that were characteristic of New Orleans, while working my own funknology on piano and guitar.” The lead single from the album, Iko Iko, broke into the Billboard singles chart, eventually reaching No.71. In 2003.
In 1973, with Alen Toussaint producing and The Meters backing, Dr. John released the seminal New Orleans funk album In The Right Place. In the same way that Gris-Gris introduced the world to the voodoo-influenced side of his music, and in the manner that Gumbo began his career-long reputation as an esteemed interpreter of New Orleans standards, In the Right Place established Dr. John as one of the main ambassadors of New Orleans funk. In describing the album, Dr. John stated, “The album had more of a straight-ahead dance feel than ones I had done in the past, although it was still anchored solid in R&B.” It rose to #24 on the Billboard album chart. In July 1973, the single “Right Place, Wrong Time” peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. A second single, “Such a Night”, peaked at #42. Still in heavy rotation on most classic rock stations, “Right Place Wrong Time” remains his most recognized song.
On Thanksgiving Day 1976 he performed “Such a Night” at the farewell concert for The Band, which was filmed by Martin Scorsese and released as The Last Waltz. In 1979, he collaborated with the legendary Professor Lonhair on Fess’s (another nickname for Henry Byrd) last recording Crawfish Fiesta, as a guitarist. The album was awarded the first W.C. Handy Blues Album of the Year in 1980 and was released shortly after Longhair’s death in January 1980.
