Gris-Gris

Description

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