What do I need to do to get my message across?  It's more than just being a competent musician, there's the whole performance element.

Dr. John has a good schtick, his voodoo jazz thing.  I saw him at Celebrity Theater on February 1 along with the Neville Brothers (more on them later).  A skull on the piano, feathers, gris-gris bags, fetishes - in a word, props.  They help get across the feeling that the music has power, a kind of intimate power that verges on black magic.

Dr. John's a good musician who has an encyclopedic grasp of New Orleans jazz and blues styles and all the world influences that have found their way there.  Some tunes sounded like Calypso, some were standards like St. James Infirmary, and he included his regular hits.

He uses a lean backup band, just guitar & bass & drums.  He's got the B3 organ and a fold-up baby grand - and a gritty voice that is such pure noise that I have trouble understanding him even when he's just speaking.  But that just adds to the mystery somehow.

The schtick and the music fit well together and I think it enhances the performance.  If he were to dress and play like a classical musician, neat and restrained, it would rob the music of much of its power.