MALCOLM John Rebennack, known professionally as Dr. John, but just plain ol’ Mac to his pals, has been a major part of the American music scene since the late 1950s.
His very distinctive style, born of a head-on crash between Creole funk and West Coast psychedelia, is best exemplified in his masterpiece “Walk on Gilded Splinters.”
But the good Doctor has never limited his exploration of music. He is an accomplished rocker, understands Crescent City swing, is a master of old-time R&B, and could probably play the pants off Beethoven if he ever set his fingers in that direction.
On his latest disc, “Duke Elegant” (due out this Tuesday), the 59-year-old Dr. John pays tribute to the music of famed jazzman Duke Ellington.
During an interview with The Post, Dr. John’s whiskey-‘n’-cigarettes baritone was sometimes difficult to understand. But the singer, who lives mainly in New Orleans but keeps an apartment here in the city, was warm and often made jokes as he spoke of life and music.
Post: Your new album pays tribute to Duke Ellington. Why the Duke?
Dr. John: Duke wrote so much great music. Sure, it was for his band, but it was also for individual members of his band. That’s the way he brought out their best as musicians.
Post: Wynton Marsalis said that in jazz you can’t be a solo artist. You need the band to make the sound.
Dr. John: Yes, I believe Duke Ellington is the start of that kind of thinking.
Post: You’ve had an extremely long career that’s put you in contact with just about every big player in music. Did you ever meet Duke Ellington?
Dr. John: Once, in the ’70s. I met him when we were on the same flight.
Post: Did he know your work?
Dr. John: Hell, I didn’t even tell him I was a musician. I was sitting across the aisle from him, and he was writing something. He got sleepy, and when he woke up he saw me looking at him, and he started rappin’ at me. He didn’t say anything important, but it was something.
Post: What songs on your disc come closest to Duke?
Dr. John: I don’t know. All I can do with anybody’s songs is do what I do with them. Then they’re true to me.
Post: And what were you trying to do on this record?
Dr. John: I was trying to play a few songs by Duke that were a little obscure, songs that most people wouldn’t recognize as a Duke Ellington song.
Post: How rare were they?
Dr. John: It wasn’t easy, but I managed to dig up a few I never heard before: “Wrong Side of the Rail Road Tracks,” “Fishing” and “The Flaming Sword.”
Post: On this album you switch between the piano and the Hammond B-3 organ. How are they different?
Dr. John: Well, the B-3 was the first keyboard instrument I ever played. James Booker taught me to play it. I have a fondness for the B-3 because it changed my life. The way James taught me was on-the-job training. I learned at gigs. Hit the tonic with your foot and play the bass with your hand was the way I hung it out. Now when I cut something, I utilize the ax in different ways.
Post: Is B-3 like a piano?
Dr. John: Not at all. It is a thing of itself. It has power. It and the piano are from two different universes.
Post: In the late ’60s and early ’70s, you focused on New Orleans R&B when the rest of the world was playing rock and roll. Why?
Dr. John: I never thought about it this or that way. I just wanted to play music and make records. Somebody throws something at me, I try to catch it — I mean it’s all music. Like before “Gumbo,” I’d always played “Iko Iko” in shows, and everybody would dig it. I like the result with an audience, so it went on the album.
Post: What about the Night Tripper. He seemed to resurface on “Anutha Zone.”
Dr. John: I still consider the Night Tripper to be my primary musical performance persona. I haven’t changed that, even though there aren’t feathers and stage props anymore.
Post: One of your most famous songs is “Walk on Gilded Splinters.” What’s it about?
Dr. John: That’s a traditional gris gris thing. I’ve been lucky that so many bands have covered that song and recorded it. It’s a real traditional thing that people outside of New Orleans call voodoo or hoodoo music. The essence of that song is a real gris gris thing. It’s a painting based on another reality.
Post: Isn’t it true that you were introduced to show business through doing commercials?
Dr. John: Yeah. My mother was a model in the ’40s and she’d rent me out as a baby, and they used me as the Ivory Soap baby. I was too young to remember any of that.
Post: When you were first starting out you were known to be pretty wild, once getting shot while playing piano. That sounds like what’s going on in rap right now.
Dr. John: A lot of these kids who are now stars in rap were in the projects before they were stars. They may have escaped that, but you gotta remember wherever you go, there you are. You can geographically move yourself from the projects, but it still travels with you.
Post: Are the record companies helping these kids adjust to their new life?
Dr. John: Record companies use them to make money. They may not encourage them to do things, but they don’t turn down any publicity. Money talks, and you know what walks.
Post: How did you change from being a wild thing?
Dr. John: I’m not that same kid now, but everything you do leads you to where you are now. You can’t separate the horse trough from the horse s—. It’s all right there. I choose not to live that way anymore. I try to live my life far from where I once lived — and I don’t always succeed.