Wipe your mind clean of all you've ever heard and read about Dr. John the Night Tripper. If you knew that once he was a New Orleans session musician and songwriter called Mac Rebennack, forget that too. And although Gumbo (Atco 7006) comes with maybe the best set of liner notes you are ever going to find, don't look at them. Instead, hand this record to a friend and ask her to find the place in "Tipitina" (side two, band three) where the first vocal ends and the instrumental break begins, while you go out of the room and wait. Have her turn the volume up loud, plenty of bass, and shout for you to come back in as that break starts to flow.
the start, and will be able to sit through the peculiar rasping voice because you know you'll be rewarded by some of the richest piano-playing you've ever heard, with more rhythms suggested and hinted at than is possible in so little time, with so few notes, and without ever losing an easy rocking sway.
Now, if you must, check out the liner note, where Dr. John tells coproducer Jerry Wexler about the origins of the tune: "You know this one: it's the piano classic you and Ahmet produced the original recording of, with Professor Longhair in New Orleans in 1953. I heard it played live by 'Fess' a hundred times. My pop used to install and maintain sound systems in different clubs in New Orleans and he used to take me around.... I can play 'Tipitina' with dozens of variations without ever getting away from Professor Longhair; the version I'm playing here is pure classic Longhair."
That kind of comment might make you thirsty to hear Professor Longhair, rather than Dr. John. But he under-rates his own contribution; good as Longhair's version was, his didn't have quite so much warmth and charm as this has, at least not in the version he recorded for Atlantic (which is due for reissue soon). Put the needle back at the start of side two of Gumbo, and let it go.
"Junko Partner," like every other song on the record, has a fascinating musical and social history, which the sleeve note documents. But the value is in this particular performance, which once again rises above the original (by James Wayne), thanks to some truly amazing drumming from Freddie Staehle, and several wonderful tenor sax breaks from Lee Allen. Lee did all those nice runs in the middle of Little Richard's Specialty classics, but in the years since then he has not managed to match them, until this record. Along with the piano, the tenor sax has been a widely recognized New Orleans rock 'n' roll instrument, but this track draws attention to the equally distinctive style of drumming, which Dr. John calls "melody drums." Impossible for me to analyze what Freddie does, but he creates an irrepressible jauntiness that has me shaking my head from side to side every time I hear it.
After playing that three or four times, you may be prepared to let the needle run onto the
