→ Thanks also to the late Blue DeVille...
Dr. John, who departed this world in June 2019 😢,
was a fascinating character ! Not only was he a great pianist, but he
was also a fantastic composer, arranger and producer, and he had the
most incredible and inimitable voice you could find. The words were
rolling around in his mouth as if he was swallowing a gumbo or munching
an oyster "po' boy" while singing ! Just listen to the way he pronounces
the word "limbo" on track three ! His kind of squeaking voice should
normally be hard to bear. Not with the Doc. Instead it's highly
captivating.Shut D Fonk Up
His
1994 album "Television", a real jewel, is a perfect illustration of his
many talents. One of them being his ability to chose the right sidemen,
not necessarily commercially successful ones, but really talented
musicians. Just take a look at the long Credits list : except the
multi-skilled Hugh McCracken and Randy Brecker, are the other names
familiar to you ?
But
it is as a producer-arranger that the Doc is often close to genius,
always adding here and there ornaments that makes the difference, be it
swamp animal life noises ("Shadows"), adding a background choir here
("Thank You"), a horn chorus there, a demonic laugh here or a rap part
there ("Shut D Fonk Up"). Each song has its own musical identity but in
the end it's always Dr. John's very identifiable style.
If I count right, that's eight tracks, more than half of the album ! But don't worry, its only a personal choice, the remaining four are really exciting too ! Shut D Fonk Up ? No sir ! Not with the Doc ! ■
Anutha Zone (1998)
His Dr. John persona came to him when he found out that one of his ancestors had been arrested along with a Senegalese prince named Jean Montanet or Montaine, aka “Doctor John”, who was selling gris-gris protection amulets and running voodoo ceremonies in a whorehouse in the mid 19th century.
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| Practicing guitar at 17 |
Rebennack
wrote his first song at age 14 and continued doing so for artists like
Art Neville, Joe Tex, Frankie Ford, Allen Toussaint, and his personal
hero, Professor Longhair. At 16, he was hired as an A&R man (talent
scout-agent-producer) by Ace Records. The youngest in history ever.
He
used to claim being the first Blues Music Award winner in 1980. In fact
the very first W.C. Handy Award for Contemporary Blues Album of the
Year went to Professor Longhair’s “Crawfish Fiesta” album, on which Dr.
John only played guitar. Still during his career, Dr. John won six
Grammy awards and got nominated over a dozen times.
Among
numerous true or half legendary episodes of his early life on the wild
side in the late1950s-early 60s (running a brothel, serving a two-year
sentence in prison for selling narcotics were inmates dubbed him the
“zuzu man”, playing in the worst “bucket of blood” joints and strip
clubs of the Big Sleazy), it's established that he became a heroin
addict for true. Until 1989 when he cleaned up on a rehab program.
After
he invented Dr. John The Nite Tripper in the late 1960s, he was
performing over-the-top shows, well before Alice Cooper or Bowie,
dressed in incredible Mardi-Gras costumes including beads, feathers and
bones, sometimes body paint, with snakes and gris-gris dancers on stage,
and even a certain Prince Kiyama who would bite the head off a live
chicken and drink the blood during the performances. Until the whole
company was arrested after a show in St. Louis !
Talking
about New Orleans music, Dr. John once said humorously (or maybe not) :
“That this city has second lines, it's something I'm proud of. When the
bands come back from the cemetery, they'll play something up
― something like 'I'll Be Glad When You're Dead (You Rascal You)' ― that
will bring the people back to life.”
On another occasion, he affirmed : “New Orleans cats don't play a lot of solos unless they got something to say. It's not an ego thing like it is with some other musicians. You say what you gotta say and then shut up.” This latter comment is illustrated to the extreme in “Anutha Zone” : not even a single solo around, a totally collective work.
In
this 1998 album, Dr. John came back to his early “gris-gris funk” (he
dressed back in his wild outfits on the cover picture) but in a renewed
version with the help of guest musicians from... UK (ex-Style Council
Paul Weller, members of Portishead, Spiritualized, Primal Scream or
Supergrass) who, though not really playing the same style of music, were
paying back their dues to one who had a great influence on their
generation.The
album revisits the dark swampy voodoo-influenced atmosphere of his
first opuses through a magnificent and diverse collection of songs. This
mysterious and spooky atmosphere is reflected through the lyrics and
the rich musical environment of tracks like “Ki Ya Gris Gris”, “Hello
God”, “John Gris”, “Party Hellfire”, “I Like Ki Yoka”, “The Olive Tree”,
“Soulful Warrior”.
Like
the whole album, this closing track is a declaration of love from an
aging Dr. John to his city and its unique culture. A musical culture
that he has largely contributed to maintain and export throughout the
world. ■
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| Marie Laveau's tomb in New Orleans |
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| Loup-garou? Voodoo man? Creepy croaker! |
As for the word “croaker” that I use in the title, it means “doctor” (probably in the sense of “witch doctor”). I picked it up on the “Gumbo-izms” glossary page of the booklet, a list of anglicized creole terms where you find imaginative expressions like “greeze” (eat or food), “jaw-jerk” (talk), “squares” (pack of cigarettes, and by extension cigarettes) or “zoo-zoos” (sweet, sweeties). An illustration of the Doc's taste for exotic twisted words.
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| David "Fathead" Newman |
As many facets of New Orleans unique musical gumbo and of Dr. John personal mix of swamp swing and voodoo atmosphere, both so inseparable that his name has become an archetypal synonym of New Orleans music.
Altogether, in addition to himself and the three members of his small combo, The Lower 9-11 (Renard Poché on guitar, David Barard on bass and Herman “Roscoe” Ernest III behind the drums), the Doc invited no less than 14 excellent guest musicians on the 14 tracks of the album, with a prominence of horn players, seven of them (hey ! it's New Orleans, isn't it ?!) among whom former Ray Charles' saxophonist David “Fathead” Newman plays on three titles (#1,8,14), and trombonist Fred Wesley is also in charge of the horn arrangements alone or jointly with the Doc.
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| Sonny Landreth |
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| Doc Pomus & Dr. John |
The lyrics of four tracks were co-written with the great blues and rock songwriter Doc Pomus (another Doc !). And for the music, it seems that as soon as he was working at the writing of a new tune, Dr. John already had in mind the particular musician(s) that would be the fittest to play such and such part of the song, and wrote the arrangements accordingly.
● Less serious things :
Audio extras ■ The Mac Rebennack interview : https://youtu.be/NZ7wHpKI_A4
■ Leonard James & His Orchestra. feat Mac Rebennack on guitar, 1958 : https://youtu.be/NrMMSHl7xSs
● 2017, Greek theater (L.A.) : https://youtu.be/JJ2D1Yyzauw
● 2014, with Cuban jazz trumpet player Arturo Sandoval, Switzerland : https://youtu.be/TQYWZVLny3g● 2014, in Paris : https://youtu.be/5ATEIvZVZq8
● With The Nite Trippers, Rockpalast (Germany), 2014 : https://youtu.be/f2mza_sr8Yw?t=40● 2013, "I Walk On Guilded Splinters", Americana Music Association : https://youtu.be/GzHUP3fVN0Y
● 2011, "Goodnight Irene" : https://youtu.be/uPjSOcM8eQ8
● 1990, "Iko Iko/Jambalaya", New Orleans : https://youtu.be/fzR7W_Crk0w● 1984, Rockpalast (Germany) : https://youtu.be/TlXlpd7XFAI
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| Malcolm J. Rebennack aka Dr. John, 1941-2019 |
→ Next chapter soon : New Orleans' Brass Bands
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