Hats off every time to the founding father of New Orleans rhythm and blues. DB holds the master recipe for soul-ska-rhumba-blues gumbo. Just check the tracklisting for a sense of his achievement. Don.

Classic New Orleans rhythm and blues, same cloth as Lee Dorsey and Ernie K Doe, before funk got a hold.

‘The best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced,’ says Dr John.
The first half of this disc gathers all the sevens Booker cut under his own name at the start of his career, for labels like Imperial, Chess, Ace and Peacock, already evincing his inimitable blend of R&B, gospel, blues, boogie woogie and jazz. The second half features legends like Dave Bartholomew and Joe Tex, during the same period, with Booker as sideman. The likes of Lee Allen, Alvin ‘Red’ Tyler chip in.

Stone classic Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn production.
Funk bombs like the rare groove protest of the opener, running straight into Time Machine… phew.

‘The Greatest Hits And More, 1960-1978’ — with early obscurities, live stuff, ads and demos. The hits themselves are sublime New Orleans genius.

‘After Gris-Gris, Dr. John found himself in a strange and awkward position. The US was deep into the Vietnam War, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were fresh in the public memory. On top of that, Dr. John was being pursued by various Los Angeles authorities for a handful of criminal offenses. It was, in his own words: “a heavy time for me.”
‘Much like Sly Stone’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On, Dr. John’s sophomore album Babylon would be a reflection of the chaotic and tumultuous time that he was living in. He and the band dove deeper into the voodoo-inflected psychedelic rock and R&B of Gris-Gris, while touching upon elements of free jazz and Captain Beefheart-style avant garde. As with his debut record, production was handled by the legendary Harold Battiste, and much of the same session personnel returned for Babylon, including Plas Johnson on saxophone, Alvin Robinson on guitar, and backing vocals from Jessie Hill, Shirley Goodman, and Tami Lynn.
‘Babylon stands out as one of Dr. John’s most overtly political albums, and is a singularly murky and darkly entrancing record in his discography. A psychedelic swamp of apocalyptic songs and drunk, disorienting experimentation, not repressed on vinyl in over forty years.’

‘The Complete Josie Recordings, 1968-1970.’

‘You said he was your cousin, oh but I found out that he was wasin’... Two cousins don’t kiss, especially not like this…’