Tags
Related Posts
Share This
JFS #107 The Dr. John Interview…..
My guest today is from New Orleans, LA. A territory the United States acquired from the French in the Louisiana Purchase because the French had lost control of the African Slaves who came to Congo Square to communicate through the drum.
The drum could talk in a universal language of spirit mind and body. And in that order.
This is the Bayou culture. A mighty coo-de-fi-yo hoodoo approach to singing and songwriting built from tales of the Walcott Medicine Show mixed with Snake Poison and transformational characters.
The chanting, the voodoo all very misunderstood and therefore feared by western man.
Build the body of the car and strip it of its soul. If it don't look pretty then there must be nothing there.
My guest today came into music when individuality was king. He comes from the land of gumbo in the garb of the indigenous.
His smokey gulf coast honky tonk toe tapping style started in the southeast before being catapulted west and let Hollywood be thy name. However sunny California proved to be a gateway towards meeting more individuals seeking warm sound, solidarity and a way to keep the sun, roots and herbs inside the music.
Guys like Levon Helm and Maria Muldaur, Van Morrison and Paul Butterfield, Soony and Cher and Frank Zappa.
Before that it was Bobby Charles and Allan Toussaint and The Meters and professor Longhair and on and on and on....still hot as ever striding on the acoustic with a Hammond behind him and brass sections in the right place. Playing to houses big and small, carrying the traditions of regional swamp music Malcolm John Michael Crow Rebenack welcome to the JFS..
Hey Jake,
I just noticed that you are now interviewing blues and R&B guys. Specifically I noticed that you’re either going to, or have, interviewed Dr. John.
I toured with him for about 8 months and played on the Gumbo album. I have a lot of fond memories of working with him.
He’s a great guitar player. Once we flew out of Philadelphia to Toronto in the worst blizzard I’ve ever flown in. The wings on the plane were literally flapping up and down at least twelve feet at th te tip. I’m pretty sure everyone on the plane thought we were going down, including myself. We did get to Toronto and played a New Years Eve concert, and afterwards we all went back up to Mac’s hotel room. At that time he traveled with a huge entourage. The main thing I remember from that night was Mac backing up any of the girl background singers that wanted to sing. And they all wanted to sing, and they all sang standards. And Mac just chunked away, Count Basie style, all these jazz chords to any tune that the girls called out. I was blown away.
Another time we were playing a club here in LA called the Ashgrove. It’s now the Improv and has been for years. But back then it was the Ashgrove. A really cool music venue. We got on stage and started to play and Mac put his hand up and stopped the band. Then he spoke though the mic to the sound guy, telling him to try and get the piano to sound right. Mac played solo piano for almost 10 minutes straight while the sound guy adjusted the sound. At the end of that the audience gave Mac a standing ovation for what he just played. I have to admit, once again, Mac’s musicianship blew me away.
I have a bunch of other stories, like the first gig I did with him. It was at Carnegie Hall. Weather Report opened for us. I remember standing on the stage in the wings watching Weather Report. They were unbelievable. I was blown away at how great they were. When they left the stage, as soon as they all got out of view of the audience, Joe Zawinul proceeded to bitch at the guys in the band all the way up 3 flights of stairs to their dressing room. Once again I was blown away. I thought, “holy shit, these guys just played their asses off, but apparently Joe didn’t think so”.
If I remember correctly, the band that opened for us was: Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Airto Moreira and Miroslav Vitous I’m sure you can see why I couldn’t believe that Zawinul was uphappy with what happened on stage.
Hope you’re well.
Cheers,
Kenny