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Artist > Allen Toussaint Vinyl Records

The Wild Sound of New Orleans
Allen Toussaint ("Tousan")
$10.99
Vinyl LP Reissue - Sealed

The Bright Mississippi
Allen Toussaint ("Tousan")
$29.99
Vinyl LP + CD - 2 LPs Sealed

Through his work as producer, composer, arranger and consummate session man, New Orleans native Allen Toussaint has truly earned living-legend status. He’s collaborated on landmark recordings for such artists as Ernie K. Doe, Lee Dorsey, Dr. John, the Meters, the Pointer Sisters and Labelle and released acclaimed albums of his own. The 70 year-old pianist, already a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, was the recipient, on the recent Grammy Awards telecast, of the Recording Academy’s prestigious Trustee Award, honoring a lifetime in the studio, both behind the scenes and in front of the mic.

On The Bright Mississippi, his Nonesuch debut, Toussaint continues to break new ground with his first jazz-oriented set, displaying the same effortless swing and relaxed charm he brought to his classic rock and roll sides. He salutes Big Easy stars of a previous generation, the jazz greats who, in the early 20th century, built the genre from the ground up and turned the ears of the world to New Orleans. Backed by an all-star combo that sounds like a group of old friends, Toussaint reinterprets classic jazz and blues tunes popularized or written by such New Orleans greats as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton and Joe “King” Oliver, as well as pieces composed by fellow travelers Django Reinhardt, Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. He accedes the producer’s chair to trusted friend Joe Henry, who sat behind the board for Toussaint’s contributions to Our New Orleans, Nonesuch Records’ best-selling 2005 benefit release aiding hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast. Henry also produced The River In Reverse, Toussaint’s 2006 post-Katrina collaboration with Elvis Costello.

Henry assembled a decidedly non-traditional band of backing players for The Bright Mississippi, assuring a fresh take on such venerable tunes as “West End Blues,” “St. James Infirmary,” and “Dear Old Southland.” Joining Toussaint for four days of sessions at Manhattan’s Avatar Studio were guitarist Marc Ribot (Costello, Tom Waits), bassist David Piltch (k.d. lang), clarinetist Don Byron, trumpeter Nicholas Payton and drummer Jay Bellerose (Robert Plant /Alison Krauss, Sam Phillips). Nonesuch label-mates Brad Mehldau (piano) and Joshua Redman (saxophone) stopped by for one tune each.“It was wonderful,” says Toussaint of these convivial sessions.

“Everything is live, of course. This isn’t the kind of assembly line music where somebody put the wheels on here and somebody put the top on there. Everything got done at the same time, so everybody fed on eachother, their personality and tonality.”

Track Listing:

1. Egyptian Fantasy
2. A Dear Old Southland
3. St. James Infirmary
4. Singin’ the Blues
5. Winin’ Boy Blues
6. West End Blues
7. Blue Drag
8. Just a Closer Walk with Thee
9. Bright Mississippi
10. Day Dream
11. Long, Long Journey
12. Solitude

Allen Toussaint (born January 14, 1938) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer and one of the most influential figures in New Orleans R&B. In the 1960s and 1970s, he wrote numerous hits for artists including Lee Dorsey, and Willie West, who sang the title track for Black Samson, Robert Palmer, The Showmen, The Meters and Solomon Burke and produced material for Dr John, Labelle, and Art and Aaron Neville amongst others.

An accomplished pianist, lyricist and arranger, Toussaint wrote many songs which continue to be covered by artists to this day, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Brickyard Blues", "Get Out My Life Woman" and "Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky". Some of his songs from the 1950s and 1960s were penned under the pseudonym Naomi Neville. These include "Ruler of My Heart", recorded by Irma Thomas and reinterpreted as "Pain in My Heart" by Otis Redding. He arranged horn music for The Band's 1971 album Cahoots, as well as arranging horn parts into their concert repertoire. Toussaint soon launched his own solo career, which peaked in the '70s with the albums From a Whisper to a Scream and Southern Nights. For much of his career he partnered with Marshall Sehorn. They co-owned and operated the Sea-Saint recording studio in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. They also partnered in a record label, that went under various names.

Along with many of his contemporaries, Allen Toussaint found that interest in his compositions was rekindled when his work began to be heavily sampled by hip hop artists in the 1980s and 1990s. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Despite rumours at the time, Toussaint did not take refuge at the Louisiana Superdome in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Instead, Toussaint weathered out the storm in the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel. After the hurricane Toussaint left New Orleans for New York City, where he is currently living while his house is rebuilt. His first television appearance after the hurricane was on the September 7, 2005 episode of The Late Show with David Letterman, sitting in with Paul Shaffer and his CBS Orchestra. Toussaint performs each month at Joe's Pub in New York City.