Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack

Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack: The Legendary Sessions, Vol. 2 The second of back-to-back solo albums cut in the early '80s, Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack: The Legendary Sessions Volume Two (originally released as The Brightest Smile in Town) presents a more balanced mix of vocal and instrumental tracks than its predecessor, Dr. John Plays Ma...	Rambling Boy Listeners familiar with the Charlie Haden's celebrated career may not know of the legendary jazz bassist's early years in country music performing with his family. Charlie Haden Family & Friends: Rambling Boy brings the artist's personal history full circle and presents a new gen...	Two Men With The Blues Two Men with the Blues is no more a jazz album than a blues album. It's neither jazz returning home, nor blues wandering out. What Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis have created is a compilation of jump-blues standards with arrangements that compliment both genres. While most of ...	Junco Partner Like Jelly Roll Morton and Professor Longhair, James Booker belonged to the great tradition of New Orleans piano "professors," players whose flamboyance extended from the keyboard to every aspect of life. On this 1975 solo recording, Booker's music is a gumbo of everything from b...	Mercernary Though Dr. John is by no means the first musician from the rock era to take a stab at the classic American songbook, the results have rarely been as satisfying as this. While all of the material was written by, inspired by, or associated with Johnny Mercer, this is very much a Dr...
Tommy (1969 Original Concept Album) \N	City That Care Forgot Few protest albums have the percolating groove appeal of Dr. John’s City That Care Forgot. If not for lyrics like "the road to the White House, paved with lies" the song "Promises, Promises" would be a typically chipper New Orleans second-line strut. And "You Might Be Surp...	American Beauty Who says discipline is a bad thing? No one who's heard American Beauty, the Dead's greatest studio achievement. Showcasing 10 concise, country-rooted gems that sound equally good whether you're hanging on the front porch in the afternoon or nursing a bottle after hours, this one ...	Live from Texas Studio: Uni Dist Corp (music) Release Date: 06/24/2008	Love (CD + Audio DVD) It begins with a twittering of birdsong lifted from "Across the Universe." And once the triple-tracked a capella harmonies of "Because" enter, followed by snatches from "A Hard Day's Night" and "The End," leading into a fired-up "Get Back," it becomes obvious that this is far mor...

An Essential Album, a must for students of the genre
As Bill Evans entrances you with his solo piano albums, as Art Tatum floors you with his mastery on his solo recordings.....Dr. John will slay you with the pianistic mastery of his genre. He is a treasure, an encyclopedic connection with Americas musical past.I lived and breathed this record for almost 6 months transcribing almost all of it. My growth as a player took a quantum leap and I am indebted to the Doctor.The joy of this recording are the wonderful new discoveries with each listen....the inner voices within his incredibly challenging chordal voicings, the bewildering time keeping in the left hand, the syncopation, the octave work, the emotional sensitivity....I could go on and on...The Doctor takes no prisoners. Buy it, live it, love it and (for you players)learn it.

Solo Piano Masterpiece
This is my favorite Dr. John album of all. I can listen to the whole record with no problem. It's solid, front to back, top to bottom. I love boogie, blues and jazz piano, and this record has the goods. Right at the start, "Dorothy" makes me feel like I'm walking through the French Quarter on a humid spring evening. "Mac's Boogie" gets things really rolling - Dr' John's playing is so smooth and fluid, this song sounds like it must be easy to play - but go try it for yourself. He's a righteous piano professor!Speaking of piano professors, Dr. John pays tribute to his old friend Henry Byrd on "Memories of Profesor Longhair" and it's a fitting tribute. "The Nearness of You" is one of the two vocals on the disc and it's an excellent vehicle for Mac's gravelly voice. Song after song rolls out of this disc, and I'm in a state of bliss: Delicado, another New Orleans classic, then "Silent Night" - I'd never expected to hear such an excellent interpretation. "Honey Dripper" is another can't miss boogie classic, as is the disc's finale: "Pinetop".This disc is an essential chunk of Americana delivered by a national treasure: Dr. John, the Night Tripper himself.

The Doctor is In
the house, that is, the house of the pianna-forTE. this largely solo piano disc was a breakthrough moment for the former Night Tripper, whose mastery of the mystic journey had been played out past the logical conclusion, like the world at large then (aside from some re-percussions later on and on later albums). the culture was ready, as i was, in 1981, to hear it from the root. and raw roots it was and is to this day, unadorned and undulating, one of the best left hands in the business and a total command of the vernacular of Booker, Fess, et al (Al Hirt, that is)...what hipped me to the sound were the piano boogie tracks from the movie Cannery Row, where the erstwhile bum buddy of Nick Nolte's "Doc" character was...Mac! tho i never believed that M. Emmett Walsh could actually play, i went looking for the source of the sound...and found Doc playing Mac, and realized that the door was open to the past and the future of piano music in New Orleans.still trippin on that to this very 2001 day, and i just wanted to let the wide world of Amazon know. All hail the Doctor, may he be radiatin on the 88's for the next several millenia.

Best Dr. John CD of them all
In my opinion, Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack shows Dr. John strengths in his solo playing. None of the songs have another instument besides the piano, and all of the tracks are classic New Orleans piano playing. The music is always relaxing to listen to.

Fantastic solo paino CD of a "True Professor."
I discover this (mostly Ignored) CD after exhausting my professor Longhair and James Booker CD's, and if you like solo piano - this album cannot be recommended highly enough! True there are only a couple vocal tracks, but instrumentals like "Dorothy" have such strong melodies and heart that they make you wanna cry, they really do. I would give my left NUT to play with the soulful depth & playfulness this CD glows with. forget brightest smile in town - THIS is THE Dr. John solo piano CD! BUY IT - period.