Dr. John

Born Malcolm Rebennack in New Orleans in 1942-- and nicknamed "Mac" -- Dr John began his career as a session guitarist and pianist during the heyday of 1950s R&B in New Orleans. His work graced sides by legendary Specialty Records artists like Little Richard, and he appeared on a multitude of smaller --but no less famous -- labels, like Ace, Rex and Vin. For aficionados of swamp rock, early R&B and southern pop music, Mac's work of this era is a high point of inspired back-up understatement. In the early '60s, after District Attorney Jim Garrison began closing New Orleans' notorious nightclubs, Mac joined a gaggle of transplanted Crescent City musicians in Los Angeles to cut even more sessions, this time for Phil Spector's mammoth hit factory, Sonny & Cher, The O'Jays and many others. Dr. John's career as front-man began in 1968 with the acclaimed Gris-Gris (pronounced "Gree Gree") album. Here, Mac pioneered a fusion of R&B, psychedelia, swamp pop and blues. He also created an alter-ego called The Night Tripper, a character of wild passions and dark motives that he enveloped himself with for the next decade. 

The early 1970s were Mac's most prolific and successful period. He cut a slew of accomplished albums, many for the Atlantic subsidiary Atco, including The Sun, Moon & Herbs featuring Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, and In The Right Place, which spawned a Top 10 hit in "Right Place Wrong Time" in 1973. During this furious window of activity, Dr. John could also be found on records by superstar acts like the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. 

Later that decade, he released two albums for A&M's jazz offshoot, Horizon, and a pair of solo piano albums followed in the early 1980s before a brief gap of recording inactivity. Then, in 1989, Dr. John released In A Sentimental Mood, which denounced the wildness of his past and concentrated on classics by Cole Porter and the like. The album also spawned Dr. John's first Grammy, a duet with Rickie Lee Jones. His next 
(and last) Warners album, Goin' Back to New Orleans, featured a collection of hometown standards played by a bevy of legendary friends, including Al Hirt and the Neville Brothers. Stylistically, this brought Dr. John full circle from his roots and yielded a second Grammy. Two more recent releases appeared on GRP; the second of which, Afterglow, looked back to 1940s big band and jump blues for inspiration. Dr. John continued to provide his voice to TV commercials in the 1990s and saw 
his 1968 cut "I Walk on Guilded Splinters" sampled on Beck's "Loser." In 1993, he released an autobiography, Under a Hoodoo Moon and, in 1997, accepted a third Grammy for his contribution to a star-studded Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute album. 

Remarkably, his newest release, Trippin' Live on Surefire Records, is the first official Dr. John live album. Recorded at Ronnie Scott's in London over a week-long residency, Trippin' Live sees Mac fronting a seven-piece band including his long-time collaborator, Alvin "Red" Tyler on tenor sax. Solidly steeped in New Orleans tradition; Mac's performance also celebrates his present-day post as a true world music 
pioneer, effortlessly mixing and matching traditional blues, Dixieland jazz, swamp rock and pop into a timeless, soulful modern gumbo. In Dr. John's hands, it's possible to hear bayou classics like "Tipitina" instantly adopt the rolling blues flavor indigenous to the deep South, or as Mac says of the album's version, "It's Caribbean- ized!" Of 
course, the Doctor's biggest hits, "Such A Night" and "Right Place Wrong 
Time" are featured on Trippin' Live as well, stretched out to allow ample elbow-room among the veteran jazz and blues sidemen, who also shine on the nine-minute medley of "Down By The Riverside"/"My Indian Red"/"Mardi Gras Day"/"I Shall Not Be Moved." Mac sums up the timing of his new album thusly: "We were always talking about doing a live record. This version of my band had been on the road straight for six years. When you're out there that long, something happens. The band comes 
together and gets real intuitive and smooth about each other. So, it was a good time to cut a live record. You can hear how good everyone's locking together for these shows."

Discography:

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