The Psych Ward–Gris Gris by Dr. John
- Brian Chanecka
- March 31, 2023
- 8:21 am
The Psych Ward–Gris Gris by Dr. John
By the time he made Gris Gris at the age of 26, Mac Rebennack had already accrued a vast amount of life experience. Starting at age 14, he performed as a regular in the New Orleans live music scene, then as a session musician for J&M, one of R&B/Rock&Roll’s seminal studios. He picked up a heroin habit and spent two years in prison after a drug bust. Upon release, he moved to L.A., where he returned to being a contributing session musician before using leftover Sonny and
Gris Gris offers an alternative psychedelic sound to the light, love, and peace based out of California.
Cher studio time and a collection of mostly New Orleans musicians to record his first album, Gris Gris. His colorful and eventful youth helps explain how Gris Gris introduces a fully developed sound and a fully developed stage persona: Dr. John, the Night Tripper.
Gris Gris (definitions vary, it refers to charms or Talismans kept for good luck or to ward off evil) offers an alternative psychedelic sound to the light, love, and peace based out of California. Gris Gris is all New Orleans; dark, swampy, spooky, and, most of all, funky. The album is sprawling, loose, and tight (7 tracks, 33 minutes) all at the same time.
The album eases in with “Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya,” a meandering, mostly spoken word introduction of who this Dr. John is and all the black magic he is capable of producing. “Danse Kalinda Ba Doom” is a percussive ride with various chants that evoke the feeling of a nighttime ceremony of dancing and exotic debauchery. “Mama Roux” is the most accessible and straightforward of the bunch. That being said, it is still a funky and groovy hodgepodge of New Orleans traditions and phrases. “Croker Courtbullion” seems to fall out of the sky in one piece as a jazzy mess that somehow also makes perfect sense. The album closes with the oft-covered classic “Walk On Guilded Splinters.” One doesn’t so much listen to this song, one enters it, and becomes part of it as it becomes part of the listener.
While audiences were already introduced to New Orleans sounds through the likes of Fats Domino and “Iko Iko” by the Dixie Cups, Gris Gris presents an entire work, overtly steeped in New Orleans culture and dripping with trippy, dark, jammy funk. There was no looking back, the Night Tripper enjoyed a successful six-decade career. Thanks for all the fun(k), Dr. John.
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