You can take the man out of the swamp, but as Dr. John proved at the House of Blues in Chicago last week, you can't take the swamp outta the man.
As one of the living ambassadors of New Orleans music, the 59 -year old Dr. John (a.k.a. Mac Rebennack) performed a bone-rattling set that showed that, although a New York resident for the last few years, he hasn't lost any of the gritty funk from his Louisiana hometown.
Leaving behind his old stage costuming, which combined voodoo priest with Mardi Gras Indian, the good doctor sauntered onto the stage, looking more like a turn-of-the-century Southern apothecary in his neat pony tail, gray beard, black beret, crisp white suit and buttoned-up vest, as he let the strength of a wooden snake cane help lighten the load of his large frame.
Wasting no time, Dr. John perched himself behind his black grand piano and pounded out a delicious version of the New Orleans classic "Iko Iko" along with his tightly efficient band (which consisted of a guitarist, bassist and drummer who were capable of switching from the breezy sounds of the Caribbean and the Spanish flavors of Santana to psychedelia and deep funk at the drop of a hat). Although his set featured songs such as Peggy Lee's "I'm Gonna Go Fishin'," the standard "Makin' Whoopee" as well as a devilishly sly take on Duke Ellington, performed on a beat-up Hammond B3 organ, it was his funky ties with the Crescent City that earned this doctor his degree that night.
His stylish piano phrasings on songs such as "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" and the uniquely updated "When The Saints Go Marching In," which led into a rollicking take of "Big Chief," complete with creole patois, hearkened back to his musical mentor - Professor Longhair, creator of the New Orleans style of piano, which blended boogie woogie and barrelhouse styles along with calypso, blues, jazz and ragtime. His raspy voice on his early '70s hit "Right Place, Wrong Time" evoked the heat and humidity of the Spanish moss-draped bayous. The highlight of the evening, however, was during his funky, psychedelic voodoo number "I Been Hoodood," which featured Dr. John doing a primitive little dance across the stage as he shook his bone rattles and pounded out an ancient African rhythm on a wooden box - conjuring up the feeling of 19th Century slaves transcendentally dancing to the ancient rhythms of their ancestors on New Orleans' Congo Square.
It were these sounds of the Crescent City's past and present that Dr. John stirred into his musical cauldron that hoodood Chicago that night.