Dr. John has been a central icon of New Orleans music for the past four decades. Though famed for his keyboard playing, he started out on guitar in his teens as a studio musician in 1950s New Orleans. He later switched to keyboards and put together his own special flavor of traditional-meets-funk music captured first on his 1968 release, "Gris-Gris." Over time, he became a seminal influence with his nimble keyboard style and distinctive growling-from-the gut vocals.
Though best known for his R&B-flavored "N'Awlinz" party music, Dr. John is one of the prime exponents of the traditional finger-style of piano masters like Huey Smith, Professor Longhair and James Booker. The unique acoustic technique has a distinctively New Orleans flavor that has more blues and jazz in it than funk rhythms.
The Doctor alternates between this unique acoustic sound and Delta-thick funk, never losing the joyous, party feel of his Big Easy roots. Two recent studio releases, "Creole Moon" and "N'Awlinz, Dis Dat or d'Udda," are funkier than ever, while a solo live piano recording, "All By Hisself" shows that he is still truly a master of New Orleans' piano. Before his Tokyo shows at the Blue Note, Dr. John talked over some gumbo-thick tea in a gravelly voice. Warning me straight away with "I cuss a little bit, especially recently," the Doctor summoned up plenty of strong language to describe the handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in his beloved hometown.