New Orleans musicians and hundreds of citizens paid tribute to the late Dr. John with a traditional “second line” parade through the Big Easy Friday.
Fans first assembled outside the city’s Kermit’s Treme Mother-In-Law Lounge before taking the ceremony to the streets, with trumpeter James Andrews leading the celebration with renditions of Dr. John’s “Such a Night” and “Hey Song,” NOLA.com reports.
Dr. John’s granddaughter Stephanie O’Quin attended the second line parade, calling it “pretty incredible, really hot, really nice.” “It makes me so happy to see all these people here for him,” she told NOLA.com.
The New Orleans legend born Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. died of a heart attack Thursday at the age of 77. “As a Rock N Roll Hall of Fame inductee, six-time Grammy winner, songwriter, composer, producer and performer, he created a unique blend of music which carried his hometown, New Orleans, at its heart, as it was always in his heart,” his family said in a statement.
Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach said of Dr. John in a tribute for Rolling Stone, “He was so one of a kind. He came from a time before social media and everything became one big thing. He could truly be unique, isolated in a way — that special gumbo. We lost one of the greatest musicians who ever lived and also one of the greatest reflections of this country, musically, in one man. He was a human melting pot, a human embodiment of what makes American music great.”
In January 2016, following the death of David Bowie, Arcade Fire led a second line tribute to that late icon in New Orleans.