Allen Toussaint

Allen Toussaint (/ˈtuːsɑːnt/; January 14, 1938 – November 10, 2015) was an American musician, songwriter/composer, record producer, and an influential figure in New Orleans R&B from the 1950s to the end of the century. Many other musicians recorded Toussaint's compositions, including "Working in the Coal Mine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet", "Southern Nights", "Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky", "I'll Take a Melody", "Get Out of My Life, Woman", "Mother-in-Law", and "Here Come the Girls".

Biography

Early life and career

Toussaint grew up in a shotgun house in the New Orleans neighborhood of Gert Town, where his mother, Naomi Neville (whose name he later adopted pseudonymously for some of his works), welcomed and fed all manner of musicians as they practiced and recorded with her son. He learned piano as a child, and in his teens played in a band with Snooks Eaglin. A significant early influence on Toussaint was the syncopated "second-line" piano style of Professor Longhair.

After a lucky break at age 17, in which he stood in for Huey "Piano" Smith at a performance with Earl King's band in Prichard, Alabama, Toussaint was introduced to a group of local musicians led by Dave Bartholomew who performed regularly at a night club, the Dew Drop Inn, on Lasalle Street in Uptown. He began performing regularly in Bartholomew's band, and recorded with Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Lee Allen and other leading New Orleans performers. He initially recorded for RCA Victor as Al Tousan and recorded an album of instrumentals, including the tune "Java", which became a #1 hit for Al Hirt (also on RCA) in 1964.

Success in the 1960s

In 1960, Joe Banashak of Minit Records, and later Instant Records, hired him as A&R man and record producer. He also did freelance work for other labels, such as Fury. Toussaint played piano, wrote, arranged and produced a string of hits in the early and mid 1960s for New Orleans R&B artists such as Ernie K-Doe, Lee Dorsey, Chris Kenner, Irma Thomas, Art and Aaron Neville, The Showmen. Some notable examples are:

• Jessie Hill's "Ooh Poo Pah Doo"
• Ernie K-Doe's "Mother-in-Law", written by Toussaint
• Chris Kenner's "I Like It Like That", and his original version of "Land of 1000 Dances"
• "Ruler of My Heart", recorded by Irma Thomas. This song was subsequently recorded by Otis Redding under the title "Pain in My Heart", and by The Rolling Stones on their second album.
• In 1964, "A Certain Girl" (originally by Ernie K-Doe) was the B-side of the first single release by The Yardbirds; the song was released again in 1980 by Warren Zevon.
• A two-sided 1962 hit by Benny Spellman comprised "Lipstick Traces (on a Cigarette)," later covered by The O'Jays, Ringo Starr, and Alex Chilton.
• The simple but effective "Fortune Teller", which was covered by many 1960s rock groups including The Rolling Stones, The Nashville Teens, The Who, The Hollies, The Throb, and ex-Searchers founder member Tony Jackson.

Toussaint credited about twenty songs to his parents, Clarence and Naomi. These include Benny Spellman's 1961 original version of "Fortune Teller" and The Artwoods' 1966 version of "Work, Work, Work". In 2007 Alison Krauss and Robert Plant covered "Fortune Teller" on their album Raising Sand. A fairly thorough song list appears in Toussaint's discography section.

Toussaint was drafted into the US Army in 1963, but continued to record when on leave. After his discharge in 1965, he joined forces with Marshall Sehorn. They started their own record label variously known as Tou-Sea, Sansu, Deesu or Kansu, and recorded with Lee Dorsey, Chris Kenner, Betty Harris and others. Dorsey had hits with several of Toussaint's songs, including "Ride Your Pony" (1965), "Working in the Coal Mine" (1966), and "Holy Cow" (1966).

The 1970s to 1990s

Toussaint also began working with The Meters, originally as session musicians and they acted as the house band for his soul classics of the 1960s, including Lee Dorsey's "Ride Your Pony". He continued to produce them when they released records under the band name. Starting in the 1970s, he switched gears to a funkier sound, writing and producing for the Meters, Dr. John, and The Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indians tribe. One of his compositions, "Here Come the Girls", recorded by Ernie K-Doe in 1970, formed the basis of the Sugababes' 2008 hit "Girls".

He also began to work with non-New Orleans artists such as B. J. Thomas, Robert Palmer, Willy DeVille, Sandy Denny, Elkie Brooks, Solomon Burke, Scottish soul singer Frankie Miller (High Life) and southern rocker Mylon LeFevre. He arranged horn music for The Band's 1971 album Cahoots, plus Rock of Ages and The Last Waltz film, in conjunction with arranging horn parts for their concert repertoire. Boz Scaggs recorded Toussaint's "What Do You Want the Girl to Do?" on his 1976 album Silk Degrees, which reached #2 on the U.S. pop albums chart. In 1976 he also collaborated with John Mayall on the album Notice to Appear.

In 1973 Toussaint and Sehorn created the Sea-Saint recording studio in Gentilly. Toussaint also launched his own solo career, which peaked in the 1970s with the albums From a Whisper to a Scream and Southern Nights. It was during this time that he teamed with Labelle, and produced their highly acclaimed 1975 album Nightbirds, which spawned the number one hit, "Lady Marmalade". The same year, Toussaint collaborated with Paul McCartney and Wings for their hit album Venus and Mars and played on the song Rock Show. Two years later, Glen Campbell covered Toussaint's "Southern Nights" and carried the song to number one on the Pop, Country and Adult-Contemporary charts. Along with many of his contemporaries, Toussaint found that interest in his compositions was rekindled when his work began to be sampled by hip hop artists in the 1980s and 1990s.

2000s

Toussaint weathered the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel. After the hurricane he left New Orleans for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and eventually settled in New York City. 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 performed regularly at Joe's Pub in New York City through 2009.

The River in Reverse, Toussaint's collaborative album with Elvis Costello, was released on May 29, 2006 in the UK on the Verve label, by Universal Classics and Jazz UCJ. It was recorded in Hollywood and, notably, in Toussaint's native New Orleans as the first major studio session to take place after Hurricane Katrina. In 2007, Toussaint performed a duet with Paul McCartney of a song by fellow New Orleans musician and resident Fats Domino, "I Want to Walk You Home", as their contribution to Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino (Vanguard).

In 2008, Toussaint's song "Sweet Touch of Love" was used in a deodorant commercial for the Axe (Lynx) brand. The commercial won a Gold Lion at the 2008 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. In February 2008, Toussaint appeared on Le Show, the Harry Shearer show broadcast on KCRW. He appeared in London in August 2008, where he performed a gig at the Roundhouse. In October 2008 he performed at Festival New Orleans at The O2 alongside acts such as Dr. John and Buckwheat Zydeco. Sponsored by Quint Davis of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Philip Anschutz, the event was intended to promote New Orleans music and culture and to revive the once-lucrative tourist trade that had been almost completely lost following the flooding of Hurricane Katrina. After his second performance at the festival, Toussaint appeared alongside then-Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, Mitch Landrieu. The following day, he performed again in London at the NFL Tailgate Party.

Toussaint performed for a taping of the PBS series Austin City Limits on June 30, 2009 during the show's 35th anniversary season. He played instrumentals from his then recent album, "The Bright Mississippi", as well as many songs from his back catalog. He performed with Levon Helm and his band on Imus in the Morning on October 9, 2009. In December 2009, he was featured on Elvis Costello's Spectacle program on the Sundance Channel, singing "A Certain Girl". Toussaint appeared on Eric Clapton's 2010 album, Clapton, in two Fats Waller covers, "My Very Good Friend the Milkman" and "When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful".

His late-blooming career as a performer began when he accepted an offer to play a regular Sunday brunch session at an East Village pub. Interviewed in 2014 by The Guardian's Richard Williams, he said: "I never thought of myself as a performer ... My comfort zone is behind the scenes." In 2013 he collaborated on a ballet with the choreographer Twyla Tharp.

Toussaint was a musical mentor to Swedish-born New Orleans songwriter and performer Theresa Andersson.

Honours

In 1998 Toussaint was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2009 into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. On May 9, 2011 he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. In 2013 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.

Death

Toussaint died in the early hours of November 10, 2015 while on tour in Madrid, Spain. Following a concert at the Teatro Lara on Calle Corredera Baja de San Pablo, he suffered a heart attack at his hotel and was pronounced dead on his arrival at hospital. He was 77. He is survived by his two children, including son Clarence (better known as Reginald) and daughter Alison, and by several grandchildren. His children had managed his career in recent years.

Writing in The New York Times, Ben Sisario quoted Quint Davis, producer of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival: "In the pantheon of New Orleans music people, from Jelly Roll Morton to Mahalia Jackson to Fats — that’s the place where Allen Toussaint is in". Paul Simon said: "We were friends and colleagues for almost 40 years ... We played together at the New Orleans jazz festival. We played the benefits for Katrina relief. We were about to perform together on Dec. 8. I was just beginning to think about it; now I’ll have to think about his memorial. I am so sad."