This poster of Dr John is the first in our new series honoring great New Orleans musicians - some famous, some obscure.
Check out some of the other posters in the series - James Booker, Aaron Neville, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, and "Uncle" Lionel Batiste
10% of the proceeds will support the Roots of Music - a New Orleans Marching Band for young musicians
The poster is printed on heavyweight presentation paper using dye based inks - approximate live image area is 14" x 20"
Your poster will be shipped rolled in a heavyweight tube to ensure its safe arrival.
About Dr John -
Malcolm
John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. (born November 21, 1940), better known by the
stage name Dr. John (also Dr. John Creaux, or Dr. John the Night
Tripper), is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose
music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as zydeco, boogie woogie and
rock and roll.
Active as a session musician since the
late 1950s, he came to wider prominence in the early 1970s with a wildly
theatrical stage show inspired by medicine shows, Mardi Gras costumes
and voodoo ceremonies. Dr. John has recorded over 20 albums and in 1973
scored a top-20 hit with the jaunty funk-flavored "Right Place Wrong
Time", still perhaps his best-known song.
The winner of five
Grammy Awards, Dr. John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
by singer John Legend on Monday, March 14, 2011.
Born in New
Orleans, Louisiana, United States, Dr. John's Acadian ancestry traces
back to the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. He claims that his
lineage took root in New Orleans sometime in the early 1800s. Growing up
in the Third Ward, Dr. John found early musical inspiration in the
minstrel tunes sung by his grandfather and a number of aunts, uncles,
and cousins who played piano. He did not take music lessons before his
teens, he only endured a short stint in choir before getting kicked out.
His father, the owner of an appliance store and record shop, exposed
him as a young boy to prominent jazz musicians like King Oliver and
Louis Armstrong. Throughout his adolescence his father's connections
enabled him access to the recording rooms of burgeoning rock artists
such as Little Richard and Guitar Slim. From these exposures he advanced
into clubs and onto the stage with varying local artists, most notably,
Professor Longhair.
Dr. John met Professor Longhair when he was
about 13 or 14 years old, the start to a period in his life that would
mark rapid growth as a musician and the beginnings of his entry into
professional music. He describes his initial impression of Professor
Longhair with note, not only of his musical prowess, but of his style:
"I was also fascinated that he was sitting out there in a turtleneck
shirt with a beautiful gold chain with a watch hangin’ on it, and an
Army fatigue cap on his head. And I thought, Wow, I never seen nobody
dressed like this guy. Just everything about the man was totally hip.
And he had gloves on him, too, beautiful silk gloves. I’ll never forget
this."
At age 16 he was hired by Johnny Vincent as a producer at
Ace Records. There, he worked with artists like James Booker and Earl
King, his musical experience expanding notably. He struggled through
intermittent years of high school, eventually focusing entirely on
music. Thereafter an entry into heavy narcotics use would fuel his
desire to get out of New Orleans and move to California where his
character, Dr. John, was born.
Rebennack's career as a guitarist
came to an end when his left ring finger was injured by a gunshot while
he was defending singer/keyboardist Ronnie Barron, his bandmate, Jesuit
High School classmate, and longtime friend. After the injury, Rebennack
concentrated on bass guitar before making piano his main instrument;
pianist Professor Longhair was an important influence on Rebennack's
piano stylings.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1963 where he became a
"first call" session musician – a member of the famed “Wrecking Crew”
on the booming Los Angeles studio scene in the 1960s and 1970s,
providing backing for Sonny & Cher (and some of the incidental music
for Cher's first film, Chastity), and for Canned Heat on their albums
Living the Blues (1968) and Future Blues (1970), along with many other
acts.
Beginning in the late 1960s, Rebennack gained fame as a
solo artist after adopting the persona of "Dr. John, The Night Tripper".
Dr. John's act combined New Orleans-style rhythm and blues with
psychedelic rock and elaborate stage shows that bordered on voodoo
religious ceremonies, including elaborate costumes and headdress
(reflecting and presumably inspired by Screamin' Jay Hawkins's stage
act). The name "Dr. John" came from a legendary Louisiana voodoo
practitioner of the early 19th century. On the earliest Dr. John
records, the artist billing was "Dr. John, The Night Tripper", while the
songwriting credits billed him as "Dr. John Creaux". Within a few years
the "Night Tripper" subtitle was dropped, and Rebennack resumed using
his real name for writing and producing/arranging credits.
Along
with Gris-Gris, Dr. John is perhaps best known for his recordings during
1972-1974. 1972's Dr. John's Gumbo, an album covering several New
Orleans R&B standards with only one original, is considered a
cornerstone in New Orleans music. In his 1994 autobiography, Under a
Hoodoo Moon, Dr. John writes, "In 1972, I recorded Gumbo, an album that
was both a tribute to and my interpretation of the music I had grown up
with in New Orleans in the 1940s and 1950s. I tried to keep a lot of the
little changes that were characteristic of New Orleans, while working
my own funknology on piano and guitar." The lead single from the album,
"Iko Iko", broke into the Billboard top 40 singles chart. In 2003, Dr.
John's Gumbo was ranked number 402 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of
the 500 greatest albums of all time. It also earned a place on Offbeat
magazine's 1999 listing of the Top 100 Louisiana CDs.
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