Review: Dr John, Cardiff Coal Exchange, 8th May 2006

Nowadays sans headdress and rainstick, Dr John, the Night Tripper, the Witch Doctor, Hoodoo Voodoo man, cuts more a figure of a decrepit old storyteller at his piano than a mystical spiritualist, the man who turned me grey at sixteen when I finally managed to get hold of a copy of Gris Gris. But one thing he has not lost is his power over the audience. He brought with him to Cardiff a real whiff of the constricting sweatiness of the Southern American states, the jumble of people that massed in front of him could have easily been Nyorluns musos rather than the mass of middle aged bald be-spectacled Diffian’s that they predominantly were. As a long-time fan of Dr John it was just as great a pleasure to hear him speak – and I didn’t understand a word – as it was to hear him sing; the way he rasped and wrapped his gruff twang around the words and slid them from between his teeth. But his singing voice was really quite impressive for a man his age. Dr John was never a man who would shiver chandeliers with his range, but the phrasing, the playfulness of his sharp rough delivery was a sure as when Gris Gris was released in 1968. And on this night we were not only treated to some of his classic numbers, (Right Place, Wrong Time was stunning as was a truly joyful Such a Night), but some other gems from a long and varied career that has seen him go from being in Sonny and Cher’s band to Duke Ellington tributes and recently an album of Johnny Mercer Tracks. The Mercer tracks on show tonight were brilliantly interpreted, by the wonderfully tight and experienced three piece band as well as by the “frail” Mr Rabennack, who delighted in leaning with one arm over to keyboard as accompaniment to the piano he was hammering with his other. Highlight of the night, however, had to be a chillingly touching rendition of When the Saints Go Marching In, which in under five minutes, for me, he managed to disassociate with Sunday school, forever. Towards the end the pace was clearly beginning to tell for the 65 year old who left his band for a while to jam for our pleasure while he exited the stage. But for an hour or so the audience was privy to the exploits of a very special musician and performer who continues to give forth his stirring brand of blues Voodoo Hoodoo musical gumbo.