There are races like Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Africa and creole, and there are kinds of music like jazz, cajun, zydeco, gospel, R&B and soul : New Orleans, though not a big city, has kept its originality which cannot be got by other rural areas. This fascinatin melting-pot of music cannnot be missed, however, it has got known worldwide mainly by the publicity power of big cities. Jazz was developed by those who moved from New Orleans to the north such as Louis Armstrong, and most of recording companies which had sold R&B or soul were located outside of New Orleans. Dr. John, with a very significant, blusy and gruff voice and a well-rolling piano in the tradition, has the common image of a white man who embodied New Orleans. However, his outputs in his heyday were recorded in anywhere else. Moreover, he released ones sometimes which were not suited to the New Orleans' festive images or carpriciously to his freaks' expectations : his oblique viewpoint is directed to taste rather than business.
The beginning of my acquaintance with New Orleans should be the same as that of quite many folks. Dr. John's "Gumbo", not so sold in its first release, has always been the gateway to New Orleans for rock fans so far. Starting with Iko Iko of the Dixie Cups' fame to the last, this album has kept a joyful atmosphere of the happy rhythm of second line. The commentaries of his own tunes which were told to Jerry Wexler on its liner notes, not only about his idols (Professor Longhair, Huey Smith) but about ones who often hid themselves in the shadow of history (Archibold, Earl King), and also about songs with melody in the sunny side and lyrics in the dark side (Junko Partner, Stack-a-Lee ), are genuinely done in the viewpoint of "an authority". Ironically, this features New Orleans musicians and were cut in California in 1972. He started as a studio musician with the name of Mac Rebennack since the late '50s in his teens, and he saw the past glory of New Orleans in just the front of himself which had been on the wane after Motown or the Beatles. Moved to the West coast for a job, he picked up the oldies which were inevitably seen as reminiscences or unearthed stuffs. Despite it, the backings sound was not the mere reproduction but was cut fresh. It is why these renditions weren't the mere cover compilation but got to be masterpieces
To tell the truth, my first contact in the ear with Dr. John was his Miami fruits in '73 "In the Right Place", recorded with Allen Toussaint, the popular producer out of New Orleans in the '70s, and the Meters, the best funk band in New Orleans. Its first track Right Place Wrong Time was his biggest hit ever, with New Orleans rhythms and horns and with guitar cuttings and sol in the light West coast treatment. In my youth it was so easy to hear its light portion that I used to copy the solo of David Spinozza through the ear. If you want the friendly ones, you should hear bright and light-hearted Traveling Mood or carefree but amorous Such a Night (the impressive tune appeared on the Band's "Last Waltz" or the film "Colors" starring Sean Penn and Dennis Hopper). And you should not miss the whole wonderful stuffs of strict and heavy funky rhythms of the Meters and low-poised horns in full bloom, such as I Been Hooded or Cold Cold Cold.
What I thought when I read the liner notes of "Gumbo" was what did the words meant, saying "More Gumbo, Less Gris Gris"? This cloudy question seems to have been clear when I heard his "Gris-Gris" in '68. This first album in the name of Mac Rebennack's alter ego, Dr. John, the Night Tripper, was an epoch-making weird work which put together with the sound makings of the psychedelic era and the mystic voodoo of New Orleans, and which was the presentiment of the development of world music scene. Spell-bounding and fearful tracks like Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya or I Walk on Guilded Splinters and rather pop and blues-based ones like Mama Roux or Jump Sturdy are full of charms, hard to love and hard to forget at one hearing. By the way, the name "Dr. John" was taken from an actual incantationist, and then there was a model of his sound production and strange and gaudy performance. It was Prince La La who was cared by Harold Batiste, the producer of "Gris-Gris", at AFO label. He was shot to death shortly after having a moderate hit She Put the Hurt on Me in '61 (you can be heard on "Birth of Soul volume 3" and so on). Some of his small amount of recordings with dreadful backings and his cry in a voice full of life (especially you should take care of Need You on "More Gumbo Stew") must have been heard by Mac Rebennack who was going in and out of AFO.
Many musicians from the late '60s to the early '70s radically revolved their own music. I wonder if it was the fever of the time when something new or something anyone had not done before were sought. Between the bright light of many New Orleans hits in the past and the dark shadow which can be found only by those who had lived there, Dr. John, it seems to me, has kept coming and going. On "Mos' Scocious" compiling his tunes until '89, there are easy-going tunes in an Ace sideman Mac Rebennack years, Mardi Gras Day intermingling the light and the shadow released between "Gris-Gris" and "Gumbo", friendly grooves after "In the Right Place" and standard jazz renditions (on Makin' Whoopee ! , which had been sung by Ray Charles, he made a duet with Richie Lee Jones). All these tunes suggest that anyone should not have so much an impression that Dr. John is a pure "feature of New Orleans". Meanwhile, his piano and vocal should be nothing but that of New Orleans. Moreover, if he had not been there, many would have pay little attention to New Orleans. Someone else cannot understand the struggle of "the feature of sightseeing", who thinks he doesn't want to be put into his own self or to be categorized. But his familiar songs cannot be all told because he has personality which cannot be pumped dry. (2008/06/22)