Dr John - Keyboard Magazine Transcriptions 06-98

ltlASTTR CI.A$ of thoseguysoff andon for about25 a couple Miller Charlie years,RedTylerand[trumpeter] years.RonnieCuber's for about40-somethin' That's beenworkin'withmeforabout30years. like160yearswithjustthosefiveguys! for a while,they "Whenguysplaytogether andbendnotesall kindsof canreadthecharts on a nightly f unny ways.Theyexperiment basiswith music,doingstuffwith a formatto it but it ain't liketheystickin't0 it. They9o r if f sandj u s td o i n gs tu ffw i th a l o n gc hanging the musicthat'snot on the paper,andthat's That's whyeverynightwe playI try important.

to writea differentshowto keepeverybody nextni ghthe mi ghtsoundlike HueySm it h playingLonghair, and still anothernight he I usedto work songs. lookin'at somedifferent playing likeMacRebennack sound in fact might played show every same the with bandsthat below.) (Seeexamples beginning show,everynight,and I usedto think,'This Longhair. I everworkedwith "All the pianoplayers about."' can'tbe whatmusic's "whetherwe he explains, aren'ttheonlyoneschang- fromNew0rleans," Thehornplayers or just record sessions takes at was in between gig. in up Growing parts on a Dr.John ingtheir songs. we all wouldplayoneof 'Fess's poolof Professor Longhair-influ-goofin,' the incredible '50s, thisis the and it in We did a thing. It was that included talent encedNewOrleans Diano andAllen the '90sandwe stilldo it. Theretsomething Huey"Piano"Smith,JamesBooker, music- we all did Longhair's aboutProfessor but notonlythestyles Macabsorbed Toussaint, differentwithit, butit'sall ourverOne something influences. of cross-referenced a tradition si onof hi m.I thi nkw henanyoneof usdo his the likeLonghair, nighthe mayplay"Tipitina"

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- kindaslowLonghair Macplayedthisniceandslow,andsaid,"fhisis realsignature Longhair. Ex.1. wantto getto the rcotsof funk?Trya little professor kinda motion." "a o' that little threw in always Longhair townfunk.,,Ai he ptayedthewalkdownin bar 1a,he pointedout thatProfessor Slow & funky, even eighths

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songs, it meanssomething different to usthan it wouldto anybodyelse.Whetherit's Art Neville, or anypianoplayerfromNewOrleans. I don'tknowexactly why we do that;it'snota conscious thing,butwe alldo it. lt'skindamystical.Butwhenl'm playing, I don'tnecessarily - it'swhatever thinkaboutnothin' comes out." lf you'veeverlookedinto Mac'scatalogof youknowthattheotheractivity compositions, he "l spends mostof his time 0n is songwriting. writeall the time,"he says."l beenwritinga wholebunchof newstuff.Inthelasttwoyears,

l'vewrittenmaybeabout400newsongs. There's probably oneoutof a hundred thatmightbeany good- whothehellknows? | gethomeandsit at the pianoand startwritingsometuneor something, likemaybe fouror fivetunesa day.I thinkit'simportant to justkeepwritin'stuff.I stickthemon a tapeandmakedemosout of them- l'mstilldemoing upsongs thatmeand DocPomus wrote15,20years ago.Whoknows? Somebody mightwantto record someof them one dayor somethin'. I knowI like'em,"he "Butit don'tmeannobody laughs. elsewill."

Evenwith that kindof output,it's not as thoughMacis a self-sufficient song-marketing machine, shopping tunesleftandright,getting albumplacement rightand left. Farfrom it. personal-contact Songwriting is a collaborative, typeof proposition for him.In fact,he doesn't evenoperateunderthe aegisof a publisher. "Wemightmake Whenhewriteswithsomeone, a publishing dealandgetsomebody to helpwith it at somepoint.Maybewe won't.Butin the meantime, I do whatI do.Michael Doucet from TEXTCONTINUEI) t)N PAGE62

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Ex.2. "fhat lefthand move," said Mac as he played this example,"comesfrom tuneslike the 'JunkieBlues' that catswouldjust throw down. It's old, otd New 0rleans,that motion." Slow

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fYlA$tR 0.ASS Longhair's stuff.I didn'teven up an inch,"is the wayHueysmithwouldplayProfessor Ex.3. "Nowthis,"saidMac,hisraisedeyebrowpushinghisFedora longhairso much." HueySnith do Professor realizethatt wasdoin'that,butit's fromwatching Even eighths

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I'/|A$[R CTASS DISCOGRAPHY (1995, BlueThumb),Television (1994, 6ino),Gorn' Backto New Orleans(1992, WarnerBros.), SeniimentatMood (1989, Warner Bros.),IJttimateDr. John :e (.1979, Horizon),City Lights(1978, Horizon) , Mardi Gras n.(1974,Atlantic),lriumverate(1973, CBS), ln the Right Place t (1972,Atlantic),Sun,Moon,& Herbs(1971,Atlantic), ,n (1969,Atlantic), Gzs Grs (1968,Repertoire).

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R.EADER NO. 27 SERVICE

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K E Y B OA RD

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- | gota songI thinkthatthatwhole our ballsso it was ready.And therewas no Beausoleil bandcoulddo nice.I gotsomesongs I justsent thinkingaboutit. We just did it consistently. to AllenToussaint for somedifferentartists, We'dhavea wholealbumof songs forwhoever including me.l'll seewhathappens. Younever we waswritingfor.Wehada lot of peoplethat know.I got certainpeoplelike [NewOrleans- recorded thosesongsl i ke Ar et haFr anklin, based bluesvocalistl Adams whoalways WilsonPickett, or peoplein thattimethatwas Johnny popular. records thateitherI wroteormeand lt meantsomething somesongs to usthatat least DocPomuswrote.Youknow- peoplethat's all thatworkwasn'tfor nothing." friends of mine.They'll cuta songof mine.That's As for the corporate songwriting world,"l publishing whatlife'sabout.Youmeetpeopleandshare thinkI wroteformaybetwodifferent ground "l really somekindof common maneuvers." companies fora shorttime,"Macrecalls. Mac'sideaof collaboration isn'tnecessarily all don'tthinkthat'show we did our bestwork, "lt ain'tjustthe niceandcooperative, though. doingstufffor somecompany. Me and Alvin goodsidethatmakes music. I reallybelieve that Robinson, we waswritingstufffor A8M,and justbeingin an officewasweird.Wedidbetter yougottahavesomebody in a bandthatdon'tgo alongwiththerestto makesomekindof elec- whenthey'dlet ususethisoldfunkyhouse that tricityhappen, to makeit allhaveenough energy theystored stuffin.That's wherewe dida lotof to besomethin'. I thinkthatif everybody wasall workwith RickyLeeJonesbeforeshedid her likeonekindof guy,it wouldn't bea goodband. firstrecord, anda lotof otherstuffwasgoing0n "l noliced thatin bandsovera lot of years, in thatbuilding. Wedidn'tknowhowto workin "l wastalkingto [trum- an officeplace.Like,do youjust sit hereand man,"he continues. peterlHarry'Sweets' pad or someEdison abouta monthago. write?We'dgo to somebody's Sweets andthe bassplayerusedto be in the thing,hangout, and we coulddo more.You sameroomwhentheywereoutwithBasie, and know,it's like we couldcusseachotherout theywastwo opposite kindof cats.Andit was l ouder,unl essthe nei ghborcom s I plained. perfect because theydidn'tseeeyeto eyeon meantherewasa time we'dbe writin'songs nothin'.Fiftyyearsor somethin' theyroomed andpol i ce w oul dcomebecause of com plaint s together andtheydidn'tagreeon nothin'. And we wasso loud.Youknow,we wouldget off that'swhatit'sabout- how couldthesetwo intowhatwe wasdoing.Weain'tthinking that guysevenstayin a roomfiveminutes? pad.Theycomehomeand | used wete insomebody's to do thatmyself; I didn'troomguystogether findouttheybeenthreatened to getevicted or we beenwritingsongs intentionally that I knewwouldn'tget along. somethin' because there guysquit the bandover it. but sometimes awhile. Andwe neverthought aboutthat- we Sometimes it hadgoodeffects, butmoreoften justdidwhatwe wasdoing!" thannot,whenyoudothingslikethatfromthe Macpeersfromunderhis Fedora, takinga "l thinkI wrotethebeststuff head,it don'twork.Youjustgottadothemacci- dragon hissmoke. dentally andit'sright.Whenyouthink,'l guess I wrotewhenI wasfirstdoin'it. WhenI wasin l'll sticktheseguystogether, maybesomethin' gradeschool, I hada bookcoverthatlooked like hipwillcomeoutof it,' it usually backfires." a loose-leaf book,and l'd pastedthat on my book,it Wi ththat muchcol l aboratiexperi ng ence, school book.Butinsidewasn'ta school you'dexpectMacto havea prettysmoothly wasmy notebook l'd be writingsongsin. I got into,like,sittin'thereand writin'songs.Huey honedsystem for writing."Well,in 45 yearsI "And he demurs. Smith usedto encourage me.Andheusedto say, ain'tfiguredout a method," 'Man,justkeepdoingit.' Hegaveme clues0n l'm grateful I ain't.lf I hada methodfor writi n ga s o ng,i t w oul dn'be t fun.l w rotea l otof howto do it.Thatwasthebestthing.I hadgood people, me in songswith different andeveryoneof catsaround me all my life.Theypointed thatpaidoffina lotof ways.ButI wasthem guysI wrotewith - and it goesway directions the roadmap.fLaughs.l b a c kto w ri ti ngsongs w i thguysl i keE arlK i ng, n't goodat following - theyhadtheir "l justdealwith the music,you know. lt's BobbyJones, or DocPomus like records industry and all of way of doingsomethin,' somepartof writin' and recording that was differentfrom anybodyelseI ever themwordsthatgowiththatpart- evenwhen producer I w ro tew i th.Thatmadesomethi el n' sehappen I wasa record andstudiomusician, whenwe wrotetogether, something different wascaughtup in the musicsideof it. That's probably fromjust why I ain'tsittin'heretalkingto you fromjust theirsongs,and different moreexpensive hotelor my s o ngs.I knowthat w henme andA l l en fromsomeswanky, You The music'smore important. Toussaint wrotesomesongs,he'sso locked somethin'. intowhatever he doesandI'mso unlocked we know if I don'teverget to be on TheLifestyles - that'sokaywith me wrotetogether, like,fast. of the RichandFamous "Whenme andJesseHill,AlvinRobinson, if I canplaythemusic it goes." thewayI believe H esmi l es andw i nks." l ' m livin'in t he lap, andDaveDicksen waswritingtogether, wejust not we had hungoutforweeks at a time.Whenever al l ri ght- but i t' si n the l a pof m em or y, wejustbusted of luxurv." E to finishanalbumorsomething,