Time: 61:32
File: Flac
Released: 2009
Styles: New Orleans R&B/Blues, Southern Soul
Art: Front
1. Egyptian Fantasy (4:39)
2. A Dear Old Southland (6:19)
3. St. James Infirmary (3:51)
4. Singin' The Blues (5:40)
5. Whinin' Boy Blues (6:41)
6. West End Blues (3:51)
7. Blue Drag (4:21)
8. Just A Closer Walk With Thee (5:10)
9. Bright Mississippi (5:07)
10. Day Dream (5:27)
11. Long, Long Journey (4:50)
12. Solitude (5:31)
Allen Toussaint, a multifaceted musician who brought the traditional rhythmic sound of New Orleans into the popular music of the 1960s and 1970s, writing and producing hit songs for performers as varied as Herb Alpert, Patti LaBelle and Glen Campbell, died Nov. 10 at a hotel in Madrid. He was 77.
He collapsed hours after a performance Monday night in Madrid, his son, Clarence “Reginald” Toussaint, said. The cause of death was a heart attack.
Mr. Toussaint (pronounced too-SAHNT) had been a powerful force in New Orleans music since the 1950s, recording his first album when he was 20. He was an outstanding singer and pianist, but for years he put his own career as a performer aside as he wrote and produced a staggering number of hit songs for others. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 as a “non-performer.”
Early in his career, Mr. Toussaint wrote, produced and played piano on Ernie K-Doe's "Mother-in-Law," which reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart in 1961. His instrumental tunes "Java" and "Whipped Cream" topped the charts in the mid-1960s for trumpeters Al Hirt and Herb Alpert, respectively.Mr. Toussaint wrote and produced "Working in a Coal Mine," a 1966 hit for rhythm-and-blues singer Lee Dorsey that was later recorded by the Judds and Devo. Mr. Toussaint produced Dr. John's funk anthem "Right Place, Wrong Time" (1973) and "Lady Marmalade," a No. 1 disco hit in 1975 for the trio known as Labelle, led by singer Patti LaBelle. He wrote the song "Southern Nights," which hit No. 1 for Campbell in 1977.
The Pointer Sisters' 1973 hit, "Yes We Can Can," was written by Mr. Toussaint, and his tune "Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley" landed on the charts in a 1974 version by British rocker Robert Palmer. Other songs by Mr. Toussaint were recorded by the Rolling Stones, Warren Zevon and Bonnie Raitt. “Toussaint is truly an underappreciated, virtually undiscovered gem,” music critic Joel Selvin wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2006. “He has long been a national treasure, just unknown outside New Orleans and record business circles.” Mr. Toussaint often appeared at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, but he didn't emerge fully on the national stage until after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home and studio in 2005. He then recorded a Grammy-nominated album with Elvis Costello, "The River in Reverse," which included several of Mr. Toussaint's songs, such as "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?"
“We may seem happy, like everything’s all right,” Mr. Toussaint sang in his light, clear tenor. “But deep down inside, we’re covering up the pain. It’s an old thing, it’s a soul thing, but it’s a real thing. Pray tell, what’s going to happen to brother?” The song, written years earlier, took on added meaning after Mr. Toussaint was forced out of his home by Katrina. “I intended to ride it out as I have every storm of my life,” he told the New York Times in 2006. “I knew it would be bigger and badder, but hurricanes are my familiar archenemies
Mr. Toussaint (pronounced too-SAHNT) had been a powerful force in New Orleans music since the 1950s, recording his first album when he was 20. He was an outstanding singer and pianist, but for years he put his own career as a performer aside as he wrote and produced a staggering number of hit songs for others. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 as a “non-performer.”
Early in his career, Mr. Toussaint wrote, produced and played piano on Ernie K-Doe's "Mother-in-Law," which reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart in 1961. His instrumental tunes "Java" and "Whipped Cream" topped the charts in the mid-1960s for trumpeters Al Hirt and Herb Alpert, respectively.Mr. Toussaint wrote and produced "Working in a Coal Mine," a 1966 hit for rhythm-and-blues singer Lee Dorsey that was later recorded by the Judds and Devo. Mr. Toussaint produced Dr. John's funk anthem "Right Place, Wrong Time" (1973) and "Lady Marmalade," a No. 1 disco hit in 1975 for the trio known as Labelle, led by singer Patti LaBelle. He wrote the song "Southern Nights," which hit No. 1 for Campbell in 1977.
The Pointer Sisters' 1973 hit, "Yes We Can Can," was written by Mr. Toussaint, and his tune "Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley" landed on the charts in a 1974 version by British rocker Robert Palmer. Other songs by Mr. Toussaint were recorded by the Rolling Stones, Warren Zevon and Bonnie Raitt. “Toussaint is truly an underappreciated, virtually undiscovered gem,” music critic Joel Selvin wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2006. “He has long been a national treasure, just unknown outside New Orleans and record business circles.” Mr. Toussaint often appeared at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, but he didn't emerge fully on the national stage until after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home and studio in 2005. He then recorded a Grammy-nominated album with Elvis Costello, "The River in Reverse," which included several of Mr. Toussaint's songs, such as "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?"
“We may seem happy, like everything’s all right,” Mr. Toussaint sang in his light, clear tenor. “But deep down inside, we’re covering up the pain. It’s an old thing, it’s a soul thing, but it’s a real thing. Pray tell, what’s going to happen to brother?” The song, written years earlier, took on added meaning after Mr. Toussaint was forced out of his home by Katrina. “I intended to ride it out as I have every storm of my life,” he told the New York Times in 2006. “I knew it would be bigger and badder, but hurricanes are my familiar archenemies
The Bright Mississippi FLAC