Goin' Back traces a century of Crescent City musical history, starting in the mid-19th century with Louis Moreau Gottschalk, a classical composer influenced by the African chants and slave dances he witnessed in New Orleans' Congo Square. With support from some of the city's most prominent musical pioneers (including Danny Barker, Pete Fountain, and the Neville Brothers), Dr John breathes new life into the work of Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, James Booker, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, and Huey Piano Smith. From early jazz to junkie blues, Goin' Back covers it all, ranging from well-trod standards ("Basin Street Blues", "Careless Love") to otherwise forgotten jewels ("I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say", "How Come My Dog Don't Bark"). What's most remarkable is how utterly alive and timeless it sounds. -Keith Moerer.

Mississippi bluesman James Isaac Moore made the bulk of his recordings at JD Miller's Crowley, Louisiana studio, accounting for the deep, swampy sound and creeping rhythms of his hit singles. Another important influence on the Stones, Harpo's debut 1957 single "I'm A King Bee's" compulsive, chicken-scratch guitar motif became an essential part of their early sound. Although Ace have released a comprehensive series covering Slim's years with the Excello label, this Best Of draws together all the classic singles: "Baby Scratch My Back", "I Got Love If You Want It", "Rainin' In My Heart" (Louisiana pop of the highest order) and "Shake Your Hips" (rolling along with train-chugging intensity, rattling-sticks providing its percussion track). By 1967, he was recording in Nashville, producing even more light-footed material like "Te-Ni-Nee- Ni-Nu" and "Tip On In" ("let me see those fishnet hose", he drawls. ). Harpo had it all: a bittersweet soul moan of a voice, a squealing, wounded-hound harmonica sound and a feel for mixing genres that found him picking from country, rock 'n' roll and soul, perfectly placed to be one of the funkiest, most danceable blues performers so far in the music's history. Who knows how much more he would have contributed if not for his sudden early death from a heart attack in 1970. -Martin Longley Slim Harpo recorded really good rhythm and blues. He never got too fancy; he never forgot the importance of the groove. He died young in 1970, but his music reached the Rolling Stones (who covered his "I'm a King Bee"), the Kinks (who sang his "I Got Love If You Want It"), Van Morrison, and Them (whose first single was Harpo's "Don't Start Crying Now"). [+]

Start with the Meters, whose hard funk is so efficient there's not a wasted note or out-of-sync beat. Add producer Allen Toussaint's wonderful vocal and horn arrangements. Top them off with seven Rebennack originals plus four well-chosen covers, and you have an album that seemed to arrive out of nowhere at the time of its original 1973 release. It still sounds garden-fresh today, not just the monster hits, "Right Place, Wrong Time" and "Such a Night", but also the chain-gang funk of "Same Old Same Old", the verbal insults of "Qualified", even the second-line soul of "Shoo Fly Marches On". The closest thing to a weak link is "Peace Brother Peace", in which Rebennack anoints himself the Dr Feelgood of love and happiness. But the Meters sound as if they believe every word he's singing, so who are we to argue? -Keith Moerer.

After the studio bloat of 1971's The Sun, Moon & Herbs, Gumbo is a tightly focused return to Mac Rebennack-aka Dr John-'s musical roots. His band is full of Louisiana legends (Harold Battiste, Lee Allen) plus lesser known but equally important 'Nawlins heroes: Ronnie Barron, Alvin Robinson, and a wonderful trombonist known simply as Streamline. Together, they rage through a dozen New Orleans classics, not only the work of Professor Longhair and Huey Smith, but also Earl King and Ray Charles, who lived in the Crescent City while leading the house band at the Dew Drop Inn. Many of these songs are closely associated with the 1950s, but Gumbo never sounds forced or nostalgic; it's great work from start to finish. -Keith Moerer.

Covered in a variegated spray of New Orleans Mardi Gras feathers and shiny voodoo baubles, Mac Rebennack's highly personal mythology was finally made real on this 1968 album. This was his first appearance made under the new guise of Dr John Creaux, The Night Tripper. Before then, he'd been a pivotal figure on the Crescent City R&B circuit. Afterwards, he became one of its most significant blues ambassadors. This album is a classic of the admittedly specialist psychedelic swamp-gumbo genre, boasting at least four tracks that have become cult favourites. "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya-Ya", "Mama Roux", "Jump Sturdy" and "I Walk On Guilded Splinters" each have their own delicate mixtures of catchy chorus and weird spatial sound effects, with radical stereo separation, intensely croaking, close-quarter vocals from the Doctor, pneumatic keyboard riffs, pinprick electric guitar and booming, thick-skinned Afro-Caribbean percussion. The album still stands at its original 33-minute length, with no bonus cuts unearthed, but its high density more than compensates for any brevity. -Martin Longley.

Having perhaps slipped-up when attempting to think up an alluring title for his new album, New Awlinz-Dis Dat or D'Udda the sexagenarian boogie and blues pianist Dr John has certainly lost none of his grip on the ivory or sense of a finely carved groove. Throughout his career Dr John, aka Malcolm John Rebennack Jr, has experimented with his own semi-psychedelic blend of rock, R&B, jazz and blues with a sprinkling of New Orleans soul, Mardi Gras madness and voodoo vibes thrown in for good measure. A musical history of New Orleans, N'Awlinz Dis Dat or D'Udda, blends all John's influences while paying tribute to his 1940 birthplace in fittingly reverential style alongside a wealth of guests such as BB King, Willie Nelson and Randy Newman. Produced by Stewart Levine, who has worked with everyone from Sly & the Family Stone to Jamie Cullum, N'Awlinz Dis Dat or D'Udda is a polished album of good-time grooves that mixes everything from gospel to ragtime, finding John in his element if perhaps not on the kind of irresistible form that made previous work such as In The Right Place so essential. -Christopher Barrett.

Rhythm reigns supreme on Creole Moon, which cuts a sinuous, syncopated groove through the various styles that have informed the good Doctor's career. The bayou funk of "Bruha Bembe" recalls the juju mysteries of Dr. John's "Night Tripper" phase, the opening "You Swore" adheres to the hip-shaking tradition of "Right Place, Wrong Time" and the jazzier sophistication of "Holdin' Pattern", "Queen of Cold" and the title track show how far he has extended his musical terrain. Among the highlights are four songs co-written with the late Doc Pomus, including the soulful balladry of "Imitation of Love". Guitarist Sonny Landreth and fiddler Michael Doucet contribute Cajun seasoning to this musical gumbo, while saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman and trombonist Fred Wesley provide stellar brass support. -Don McLeese.

For those of us who long for the days when Dr John smeared himself with face paint, wore impossibly large headdresses and sang about gris-gris, gumbo ya-ya, and croker courtbullion, Anutha Zone is indeed a heartening development. For too long Dr John has paid the bills as a genteel purveyor of tasteful blues and Tin Pan Alley standards, and while it's helped him sustain a career and win Grammies, it's probably used up about an eighth of his true potential as an artist and musician. In the late 1960s, Dr John was a visionary musical alchemist, working with psychedelic imagery and funky rhythms to nab the rock crowd, then plying them with spooky swampland mythology and raw Southern R&B. On Anutha Zone, Dr John digs deep into that murky musical well once again, with stunning results. "John Gris", "Party Hellfire" and "Soulful Warrior" brilliantly fuse slow-burn grooves, sly musicianship and Dr John's elegantly gruff vocals, conjuring images of dark revelry down French Quarter back alleyways. -Marc Weingarten.

Mac Dr John Rebennack playing songs from the canon of Duke Ellington is as natural as the break of day. But the gris-gris king interprets Ellington in a way unlike anyone else. "Mood Indigo", arranged for Dr. John's six-man New Orleans group, takes on a fresh, heartfelt immediacy with the good doctor's vocals and piano locked into a relaxed groove. He sings another slice of essential Ellingtonia, "Do Nothing 'Til You Hear from Me", with a lighthearted nonchalance that epitomises the worthiest New Orleans performers. Dr. John packages snippets of his keyboard playing as panaceas for the soul on a funked-up interpretation of "Caravan", even spinning off on a "Wade in the Water" tangent before wrapping up the song. But with so many Duke Ellington nuggets to dust off for reinterpretation, one wonders why Dr. John elected to go with popular numbers that get covered again and again. To his credit, he does serve up the lesser-known "The Flaming Sword", where his piano is luminous in the Calypso fashion of Professor Longhair, and he offers delightful, funkified updates of the Ellington obscurities "On the Wrong Side of the Railroad Tracks" and "I'm Gonna Go Fishin'". [+]

New Orleans' burgeoning 1950s R&B scene was the crucible for Mac Rebennack, an in-demand session guitarist in his teens, but he was sidelined by a gunshot wound to his left hand. He learned organ, then blossomed as a gifted pianist in a city renowned for brilliant, idiosyncratic players, and Mac soaked up the tradition. A move to Los Angeles and a trippy side project under the nom du disque of Dr John, the Night Tripper, clinched his fate, giving American music one of its most ebullient, reliably musical originals. It's his gravelly, juicy voice that has earned him instant recognition, but Dr John remains a student and evangelizer of his hometown's funky, fertile blues, R&B, and jazz canon. This superb two-disc survey serves both him and his origins well, ranging from early forays with Ronnie & The Delinquents and Morgus & The 3 Ghouls to the swampy brilliance of his solo career. His theatrical gris-gris remains deliciously spooky, but it's his later work that shines, from the brilliant R&B history lesson that yielded his classic Gumbo album, through his biggest single hit, "Right Place, Wrong Time" and his 1980s forays into jazz and standards. -Sam Sutherland.