King Britt (and yes, that is his real name) has traveled the world, spinning records in locales as exotic as Miami, Moscow, Helsinki, Berlin. Any funky, foxy spot, he probably has been there a dozen times. After all, he is a self-proclaimed "International Man of Leisure."

But, as of late, Britt has been spending a lot more time in New Orleans. He was there when the Saints laid the smackdown on the Eagles, on their Superdome home turf, giving New Orleans a chance to head to the Super Bowl. (A loss to the Chicago Bears kept the Saints from the big game.)

"But it was more than a football game," notes Britt, on the phone from Miami. "It was the whole city putting all of their hope into this team to uplift their spirits and, thus, bring New Orleans back, giving them hope that they can rebuild and bring the city back into existence."

What's been keeping Britt coming back to the Big Easy isn't just football. The Philadelphia-born Britt has been frequenting the city ever since he created the work that brings him to the Triangle this week: "King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude Morgan."

Discovering Sister

The producer/DJ/remixer is best known for his many projects in the electronic music strata, creating soulful DJ mixes (like the "Deep & Sexy 4" compilation that'll be released next month) as well as a handful of aliases and personas (see story on this page) to go with whichever form of underground dance music he has assembled.

But the Sister Gertrude Morgan project was a different direction for the 38-year-old Britt. It all started when Ropeadope label head Andy Hurwitz approached Britt, who did the 2002 "Philadelphia Experiment Remixed" album for his label, with the idea of remixing "Let's Make a Record," a decades-old album from missionary/ preacher/"bride of Christ" Morgan, who passed away in 1980.

"He got this bright idea: Wow, I should have King Britt redo her album, reproduce it," Britt says. "So he called me up, and he's like, 'Do you know who she is?' I really didn't know."

Britt Googled Sister Morgan and was surprised to learn she was more than just an old lady who sang and played tambourine on one album. She was also a poet and a painter whose works have hung on the walls of the Smithsonian as well as in the homes of celebrities.

"I heard the record, and I'm like, 'I've got to be part of this,' " he says. "It was a good time, because I was searching for something new to do, take me kind of out of my ordinary self, as far as electronic music."

Britt treated the source material with the utmost respect, resurrecting Morgan as an equal, integral partner in this collaboration. The album, released in September 2005, was well received by critics, Britt's fanbase, even some purists.

"We were really welcomed with open arms for this record. They thought we did a very good job of keeping her in the context of New Orleans. And I think that was more important to people than anything," he recalls. "Because we kept the kind of traditional sound, with the use of special guitars and harmonicas and just the whole vibe of New Orleans that is incorporated, sound effects and all of that. So, I think people really appreciated that aspect of it."

Katrina's long arm

But what he didn't expect was a natural disaster to bring the album into the forefront.

"What happened was when the album came out, people who really liked Sister's stuff and were into my stuff bought it," he says. "But it didn't take off until post-Katrina." After that, Britt says, more journalists began doing stories, and Britt began granting more interviews.

"You know, NPR, we did three interviews, talking about how we did the record. And then, we did this documentary before we went, before Katrina, which showed me searching for who Sister Gertrude was. So, this documentary shows me all through New Orleans, hanging out on Bourbon Street and going to Sister Gertrude's house. Then, Katrina hit and a lot of the footage of the film, a lot of the buildings, are gone."

Clips of this documentary will be shown tonight at Memorial Hall, during the live reinterpretation of the album. The live performance is part two in the Sister Gertrude Morgan crash course he has been schooling Triangle residents on this week; Thursday afternoon, Britt delivered a lecture at UNC's Johnson Center. Britt says these lectures, which he has given at such places as New York's Whitney Museum and London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, offer a more appreciative perspective on Morgan and her contributions to art and culture.

"Because people love to look at it more on a historical basis rather than, 'Oh, it's just an album that King Britt did,' " he says. "Now, they look at it in a historical context like, wow, he actually did this documentary for Katrina -- all of this footage, finding out neat things about Sister Gertrude, and we're hearing her in these contexts. It's really trippy, you know."

Doing this album has opened many doors professionally for Britt. When filmmaker Michael Mann, a big fan of the album, was compiling music for his big-screen version of "Miami Vice" last summer, he gave Britt the chance to score some scenes. One of the Morgan tunes, "New World in My View," made it on the soundtrack album. Another opportunity that surfaced for Britt has him working on another Big Easy project: producing the latest album for legendary, traditional jazz collective the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

"Yeah, man, it's crazy, because I'm working with these legends, and it's just like, wow," he says. "So, it's an educational process for me as well as them, because I'm learning more and more of the inner workings of the historical jazz scene from New Orleans. And they're learning about how I'm gonna use technology to bring a new audience to what they do."

So, thanks to a dearly departed sister and her forgotten work of musical genius, King Britt has found that even though touring the world, spinning at clubs and getting beautiful people all sweaty to his music is thrilling, hipping people to a bounty of great, historical music can reward in so many ways.