Dr. John S/D

That remark about the British is hilarious. He might also have mentioned we kicked their ass in the Battle of His Hometown in the War of 1812.

http://blog.nola.com/entertainment_impact_music/print.html?entry=/2011/03/herman_ernest_longtime_dr_john.html

Herman Ernest, longtime Dr. John drummer, dies of cancer

Published: Monday, March 07, 2011, 12:41 PM

By Keith Spera, The Times-Picayune

Herman Ernest III, the longtime drummer in Dr. John’s Lower 911 band and a literal and figurative giant of New Orleans funk drumming, died Sunday of cancer at his home. He was 59.

Renowned for his larger-than-life personality, Mr. Ernest, known affectionately as Roscoe, was both a powerful percussionist and steadfast individual. He referred to his playing style as “diesel funk.”

He was featured on most Dr. John recordings going back at least 20 years, as well as on myriad albums by artists across the spectrum of New Orleans music. He starred in a 2004 New Orleans drumming instructional DVD alongside Herlin Riley, Johnny Vidacovich and Earl Palmer.

:(

He kept trying to play right to the end:

Most recently, Mr. Ernest cut tracks for “Nine Lives,” a forthcoming CD and musical based on Dan Baum’s book of the same title. Singer-songwriter Paul Sanchez recalled in a posting Sunday on the OffBeat message board how Mr. Ernest played through intense pain during the recording session.

Listening to "Babylon" for the first time ever this afternoon. What a bizarre record.

I just bought that myself. I really like it! Unique weird vibe, not really like "Gris-Gris" at all.

"black widow spider" off "babylon" is one of the greatest rhythm tracks ever.

Yeahhh!

I liked it too, I guess I should have clarified. Yeah, it seems to have less of its roots in "voodoo" or Haitian music (or whatever it is he's mutating on "Gris Gris") and more psychedelic rock and jazz and beat poetry. Mac sounds stoned to the gills on this one.

new album with Black Keys guitarist and others coming soon:

The keyboardist and bassist, Leon Michels and Nick Movshon, are from the El Michels Affair, one of the bands associated with Dap-Tone records from Brooklyn and the world of retro-funk that brought you the sound of Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” record. (They’ve also both played in the touring version of the Black Keys.) The guitarist Brian Olive, once of the Soledad Brothers, whose own solo album “Two of Everything” was produced last year by Mr. Auerbach, is part of the same fraternity of backward-looking obsessives.

This record will find some fans among those who loved “Back to Black,” and it should. But have you ever wondered how hip is too hip? “Locked Down,” with its down-cold James Black drum rhythms, distorted Fender Rhodes keyboards and free-range, organically farmed reverb, is a useful test case. (By the way, go back and listen to Dr. John’s complicated, spaced-out record “The Sun, Moon & Herbs,” from 1971, when all recordings were analog: are we trying to out-hip that on its own terms?) If Dr. John weren’t grounding it with his casual essence, it might collapse under the weight of its own studied scuff.

But some of it is beautiful, and I look forward to hearing it live. One can do that right

plus live in NYC:

a residency spread across three weekends. March 29 to 31 he’ll perform in “A Louis Armstrong Tribute,” which is just what it sounds like but different, including performances from Arturo Sandoval, Rickie Lee Jones and the Blind Boys of Alabama. April 5 to 7 he’ll be performing “Locked Down” with Mr. Auerbach and band; and April 12 to 14 he presents “Funky but It’s Nu Awlins,” with guests from his hometown, including Donald Harrison, Davell Crawford, Ivan Neville, Irma Thomas and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/arts/music/dr-john-plays-three-weekends-at-bam.html?ref=music

The record has an African flavor beyond the rhythms. When Mr. Auerbach first approached Dr. John in 2010 about doing an album, he played him Ethiopian jazz by the vibraphonist Mulatu Astatke to give him an idea of the otherworldly keyboard sounds he was after. “I wanted it not to be a throwback album,” Mr. Auerbach said. “I wanted young people to hear it and fall for this stuff, not in a retro way.”

He then recruited young musicians steeped in African pop. They were anchored by the German drummer Max Weissenfeldt, who specializes in Ethiopian and Afro-pop beats, and the bassist Nick Movshon, a New Yorker who has mastered several African styles. They ate Ethiopian food and listened to African jazz during the 10 days in September when they wrote and recorded instrumental tracks at Mr. Auerbach’s studio, Easy Eye Sound.

“It was funny because we were sitting in his studio and we’d be on a roll from eating Ethiopian food and listening to Ethiopian jazz,” Dr. John said, “and then we’d cut something, and it kind of rubbed off. There is a lot of northwest African stuff in there and northeast African stuff, and there is some stuff that reminds me a little bit of Fela Kuti.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/arts/music/dr-johns-new-album-locked-down-and-bam-residency.html?pagewanted=2&ref=music

i don't have much use for the black keys dude but this album is p good. not sure dr john needs the hot-young-band critical reevaluation treatment as he's never really fallen off, digging it anyway.

npr talked with 'em this morning. Black Keys guy pushed the doc to write personal lyrics

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/03/149842728/dr-john-a-rock-legend-gets-personal

yeah album is pretty good. i despise the black keys but if this makes some more money for dr. john, helps him book better venues all the better.

I need to pick this up. On one cursory listen it doesn't sound radically different from his recent (non-Great American Songbook) recordings, but I'll admit I haven't been paying close attention to the last few. He was surprisingly great the last time I saw him though, and dug into some deep catalog titles.

If I were in NYC I would see “Funky but It’s Nu Awlins” in a heartbeat.

He was on Fallon last night, reading lyrics off of a sheet and looking pretty not-into-it. Best part of the song was Dr. John's keyboard solo, one-handed Astatke-meets-Fela kind of thing.

"here's a question...i read that "sun moon and herbs" was originally slated as a 3lp...was all that material actually recorded and shelved or was it simply aborted before going into the studio?"
In the autobio Dr. John blames his manager at the time for absconding with the master tapes and fucking with them (editing, mixing, etc.). Similar to what happened with Remedies and the version of "Angola" that's on there. Anyway, I'd wager that extra LP of material from the Sun, Moon, and Herbs sessions is just lost and/or destroyed, but who knows...

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, December 6, 2005 5:18 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just read in Mojo last night that the dr's working on a version of the full thing for release next year.

O RLY

would buy!

Have any of the first 4 outside of Gris Gris been remastered remotely recently/ Or will that be the first one?
I'm assuming that Gris Gris must have been, cos its been reissued several times.

Just think my copy of Babylon is early 90s at latest. Must find the thing.

dunno. everything I have is on vinyl

am i the only one who finds that he sounds very much like captain beefheart on a couple of songs? which is great, obviously.

the good doctor's range is a bit narrower but in general yes

think they played on the same bill a few times in the 70s.

i was especially thinking of the new album which is not typical for him, i think. somehow i always associated him with more traditional american rock music. like swamp rock, blues and new orleans in general. but the new one is more adventurous, it has lots of psychedelic ingredients.

Have you heard Gris Gris?

yeah, gris gris is like the most psychedelic record ever.

man i said it on the album covers thread but Gris Gris is so fucking weird and swampy and psychedelic it's beyond fucked up awesome

haven't heard the new one but nothing with the black keys dude can be truly psych, they are like human cardboard

no i haven't, i have only had a cursory listen to dr. john's music up to now. looking forward to discover some good psych.

Gris Gris and Babylon are both pretty out there

haha yeah if you think this latest one is psychedelic just wait. any similarities to beefheart probably due to shared debt to howlin wolf right?

oh cool i didn't know he had any other records in that vein

for years i only knew dr. john from his kinda schmaltz-o appearance in The Last Waltz, but I heard Gris Gris a few years ago and was blown away. Such a cool record.

no, i don't think it has something to do with howlin' wolf. just listen to eleggua and you will know what i mean. that is pure, true beefheart in mexican mode,fantastico.

well, none of them are quite as spacey as Gris Gris. Babylon has a bunch of weird shit on it - children's choirs, odd time signatures, also this amazing song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b53cvwJdpXA

Remedies *wanted* to be a psych record but his manager fucked that one up pretty bad afaict. By the time he got around to Sun, Moon, and Herbs things had straightened out a little sonically but the material is all still in that voodoo-blues vein (also features Keith Richards and Mick Jagger iirc). Once he hooked up with the Meters he was pretty solidly in the fonk pocket.

it is really obvious how the manager/producer completely fucked this up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtcQCqpv_v0

Gris Gris is really great. Opening track is like taking a swim down the bayou with w/ an old stoned gator. Love all the layers of instruments/voices/sounds floating in and out and around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4J8VrprrGE

scratch vocal, three different takes just strung together one after the other etc.

xp

honestly everything up through like 1976 has something to recommend it

just saw this: http://www.avclub.com/articles/new-orleans-funky-night-tripper-dr-john-talks-new,71950/

actually kind of annoying it is not a longer interview!

haha okay that's a great album cover

and on that photo he even looks like the captain, it is almost spooky:

http://media.avclub.com/images/articles/article/71/71950/Dr-John-CREDIT-LISA-HOULGRAVE_jpg_627x325_crop_upscale_q85.jpg

just got back from the show at BAM, it was good. they played guilded splinters and zu zu mamou. and he did a solo piano of such night which was great. the new songs are cool, if a little too dap-tone sounding or something. but props to auerbach for turning him on to mulatu astake.

Auerbach of the Keys has him backed by Daptone folks on those new ones so that would make sense

The Doctor's latest album Locked Down is surprisingly vital sounding. The old dog's still got a lot of bite.

Thinking about trying to go to one of the BAM events. Wonder if I can still
get a ticket

Some of his new stuff is great. I love to hear older people dissing the man and sounding like they are still engaged to the world.

Are these older folks opposed to his lyrics on the latest, or the music, both, something else or are they aficianados of the first album only???

think he means The Man there, not Dr. John

Ha, misread that at first myself but managed to take a deep breath and parse it correctly

Oh, now I get it. Thanks

love that Right Place album so much and it introduced me to the word "edumacated".

Great thread.

1) Others longer to New Orleans will have more essential memories, but I can desitively muster one worthy tale of the legendary Dr. John from having had the opportunity to write some dialogue for him on an HBO drama some years back. And to be clear....

— David Simon (@AoDespair) June 7, 2019

I've been needing a new dn for a while. Thank you, Doctor.

I've always been curious about his actual relationship with the Mardi Gras Indians. Obviously a big influence, but it seems like he had some sort of honorary outsider status (or else he never would have gotten away with posing in a full suit for an album cover, right?)? Would love to learn the details sometime.

New Orleans showed UP for Dr. John! This second-line feels never-ending. pic.twitter.com/saDbvv7MMS

— NOLA.com (@NOLAnews) June 7, 2019

Great read here about his early years. Crazy times.

http://blog.ponderosastomp.com/2019/06/mac-rebennacks-wild-years/?fbclid=IwAR2ALgNPzYRHl4fvKxcy5CsR5lOxJYbuy0ILLiakvEfYhqgDuHZamtF8oN8

After preparing for a Dr. John tribute concert tonight, I've come to the conclusion that as much as I respect the piano playing and the particular style of slo-mo New Orleans groove that he came to own, I'm not really a Dr. John fan.

Fuck. How did I miss that he died?

:-( That's okay, I have enough fandom for both of us. xp

Ha, that's good. I like that people like him!

One of my fav deep cuts, from his early west coast days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR3Obpfcqlc

Wish some footage of that original Night Tripper band from the time fo Gris gris would appear.
Have loved that lp since I heard it in the late 80s, think I knew Walk On Guilded Splinters a while earlier.

Picked up the Atco box set a couple of years ago which is pretty great.

Loads of lovely live stuff been popping up since he passed. But do wish there was some more stuff a little earlier.

& the memoir Under A hoodoo Moon was a great read.

Did not know Dr. John had an ElectroFunk period

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz4o2tWp8Vw

“Top of the morning to you, govna!”

That’s a fun oddity. I used to slip it into dj sets when I played out.

I wonder when his final album will ever be released.

Just picked up a sweet copy of Babylon after loving Black Widow Spider for years. Such a weirdo record. Does anyone else vouch for Zu Zu Man? I saw that at a store and passed recently, but maybe I should go back?

There are a zillion versions of Zu Zu man, containing more or fewer songs. None of it is in the trippy Gris Gris/Babylon vein, but the songs are worth hearing if you’re a Dr. John fan. He never did a straight country song like Just Like a Mirror again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBQ0xKARXQg

Final album came out Friday. I’ve listened twice so far and found it lovely, mostly downbeat and bittersweet. It’s perfect Sunday morning music. Not overladen with guest artists, and it holds to its original conception (a country album) fairly well, with thematic nods in the song selection that would be his final work.

I’m glad they didn’t go the Johnny Cash/Bettye LaVette route and have him doing Nine Inch Nails or Stones covers.
Apparently there was some after-the-fact “fixing” but overall I think it’s a fine farewell.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/dr-john-final-album-things-happen-that-way-1234595476/