Dr. John brings New Orleans gris-gris to David Bromberg's Big Noise festival

When it comes to capturing the voodoo spirit and uncompromised individuality of New Orleans music, there are few characters that embody the essence as effortlessly as Mac Rebennack, the piano-playing Nite Tripper known as Dr. John.

With the passing of Allen Toussaint in 2015, the 76-year-old Rebennack finds himself a singular elder statesman adding inimitable spin to pianistic traditions learned from such teachers as Professor Longhair, James Booker, and Huey "Piano" Smith. Not to mention his favorite: "My Aunt Andre. I started playing with her when I was 8 or 9 years old. She was a badass player," Rebennack recalled, speaking from New Orleans.

Rebennack isn't the oldest ivory tickler in NOLA — the great Fats Domino, inactive for years, is 89. But the good doctor is conscious of being a caretaker of the City That Care Forgot. "I feel that spirit is going into me, and that's a good thing," he says in that slurpy voice, as rich and piquant as alligator gumbo, widely heard on the 1973 AM-radio hit "Right Place Wrong Time."