The mere mention of Louisiana voodoo conjures up powerful mental images.
Painted bodies swirl to the rhythm of ancient incantations in the sticky heat of the night.
Dance and song combine to summon up magic.
At least, that's what Hollywood would have us believe.
For Mac Rebbenack, a native of New Orleans, voodoo is a cultural phenomenon to be celebrated for adding colour and mystery to everyday life. As Dr John "The Night Tripper", he has long drawn on these ancient practices for inspiration in the same way he has drawn on rhythm and blues, boogie-woogie, psychedelic rock and free jazz, but never with more wild-eyed enthusiasm than on his 1968 debut album Gris-Gris.
Already well established as a Los Angeles-based session musician, Rebbenack was keen to cast New Orleans singer Ronnie Baron in the role of Dr John on the LP but took on the vocal duties himself when Baron was advised against it. In doing so, Rebbenack established himself as a gravel-throated shaman of the bayou, a storyteller and gris-gris dispenser with a satchel full of medicine to cure all y'all's ills.
For all its black-magic references, the album is more seductive than it is sinister. A chorus of back-up singers variously chant, grunt, squawk and hiss through the seven tracks with obvious delight, extending themselves as a dancer might if given the floor.
The musical gumbo is thick with clarinet, mandolin, flute, sax and keys, stirred into a slow-rolling boil of Cajun exotica by multiple percussion instruments.
From the sing-along bounce of Mama Roux to the suppressed sleaze-rock of Danse Fambeux, the trippy free-forming of Croker Coutbullion and the slinky groove of eight-minute album closer Walk On Gilded Splinters, Dr John's opening statement as a recording artist is a brave and brilliant one. Its strangeness lingers, even as songs become more familiar on repeated listening, which speaks volumes for the potency of the Night Tripper's magic.
