Dr. John
Dr. John ( born November 21, 1940 in New Orleans, Louisiana; actually Malcolm (Mac) John Rebennack Jr. ) is an American rock ' n ' roll, blues and jazz musicians (especially guitar, piano) and producer.
Biography
Even as a youth he was interested in R & B music and started a high school band (The Spades) with Jerry Byrne ( Lights Out ) as a singer. Rebennack was one of the first white musician who at R & B sessions regularly played in New Orleans and worked as a fixed studio musician at the legendary Ace Records. Among his most important influences is what Professor Longhair. His first recordings for ACE, he played a along with Huey "Piano" Smith ( Rockin ' Pneumonia ) and Frankie Ford ( Sea Cruise (1957 )), which are now traded by record collectors as rarities. By 1962 he was in New Orleans, then in Los Angeles in various bands and active in many productions of other musicians such as Frank Zappa, the Rolling Stones, Phil Spector, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Canned Heat ( Living the Blues ) or Sonny and Cher involved. In 1977 he worked with Van Morrison on his comeback album A Period of Transition. In the context of this album he worked with as an arranger and musician. In the same year completed the two share a number of performances, culminating in a television special.
His first major success came in 1968 with Dr. John Gris- Gris, a rather scary -sounding mix of voodoo spells, rhythm and blues and Creole soul music. With colorful, picturesque stage performances, he portrayed himself as Dr. John ( Creaux ) the Night Tripper become an icon of the psychedelic rock. With Babylon, Remedies and The Sun, Moon and Herbs, he continued the revival and updating of the musical influences of his hometown. The next album, Gumbo, announced Rebennacks departure from his extravagant lifestyle, which continued with In the Right Place and Desitively Bonnaroo. After this first peak of his success and lots of creative and hectic years, Dr. Johns took productivity both qualitatively and quantitatively from first time. The following, published in a less frenetic cadence albums were not many buyers. All his attempts to take legal action against unauthorized recordings ( Anytime, Anyplace or The Nashville Sessions ) to put up a fight, failed.
The creative break ended in 1981 with the appearance of the panel, Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack, a collection of songs that had taken alone with his piano musician and he developed in The Brightest Smile in Town on. Since then he has published at irregular intervals more albums, which he composed almost exclusively themselves. He also collaborated with numerous blues musicians such as Charles Brown, The Simpsons, Willy DeVille, but also with jazz musicians ( Maria Muldaur, Lillian Boutté, Bennie Wallace or Chris Barber) as well as with rock musicians such as Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. He joined Martin Scorsese film The Last Waltz on, the last concert of the band in 1977, just as in the film Blues Brothers 2000. Moreover, he composed music for commercials and clips ( jingles ) and sang the theme song for the television series Blossom.
He wrote and sang the song Cruella DeVille for the Disney movie hundred and one Dalmatians. In 2009 there was another collaboration with Disney: The opening song Down in New Orleans from the animated film The Princess and the Frog is interpreted by Dr. John.
The music group Emerson, Lake and Palmer took the text of Dr. John's song Right Place, Wrong Time, the neologism " Brain Salad Surgery " for their eponymous album released in 1973.
2007 Dr. John was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the same year he received the Blues Music Award for Best Piano Player. " Gris Gris " was recorded in the legendary list Wire The Wire 's " 100 Records That Set The World On Fire (While No One Was Listening ) ". His album Locked Down 2013 was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Blues Album.