He has lived in New York City and on Long Island since the 1980s, but when he revisits his birthplace it's as if he never left. New Orleans culture, he said in his ever-surprising vocabulary, has “wacknosity" -- things only New Orleanians do.
In late April he was back in his old hometown, revisiting his past and present. He performed during the first weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, introducing some of the songs on the angry new album he released this week, “City That Care Forgot" (429 Records). (Dr. John is to perform in New York City on June 17 at the Highline Ballroom.)
Three days later he was at the Ponderosa Stomp, which had persuaded him to revive songs he wrote back in the 1950s. Most were written for other people (like Ronnie and the Delinquents' “Bad Neighborhood"), and he hadn't performed them since. In the afternoons Dr. John was at the Music Shed, a recording studio in the Garden District, singing Randy Newman's theme song for “The Princess and the Frog," a Disney movie about old New Orleans due to be released next year.
“They wanted his voice, which is not a bad idea if you're going to do New Orleans," said Mr. Newman, who was at the sessions. “He's the real thing in every kind of way."
Mr. Newman has known Mr. Rebennack since the 1960s, when both men worked as Los Angeles studio musicians. “You don't have to tell him much about music," Mr. Newman said. “He knows where he is, wherever he is."
Through the years, Dr. John has carried New Orleans style worldwide: in his two-fisted barrelhouse piano, in his syncopated drawl, in the second-line funk rhythms of songs like his 1973 hit “Right Place Wrong Time" and in the psychedelic voodoo character he created when he became Dr. John the Night Tripper in the late 1960s.
