Unique Barely Begins to Describe Dr. John
The man who coined the phrase that helped give rise to next weekend’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has taken his final trip. Malcolm John Rebennack chose D-Day to check out one last time, at the age of 77 (June 6, 2019).
Dr. John was, for many of us, the doorway to the music of New Orleans that wasn’t Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, or the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. We heard first about this character, Dr. John, the Night Tripper, the outrageous costumes and headdresses, the gris-gris music unlike anything we had heard before. His 1968 album Gris-Gris had a wild cover befitting the psychedelic late ’60s. “I Walk on Gilded Splinters”? What did that even mean?
Wikipedia cites this great story explaining that the Dr. John moniker was “based on the life of Dr. John, a Senegalese prince, a medicinal and spiritual healer who came to New Orleans from Haiti. This free man of color lived on Bayou Road and claimed to have 15 wives and over 50 children. He kept an assortment of snakes and lizards, along with embalmed scorpions and animal and human skulls, and sold gris-gris, voodoo amulets that protected the wearer from harm.”
After four great albums as the Night Tripper, including the excellent The Sun, Moon and Herbs (1971), Dr. John chose a huge direction change with 1972’s Gumbo, featuring New Orleans classics “Iko Iko,” “Big Chief,” “Let the Good Times Roll,” “Junko Partner,” “Stack-A-Lee,” “Tipitina” and “Little Liza Jane.” He returned to his roots.
For others, the doorway opened with a song on the radio that simply blew us away: “Right Place, Wrong Time.” The album In the Right Place (1973) featured The Meters, the band most representative of the New Orleans funk sound. And the next album the following year was Desitively Bonnaroo. Good enough for a music festival, don’t you think?
Rebennack grew up in NOLA and met Professor Longhair at the age of 13. He was hooked. Originally a guitarist, a gun injury forced him to switch to bass guitar and finally to (HALLELUJAH) piano. During his decade in Los Angeles, he was part of the Wrecking Crew, the most important uncredited band in all of music. This crew performed on thousands of recording sessions “backing” The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Ike and Tina Turner, and hundreds more.
I was fortunate to hear him perform for the first time in 1978 at a tiny little north Tampa club named The Peanut Gallery, appropriately filled with peanut shells, cheap beer, and smoke. Just Dr. John and his keyboard. It was deluxe.
Since that time, Dr. John became the representative — officially or unofficially — of the Crescent City, known, revered, and requested everywhere. He has more than 30 albums to his credit and at least three dozen appearances on other projects, including Exile on Main Street, the Gregg Allman Band’s Playin’ Up a Storm, A Period of Transition by Van Morrison, and Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band.
One of his best projects was Bluesiana Triangle, playing with David ‘Fathead’ Newman and Art Blakey (1990) and the follow-up the next year with Newman and Ray Anderson. Dr. John’s final studio album was Ske-Dat-De-Dat: The Spirit of Satch, released in 2014, honoring Louis ‘Pops’ Armstrong.
The last time I saw him perform was that the 2017 Wanee Music Festival (he also played it in 2010). At the time, I wrote:
The process, as it was Friday, was to volley back and forth between the stages, this time to catch Dr. John and the Nite Trippers, out for a daytime spin. The good Dr. offered up a true greatest hits revue, including “I Walk on Gilded Splinters,” “Gris Gris” and “Right Place, Wrong Time.” That was hot! He continued with a very allegorical discussion about “three monkeys in a coconut tree.” He pitched a fine “Wang Dang Doodle,” got into some deep Latin jazz grooves, feted “Mardi Gras,” and regaled with “What a Night.” Mac Rebbenack is the consummate performer.
The first — and certainly not the last — second-line parade began this afternoon (June 7) in New Orleans. Count on more as the entire city celebrates its best ambassador. And don’t worry about Dr. John. He’s with the other NOLA faculty, the “Professors,” including Dr. Longhair, Jelly Roll Morton, Champion Jack Dupree, Huey Piano Smith, James Booker, Fats Domino, and plenty others. Hope they’ve got enough 88s!
