Mojo Of Dr. John

Solo performances of Dr. John's greatest hits. Dr. John's music is stamped with the rhythms and traditions of the Crescent City, and he has spent a career that now spans more than half a century championing it's music. Born Malcolm John 'Mac' Rebennack, he learned piano and guitar as a child. As a child growing up in the 1940s, he was steeped in the music of the city. 'It was a special time in New Orleans,' he told USA Today's Edna Gunderson. 'The radio stations played basically New Orleans music, and I thought that was what the whole world heard.' As a musician, he was schooled by local legends like Walter 'Papoose' Nelson (Professor Longhair's guitarist), guitarist Roy Montrell, keyboardist James Booker and Cosimo Matassa (whose J&M Studio was the hub of the city's recording scene). Rebennack became one of the first white session men on the local scene. Working in L.A. with producer Harold Battiste, a fellow Crescent City expatriate, he created the character of Dr. John the Night Tripper, a voodoo sorcerer and healer. His first album, Gris-Gris, masterfully evoked the mystical spirit of back-alley voodoo in a musical setting of otherworldly 'N'Awlins' swamp funk. It meshed perfectly with the age of psychedelia in which it was released. Such cuts as 'I Walk on Gilded Splinters' evoked a late-night, back-streets netherworld of ritual and mystery. Until his untimely passing on June 6th of this year, Dr. John continued to keep the Crescent City's musical heritage alive.