Email this article | Printer friendly page BackTalk with Dr. JohnBy Jeff Hannusch |
No other New Orleans artist has worn as many musical jackets as Mac Rebennack aka Dr. John. During his career, which spans over four decades, he's been a little-dab-will-do-ya rock and roller, talent scout, writer, arranger, band leader, session player, hippie rock icon, jingle creator, jazz and blues musician. Along the way he's created his own enduring musical persona, contributed to popular music and introduced many to the sounds of New Orleans. It is a fitting tribute that he is being honored by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival as the subject of this years poster. OffBeat's Jeff Hannusch caught up with the good Doctor to see what he's been up to lately.
What's your latest project?
Well I'm in the middle of doing a record with them long hair boys from over the pond. I'm bringing my rhythm section here [New York], we're gonna start cutting here tomorrow with Herman Ernest and Bobby Broom. We've already cut some tracks with Spiritualized, Paul Wellar's band and Supergrass - I don't know who all these guys are. I'm trying some new stuff because my record company feels like maybe I can sell four records instead of two.
Which label are you on now?
Parlophone-EMI.
That's a new label isn't it?
For me it is. On my last record -- the live record -- I was in between deals. I just got out of a deal with GRP before this current deal. I had a chance to go cut some live shit with Ronnie Scott so that's how that went down.
What are you cutting now?
Hopefully it's some good shit. Some funk stuff, some original stuff. Me and my old lady been writing some stuff. I think the material is good. John Lemke the producer is coming over here from England tonight so I'll have a chance to listen to what he did to some of the tapes I gave him. Tomorrow when my guys come in we'll lay down some basic tracks, then they'll let some of those longhaired boys from over there overdub their stuff.
How different are English musicians from New Orleans musicians?
Oh, it's a whole different universe. British guys are just into their own bag -- they do their thing, just like our thing is our thing. New Orleans guys might show up late for a session, but when they get there it's business. These British guys get there on time but they got to fart around in the studio and they take a lot of time.
You've got some other projects going too?
Well, I did three songs for a movie starring Andie McDowell and Andy Garcia's next movie Scalpers. It's a real nice soundtrack, Cachow is on it too. I did this record too with Spiritualized the guys that are on my new record. In fact I want to work a deal out where I sell a track to them from my record to them. In fact I just got a gold record for that. It was like some music between Babylon and Bitches Brew. It was one of those records where you went in the studio expecting a certain thing, but when you finished it was completely different.
Didn't you do something with the Wild Magnolias?
Yeah, they cut some of my tunes that I'm real happy with. I always loved the way Monk (Boudreau) and Bo (Dollis) sing. I mean when they do their old stuff -- to many that's the real shit. They're the hip thing and what Indian music is all about.
Were you pleased with the live album?
Yeah.
Do you pay attention to the Grammys? [Dr. John's live CD, Trippin' Live, was nominated.]
Well, me and my wife went to the Grammy's. It was okay, we dug it.
Do Grammys sell records?
Naw. After winning three or four -- I don't even know how many I won -- I didn't sell any more records behind them. Maybe if you win one in the big pop category it does but I don't win nothing in those categories up to this point in time.
Have you every thought about doing another duet album?
Well I had such a pain in the ass after doing that duet with Rickie Lee Jones ("Makin' Whoopie"). I couldn't never get her to make any gigs behind it.
I hear you're going to be on the Jazz Fest poster this year?
That's correct. They tried to get me a long time ago but they couldn't get ahold of me. Finally they caught up with me via my management.
Did you have to pose for it?
Well, I didn't pose but this guy came and took a whole gang and a half of flicks.
Have you seen it?
Well I saw a mockup for it -- it looked cool to me but it was so little and my eyeballs is too so bad I couldn't see what it looked like.
Last time I saw you looked like you dropped some weight.
That's correct.
What's the deal?
I been running a mile everyday [laughs]. No, I just been not eating at four in the morning like I used to and I been walking the dogs like a human being. I lost a lot of weight and I'm feeling a lot better. Maybe I'll live a few more days.
Are you planning anything special for the Festival this year?
Well, to me every gig is special. I'll just keep the music true to the New Orleans root.
If you could put together an all-star band of New Orleans musicians -- both living and dead -- who would you choose?
Geez... I guess on guitar I'd pick Papoose [Walter Nelson Jr.] or Roy Montrell. On bass, I'd pick Chuck Badie or maybe George French. Drums, I'd get like ... boy that's a tough one. I guess something between Hungry [Charles Williams], Zig [Modeliste] and Earl Palmer. Maybe John Boudreaux and James Black. Man there's so many good drummers here and I haven't even mentioned all of 'em. Bass ... Chuck Badie on upright or George French on electric. That sounds like a good rhythm section to me. Lee Allen or Herb Hardesty on tenors, Red Tyler on bari, Melvin Lastie on trumpet or Dave Bartholomew -- well, Melvin on coronet and Dave on trumpet. On trombone, Frog Joseph. On piano, maybe Fess for the Carnival kind of stuff or Allen Toussaint. Then there's James Booker, too. On vocal, I always lean towards a certain krewe -- Johnny Adams, Aaron Neville, Art Neville, Chuck Carbo, "Scar" John [Williams] from the Tic Tocs. Female vocalists, Bernadine Washington, Shirley Raymond, Tammi Lynn. I know I'm not thinking of them all, but there were a lot of hip-assed singers that came out of New Orleans. Backup singers I'd pick the Spiders or Clowns with Bobby Marchan.
Huey Smith and the Clowns have kind of been overlooked as far as influential New Orleans groups go. What were they like?
Not only were they kicks on stage, but Huey had this groove that made their records sound really special. The Clowns sang a little bit behind the beat a little like the way horns did sometimes. What I liked was when they did those early records with the overdubs. They'd clap in straight time but they sang a little behind that. It gave those records a different feel. I got a lot of Huey in my playing but it wasn't a conscious thing. Allen Toussaint and Edward Frank made me aware that I got a lazy left hand like Huey. I guess I worked so many sessions on guitar watching Huey play piano that I subconsciously started to doing it.
Were you pleased with the way your book Under A Hoodoo Moon turned out?
Well, I think if I hadn't written it under the influence of lithium poisoning it might have been better. My head was real splattered then 'cause I was coming out of rehab. I wasn't aware I had lithium poisoning until after the book was published. I mean looking back I could have done a better job but I'm glad I did it and didn't wait longer.
It seemed like remembering a lot of that stuff must have been painful?
It was. You know I never read the thing but...
You never read it?
No, and I been through a lot of crap and flak about the stuff that was in it. To me the best shit that was in there was like when me, Danny Barker and "Google Eyes" [Joe August] were sitting around talking and they taped it. Parts of that stuff was cool. I'll tell you the best way to write a book about New Orleans music right now. Get a bunch of the cats sitting around a tape recorder and let 'em roll. This is something me and Allen talked about.
There was a guy in your book I was curious about, Rufus "Nose" Gore?
Nose came to New Orleans around '58 or '59. He did sessions at King in Cincinnati for years with Red Prystock. He was one of their main tenor players. He quit and came to New Orleans. I ran into him at the Greyhound bus station. I hired him for a date the day he got to New Orleans. I brought him over to my pad -- I was staying on Jeff Davis Parkway -- and he had the whole neighborhood talking because nobody seen anything like this guy before. He had Bermuda shorts, bald head, beatnik-looking goatee and shades. Nose slid right into the thing because Lee Allen and Herb Hardesty were going on the road then with Fats and couldn't make some recording dates. By the early 1960s he was on a lot of dates. Me and Red Tyler both used him.
I'd have liked to read little bit more about Smiley Lewis.
Poor Smiley, he was like one of those existences where he was always in the shadow of somebody else. I mean he had that one good record ["I Hear You Knockin"] and that fuckin' girl [Gale Storm] covered it and then later that guy from across the pond David Edmunds cut it after he died and Smiley's family didn't get any cake 'cause it was Dave's [Bartholomew] song.
Even I did this one great commercial with him before he croaked [1966] and even that went bad. I thought next to the Lincoln Beach commercial it was the best commercial that ever came out of New Orleans. It was for a lumber company or something but it never came out. It was a killer commercial.
What was the Lincoln Beach commercial like?
[Sings] If you want to have fun come along with me. I'll take you out to Lincoln Beach, where you can rock, roll, swim and play, you can have a lot of fun on the gay midway. Earl Palmer played on it and he was just smoking.
You did a couple of those Learn To Play New Orleans Piano videos. Can you actually teach that or do you have to grow up around that stuff?
When I did those videos, it was like a Fig Newton of my Imagination. If anybody learned to play from those videos, I'd like them to show me.
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