..from a double heart attack after performing in Madrid.
Shame. As a massive Costello fan, very much enjoyed their collaborations.
Can’t post a clip from here, but if anyone can, the track he wrote on the Feat’s Dixie Chicken would be nice.
Musings on the byways of popular culture
..from a double heart attack after performing in Madrid.
Shame. As a massive Costello fan, very much enjoyed their collaborations.
Can’t post a clip from here, but if anyone can, the track he wrote on the Feat’s Dixie Chicken would be nice.
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Didn’t see your post, just got the same news
http://www.wwltv.com/story/news/2015/11/10/allen-toussaint/75500982/
That’s the one – thank you.
My first thought too!
Another blinder. Little Feat as backing band.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tm6QEN7ABg
He also this, off Lowell George’s solo album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9aWs7rdKME
RIP
I’ve been sitting posting on FB for the past hour on this one.
Mr. Toussaint has been part of my musical life since I got a Rock’n’Roll boxset in 1974 that was full of New Orleans stuff. His name kept popping up everywhere after that. I even learned that he was Naomi Neville of songwriting fame.
When I got to New Orleans in 1992 – and many times after – I always always went to see him play live. One day, I saw Fats Domino, Isaac Hayes and Allen Toussaint play (separately). In one day. Three men who changed R&B in their time and these changes crossed over into R&R, Pop, Soul, Disco – the lot.
His work with Lee Dorsey is the absolute peak of New Orleans 60s R&B/Soul. He did good work with the white boys and girls in the 70s but for me I much prefer his 60s stuff with Irma, K-Doe, Aaron Neville, Dorsey, and a never ending list of great NOLA artists.
and many more, including this classic from Frankie Miller
I shall remember him this way.
http://youtu.be/ZKKBkrJM8VM
Don’t know this one nor the connection. Save me the googlehassle and explain?
One of his loveliest early cuts. So grateful that I got to see his solo show, twice, and that after one of them was able to shake his hand afterward and thank him.
Afterword wet dream line up: Toussaint, RT, Costello, Helm, Lowe, Campbell, LaMonagne (well I like him) sing The Weight.
One less great talent in the world. The N’awlins corner of heaven is having a damn fine party tonight. RIP.
@jorrox It’s a Betty Harris song, from 1969, written by Toussaint. I didn’t know it until Tedeschi Trucks Band opened with it on Saturday night. I spent Sunday tracing it back to one of Susan Tedeschi’s solo albums, 2008’s Break In The River. Wonderful song.
Toussaint did a lot of great – if underappreciated – work with Betty Harris. This one is especially stirring….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YHJ7pAsBMI
Ta – turns out I have the original!
Surprised really because whenever I have seen him on tv or in interviews in recent years he has always looked very dapper and actually quite healthy. The reverse had its critics but in fairness I would guess that number of people were introduced to Toussaint through that album which has to be a good thing right?
Anyway one co-write with Costello from that album really stood out for me lyrically and musically with the most exquisite piano:-
Of course that should have read The River in reverse.
You know it’s based on this?
Which is a minor key version of this classic.
Hope it’s not considered too morbid to post this, but it seems he was still in good voice to the last:
Hi Jorrox yes indeed I have both versions but the solo piano I just find so haunting. It’s one of the few records that has stopped my wife in her tracks which is saying something as not much of my music pleases her.
I’m more familiar with his 60s songs, Fortune Teller (The Stones), A Certain Girl (Yardbirds), I Like It Like That (Chris Kenner), Mother In Law (Ernie K-Doe) etc
I first heard this by the Yardbirds with Eric Clapton in 1964, but here’s the original
Many years ago a good friend played this as the first song at his wedding reception
God, the stories I have about K-Doe!
Things I did not know till just now, latest in a continuing series. AT wrote this.
Otherwise, what JC said…those early 60s Nawlins tracks were the business. He wrote this under the pseudonym Naomi Neville.
I posted the NZ band Larry’s Rebels’ version of this over on the Poptastic 60s thread, here’s the original, I found out to today it was written by none other than AT.
That’s my listening sorted for the rest of the day. Allen Toussaint’s fingerprints are all over this 4CD box.
http://i.imgur.com/TRLdZIN.jpg
I bought that at the festival that very year. And then named a band after it!
And here’s a piano tribute from Steve Nieve
That’s fabulous – just a little something he knocked up, presumably. I wonder where he found that piano?
It’s a version of “Ascension Day” from the album AT and Elvis Costello did together (“The River In Reverse”).
Heres a live version with AT having a jolly good ronk out on the piano as a prelude to the actual song.
And yeah that must have been the nearest piano Steve could find – down the local pub maybe?
How very sad.
After Katrina, he relocated to New York temporarily and played regularly on a Sunday lunchtime at Joe’s Pub in Lower Manhattan with his fee, I believe, going to support good works in New Orleans.
I sat just to one side of the small stage as he gave a history lesson of New Orleans music, starting with Professor Longhair and then moving through his early 60s hits in what was effectively one long solo piano medley. I spoke to him briefly during the interval – a little flummoxed as you are when you meet your musical heroes – but he was warm and considered and even threw in a couple of bars of “Shoorah, Shoorah” into the second half of the show for me. Just one those musicians who’s been with you for what seems like forever – from discovering those Meters albums back in the 70s and then digging further back to Betty Harris and Lee Dorsey and then forward to immaculate production work on all-time classics such as Randy Crawford’s “Raw Silk” and his recent solo work.
He always seemed such a gentle, immaculate and unbelievably creative man. What a sad loss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgOs_hCb7gQ
I never had the good fortune to see Allen Toussaint live.
But certainly he came across on TV as one of the coolest most sophisticated and erudite of people, both personally and musically.
Love this album. Bright Mississippi, and in particular this track, Winnin’ Boy Blues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyeCLaysfJE
I’ve just finished reading Up From The Cradle Of Jazz New Orleans Music Since World War 2 which I would heartily recommend to any fan of his music. It has chapters on Allen Toussaint and the Minit Sound and Allen Toussaint and the Meters. It has an extensive Bibliography and Discography, more books and records to check out, hooray! There are a few films listed too and I found this one on Youtube:
Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUD06nI-Iqo