Dr. John.
Nearly a quarter of a century ago, I picked up five CDs in a Virgin store on London's Oxford Street near Marble Arch to listen to three or four song excerpts from each and then buy an album. I can't remember the others, they could have been Motorhead, Smashing Pumpkins or Oasis but I know I added Dr John's Afterglow album. Until then I only knew In the Right Place from him in 1973 and I knew he was an American pianist and singer. I was intrigued by the cover, which shows Dr John in a black cap and with his eyes closed, smiling mischievously. Apparently he's internally living out a blues story. I got excited by the first few notes of the opening I Know What I've Got and liked Blue Skies. I bought the record and started to get a little more interested in the author/performer. I also bought Gris-Gris, Dr. John's Gumbo, Remedies and Babylon. But more than those I bought, I enjoyed the newer songs, which lacked the elements that brought in influences that stood outside the music, such as voodoo, drug escapades, etc. The somewhat swashbuckling, mannered vocals intricately led over the rhythm section with an added, richly-cast brass section is an interesting original take on classic blues techniques. The piano is the basis of the arrangement, which Dr. John wields masterfully, but he can also add the guitar that accompanied the beginning of his career. His importance to the American blues was fully realized when I watched a documentary series on the genre, hosted by actor Clint Eastwood, in which Dr. John was given an extensive passage of excerpts and interviews. Malcolm John Rebennack, under his stage name Dr. John, performed twice in Prague. Once as part of the Prague Summer Music Festival and the second time in 2015 at Prague Castle. Both performances had their own charm, both in the on-stage rendition, which included a hat, cane, colourful clothes, pendants, jingle bells and trinkets, and in the musical one, in the form of pure American blues spiced with authentic New Orleans. On June sixth of this year, Dr. John died at the age of seventy-seven. The album Afterglow features as number six an original composition originally written for another blues great, B. B. There Must a Better World Somewhere. Yes, there must be a better world somewhere, and Dr. John set out to find it.
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