Last week saw the sad news that the legendary New Orleans musician, songwriter, arranger and producer Allen Toussaint had passed away, aged 77, after a concert in Madrid.
Toussaint, a brilliant pianist and a songwriter with the amazing gift of writing catchy hooks for infectious pop songs, was widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in New Orleans' R&B from the 1950s onwards.
Toussaint was born in 1938 in Gert Town in New Orleans to a household that welcomed all kinds of musicians who practised with Toussaint. He learnt piano as a child and formed a band, The Flamingos, with guitarist Snooks Eaglin. He dropped out of school early and was considered to be such a prodigy on the piano that at just 17 he stood in for Huey "Piano" Smith in Earl King's band.
An early influence on his piano playing was the pioneering R&B pianist Professor Longhair, who he championed throughout his career (interested readers should go to YouTube to view various documentaries on Toussaint; one fascinating clip shows Toussaint explaining and then performing some of Longhair's R&B piano innovations).
Shortly after this he started playing at the Dew Drop Inn with a band led by Dave Bartholomew. He was invited by RCA to record an album of instrumentals -- Wild Sound of New Orleans -- in 1958 and began to play sessions on recordings for a wide variety of musicians and started to write songs, the first big hit of which was Java, a big pop hit for Al Hirt in 1964. He also worked on recording sessions with another young musician, John "Mac" Rebennack, who would later be known as Dr John.
But by the early 60s he was playing piano, writing songs, arranging and producing hits for New Orleans' star musicians, such as Ernie K-Doe, Irma Thomas, Aaron and Art Neville and Lee Dorsey. During this intense period of creativity he wrote many great hits, like Chris Kenner's I Like It Like That and Irma Thomas' Ruler Of My Heart -- covered by soul legend Otis Redding under a different name, Pain In My Heart. He made the transition from R&B in the 50s to soul in the 60s seamlessly.
His songs and productions attracted the attention of many international musicians, especially British rock groups like The Who and The Rolling Stones.
After a stint in the US army, Toussaint teamed up with Marshall Sehorn to form a new record label, Sansu (and many variants like Kansu) and recorded music for local artists. Lee Dorsey, for instance, had big hits with Toussaint's songs Ride Your Pony and Working In A Coal Mine.
At that time his house band was The Meters who backed his big hits like Ride Your Pony. In the early 70s he released singles and albums by The Meters, creating a unique New Orleans' funk sound. He also recorded songs by Dr John and by the Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indian tribe. I've been playing some of these songs during my DJ nights here in Bangkok and the pulsing music never fails to get people into dance mode.
By this time, Toussaint found himself in demand as a producer and songwriter for BJ Thomas, Robert Palmer, Solomon Burke, Bonnie Raitt and Paul McCartney. After he collaborated with John Mayall in 1976, he started to promote his solo career (via albums like From A Whisper To A Scream and Southern Nights), which led to the wonderful album recorded with Elvis Costello, The River In Reverse, in 2006.
This summary is just a snapshot of the songs, albums and productions he created. One of his most famous was Southern Nights, which was a huge hit for country music singer Glen Campbell.
His solo career peaked in the 70s but he was "rediscovered" by samplers in the 80s and 90s, which resurrected his career. For the past 15 years he performed widely and thrilled international audiences with his marvellous playing.
The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina forced him to leave his beloved New Orleans and he lived for nearly a decade in New York where he would often be found playing regular gigs at a pub in the city's East Village. But the call of The Big Easy drew him back and he returned to the place that inspired so much of his music.
Toussaint apparently never really considered himself to be a performer (a strange notion as he was such a terrific pianist). He was happier being behind the scenes where he could work his magic, creating music for a list of musicians that reads like a Who's Who of popular music from the 1950s to the turn of the century.
Allen Toussaint was one of the great, unsung musical geniuses of 20th century popular music. He will be sorely missed.
This columnist can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com.
