"I know we talked about doing a deconstructed rum and coke—because of Professor Longhair’s song “Rum and Coke,” which is this bouncy diddy—but anything I did with Coca Cola just turned into flat Coke—no cola bitters I made came out right.

Originally I tried rye whiskey. I knew I wanted to make something for Professor Longhair, and he took a dive in his career for a number of years. He actually worked as a janitor. He got real popular and then sank, and then he came back with the Jazz Fest....