DR JOHN AND POST-JAZZ NEW ORLEANS
Jazz really left New Orleans in the early 1920s, when Louis Armstrong and others took the riverboat, or the tracks, north to Chicago (and then to New York).
But the swamp was still there. And, freed of the post march band generation (jazz), the swamp took over: on "Gumbo" (1972), Dr John sounds like he's eating gumbo when he's singing, taking his head out of the trough for another verse. Or were the vocalists in this style simply trying to recreate the slurry jazz sounds of cornets and trombones?
In any event, the more rock and funk oriented music from New Orleans has influenced a wide range of musicians. Listen to Dr John's brilliant sounds on "Gumbo" and you will hear John Lennon circa 1974 ("Walls And Bridges"), some of Ringo Starr's '70s singles, a hint of Randy Newman, perhaps a dose of southern rock ("Let The Good Times Roll", etc), and a model for Croce's iconic "Leroy Brown" (1973, and covered by Sinatra)--in short, a model for much of '70s mainstream music. It was a model that white artists could easily slip into. Eric Clapton's slower jazz-like blues sound is also to be heard on "Gumbo".
Dr John himself was at this time a kind of white Ray Charles too: he covered Charles' first hit "(The) Mess Around" on the album, and far more expressively (well, it was a later, freer time with better recording studios). And there are other tracks that are Charles-like too. Charles was a huge model for the early Beatles, so maybe Dr John was updating this influence, reminding people of the great Ray sound.
The big point about "Gumbo" is that it is authentic. It moves. You can see the bayou, the spirits of jazz and Buddy Bolden, of Creoles, of history.
Here Dr John talks about the rhythms and plays "Iko Iko", the opening track from "Gumbo":
The rhythm of New Orleans is a major point: Abba wrote "Dancing Queen" as a modelling on George MacCrae's classic "Rock Me Baby", but the Abba backing musicians, the rhyhm section, were totally into "Gumbo". They wanted to recreate that sound.
Rhythm, complex and intoxicating rhythm, also came to the fore with Art Neville and The Meters, the organ and guitar fronted band that influences such modern artists as Vijay Iyer. As soon as he saw The Meters, Mick Jagger booked them for a European tour with the Rolling Stones.
Dr John plays "The Mess Around":
It is as if Dr John, The Meters and others listened to the Stax soul of the '60s and said, "OK, that's not bad, but this is really how you do it. Afterall, we are the real beginning of American music". Keith Richards has said how you can spot a New Orleans record in an instant. The freedom of the southern coast must have something to do with it, as well as the French/Afro racial mix. There is also what Jelly Roll Morton called "the Spanish tinge" from the near Latin countries, such an important flavor in New Orleans music.
Jelly Roll didn't invent jazz, but New Orleans probably did.
The important early post-jazz piano/vocal performer was Professor Longhair (born in 1918) who introduced the growly vocals and rhumba influenced piano blues sound. His first album was "New Orleans Piano" (1953).
New Orleans also contributed the major black piano hero of the rock and roll era, Fats Domino. Domino was a massive influence on the Beatles.
Both Domino and Huey "Piano" Smith (born 1934) were influenced by Professor Longhair. Smith had the hit "Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu" in 1957. He mixed boogie woogie piano of Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons, Jelly Roll Morton AND Fats Domino!
Later, there was Alan Toussaint (born 1938). Toussaint wrote a number of era- defining tunes such as "Working in The Coalmine", "Southern Nights" and even "Fortune Teller" (an early cover hit of The Rolling Stones"). In the '70s he began working with Dr John and The Meters. To underscore the power of New Orleans, he also produced the Patti Labelle hit (and her album containing it) "Lady Marmalade". (Maybe this was a step too far for real music!). He is now sampled by hip hoppers.
It is no accident that Toussaint's first album was called "The Wild Sound Of New Orleans" (1958). His hit years have been, however, the 1970s on...
Dr John's sound must be the wildest. He was born in 1940, so is John Lennon's age, but the local Crescent City tradition meant he was coming from back in the day.
Here is another track from "Gumbo", a live version ("unplugged" with guitarists from the Eagles) of "Let The Good Times Roll":
"Gumbo" is maybe the ultimate record. It sounds live, definitive. An essential soundtrack. "All others are just imitators"... He really has the honky tonk bar-room piano going on the slow rambling, real-life-filled "Tipitina".
The Rolling Stones? ... imitators!
In 1973 John recorded his next album, "In The Right Place". Toussaint produced and The Meters provided the backing. The funky backing made the record a funk classic rather than a pure New Orleans groove like "Gumbo". It was his biggest seller, containing his enormous hit "Such A Night".
Dr John plays "Such A Night" solo, live:
Dr John tells the story of his career in this soundcheck interview:
He describes how his sound came about:
"We were told, you gotta respect all the music... That's just how it is, you gotta listen to everything, you know."
The point of this website!