Allen Toussaint

At 77 years old, Allen Toussaint has this physical status:

Allen Toussaint (January 14, 1938 – November 10, 2015) was an American musician, songwriter, arranger and record producer, who was an influential figure in New Orleans rhythm and blues from the 1950s to the end of the century, described as "one of popular music's great backroom figures".

Many musicians recorded Toussaint's compositions, including “Whipped Cream”, "Java", "Mother-in-Law", "I Like It Like That", "Fortune Teller", "Ride Your Pony", "Get Out of My Life, Woman", "Working in the Coal Mine", "Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky", "Here Come the Girls", "Yes We Can Can", "Play Something Sweet", and "Southern Nights".

He was a producer for hundreds of recordings, among the best known of which are "Right Place, Wrong Time", by his longtime friend Dr.

John ("Mac" Rebennack), and "Lady Marmalade", by Labelle.

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Early life and career

Toussaint, the youngest of three children, was born in 1938 in New Orleans and grew up in a shotgun house in Gert Town, where his mother, Naomi Neville (who later adopted pseudonymously for some of his creations), welcomed and fed all manner of musicians as they performed and performed with her son. Clarence Clarence's father, Clarence, served on the railway and played trumpet. Allen Toussaint learned piano as an infant and obtained informal music lessons from an elderly neighbor, Ernest Pinn. He performed with the guitarist Snooks Eaglin in his youth before dropping out of school. Professor Longhair's syncopated "second-line" piano style was a major influence on Toussaint's early influence on Toussaint.

Toussaint was introduced to a group of local musicians led by Dave Bartholomew, who appeared regularly at Earl King's band in Prichard, Alabama, after a happy break at age 17, when he stood in for Huey "Piano" Smith at a performance with his band at the Dew Drop Inn. His first recording on Domino's "I Want You to Know" (I Want You to Know), on which Toussaint played piano and Domino overdubbed his vocals. Lee Allen's "Walking with Mr. Lee" was his first success as a producer in 1957. He began playing regularly in Bartholomew's band, and he has performed with Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Lee Allen, and other top New Orleans entertainers.

After being spotted as a sideman by A&R's Danny Kessler, he first appeared on RCA Records as Al Tousan. Alvin "Red" Tyler (baritone sax), either Nat Perrilliat or Lee Allen (tenor sax), either Justin Adams or Roy Montrell (guitar), and Charles "Hungry" Williams (drums) recorded an album of instrumentals in early 1958. Toussaint and Tyler's composition "Java," which first charted for Floyd Cramer in 1962 and became a top-five pop hit for Al Hirt (also on RCA) in 1964. In the early 1960s, Toussaint recorded and co-wrote songs with Allen Orange.

Joe Banashak, founder of Minit Records and later Instant Records, recruited Toussaint as an A&R man and record producer in 1960. He worked for other brands, such as Fury. Toussaint, a piano player, wrote, arranged, and produced a number of hits for New Orleans R&B artists, including "It's Raining"), Art and Aaron Neville, and Lee Dorsey, who first hit "Ya Ya" in 1961.

The early to mid-1960s were considered the most creatively lucrative period in Toussaint. Jessie Hill's "Oo Poo Pah Doo" (written by Hill and arranged and produced by Toussaint), Ernie K-Doe's "Mother-In-Law"), and Chris Kenner's "I Like It Like That" are two notable examples of his work. Benny Spellman's "Lipstick Traces (on a Cigarette)" (covered by The O'Jays, Ringo Starr, and Alex Chilton) and the simple but effective "Fortune Teller" (covered by various 1960s rock bands, including The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Hollies, The Throb, and The Searchers founder Tony Jackson) was a two-sided 1962 attack. "Ruler of My Heart," written under Otis Redding's name "Pain in My Heart" later that year, causing Toussaint to file a lawsuit against Redding and his record company, Stax, after Stax agreed to credit Naomi Neville as the songwriter. The Rolling Stones' version of Redding's song was also recorded on their second album. The B-side of the first single release by the Yardbirds in 1964, "A Certain Girl" (originally by Ernie K-Doe) was the B-side. Warren Zevon's album Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School was re-released in 1980, and the song debuted on Billboard's Hot 100 at 57. In 2007, Mary Weiss, the Shangri-Last's former lead singer, released it as "A Certain Guy." On We Ran, Linda Ronstadt released a jazzy version of "Ruler of my Heart" in 1998.

Toussaint credited more than twenty songs to his parents, Clarence and Naomi, and Naomi, who used the pseudonym "Naomi Neville" most often. "Fortune Teller," first recorded by Benny Spellman in 1961, "Pain In My Heart," first a hit for Otis Redding in 1963, and "Work, Love, Work," first recorded by The Artwoods in 1966. "Fortune Teller" was featured on Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's 2007 album Raising Sand.

Toussaint was drafted into the United States Army in 1963 but he continued to record while on leave. After being fired in 1965, he joined forces with Marshall Sehorn to form Sansu Enterprises, which included a music brand Sansu, Tou-Sea, Deesu, Kansu, or Kansu, as well as tracks such as Lee Dorsey, Chris Kenner, Betty Harris, and others. Dorsey had success with several of Toussaint's songs, including "Ride Your Pony" (1965), "Working in the Coal Mine" (1966), and "Holy Cow" (1966). Art Neville, Leo Nocentelli on guitar, George Porter Jr. on bass, and Zigaboo Modeliste on drums were among the main participants of the Sansu recordings from the mid to late 1960s, Art Neville and the Sounds. They were later identified as The Meters. In songs including "Ride Your Pony" and "Working in the Coal Mine," which were often augmented by horns, which were not often arranged by Toussaint, their backing can be heard. The Toussaint-produced records of these years, backed by the members of the Meters, who's increasing use of syncopation and electric instrumentation, were backed by the latter, but they were unable to produce a modern New Orleans funk sound.

When they first started releasing records under their own name in 1969, Toussaint continued to produce The Meters. As part of a process that began at Sansu and blossomed into a swanky sound, such as Dr. John (backed by the Meters) and an album by The Wild Tchoupitoulas, a New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians tribe led by Charles and Aaron Neville, who later appeared and recorded as The Neville Brothers).

Toussaint began to collaborate with artists from outside of New Orleans, such as B. J. Thomas, Robert Palmer, Willy DeVille, Elkie Brooks, Solomon Burke, Scottish soul singer Frankie Miller (High Life), and southern rocker Mylon LeFevre. He arranged horn music for The Band's Cahoots (1971) and Rock of Ages (1972), as well as the documentary film The Last Waltz (1978). Toussaint's "What Do You Want the Girl to Do" was captured by Boz Scaggs. Silk Degrees, his 1976 album, which debuted at number two on the US pop charts, debuted at number two. Bonnie Raitt's 1975 album Home Plate and Geoff Muldaur (1976), Lowell George (1979), and Elvis Costello (2005). He collaborated with John Mayall on the album Notice to Appear in 1976.

Toussaint and Sehorn established the Sea-Saint recording studio in eastern New Orleans' Gentilly neighborhood in 1973. Toussaint began recording under his own name, with vocals as well as piano. His solo career hit a high point in the mid-1970s with the release of Scream to a Southern Nights. During this time, he worked with Labelle and produced their widely acclaimed 1975 album Nightbirds, which featured the number one hit "Lady Marmalade." Toussaint performed on the song "Rock Show" alongside Paul McCartney and Wings in the same year. The Pointer Sisters covered his "Yes We Can Can" in 1973; the group's self-titled debut album was released as a single, and it became both a pop and R&B hit as well as the group's introduction to popular culture. Glen Campbell covered Toussaint's "Southern Nights" two years ago and the song debuted on the pop, country, and adult contemporary charts, peaking at number one.

He appeared on Broadway in 1987 as the musical director of an off-Broadway show, Staggerlee, which attracted 150 people. Toussaint, like many of his contemporaries, was revived as his compositions were sampled by hip hop artists in the 1980s and 1990s.

During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the bulk of Toussaint's possessions, as well as his home and recording studio, Sea-Saint Studios, were lost. He first requested protection at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel on Canal Street. Following the hurricane, who flooded the city, he left New Orleans for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and later settled in New York City. His first television appearance after the hurricane was on the late show with David Letterman on September 7, 2005, co-starring Paul Shaffer and his CBS Orchestra. Toussaint appeared regularly at Joe's Pub in New York City from 2009 to 2009. He eventually returned to New Orleans and lived there for the remainder of his life.

Toussaint is interviewed on camera, served as a musician, supervised his band, and appeared in a performance clip in the 2005 documentary film Make It Funky!, which explores New Orleans music and its influence on rhythm and blues, rock and roll, funk, and jazz. He performed "Fortune Teller," "Working in the Coal Mine" and "A Certain Girl" in the film. He sang "Tipitina" in a piano duo with Jon Cleary, and accompanied Irma Thomas on "Old Records," Lloyd Price on "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", and Bonnie Raitt on "What is Success."

The River in Reverse, Toussaint's collaborative album with Elvis Costello, was released in the United Kingdom by Universal Classics and Jazz UCJ on May 29, 2006. It was shot in Hollywood and at the Piety Street Studios in Bywater's native New Orleans, Toussaint's hometown New Orleans, as the first major studio session to take place after Hurricane Katrina. Toussaint paid tribute to Fats Domino in 2007 by performing a duet with Paul McCartney of a song by New Orleans singer and resident Fats Domino titled "I Want to Walk You Home."

In a deodorant commercial for the Axe (Lynx) brand in 2008, Toussaint's song "Sweet Touch of Love" was used. At the 2008 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, the commercial received a Gold Lion. Toussaint appeared on Le Show, the Harry Shearer show on KCRW in February 2008. In August 2008, he appeared at the Roundhouse in London, where he appeared at the Roundhouse. He appeared at Festival New Orleans on October 28, 2008, alongside acts such as Dr. John and Buckwheat Zydeco. The festival, which had been sponsored by Quint Davis of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Philip Anschutz, was designed to highlight New Orleans music and history, as well as the once-broad tourist industry that had been almost dead after Hurricane Katrina's floods. Toussaint appeared alongside Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu in his second appearance at the festival.

Toussaint performed instrumentals from his album The Bright Mississippi and several of his older songs for a taping of the PBS series Austin City Limits, which aired on January 9, 2015. He appeared on Elvis Costello's Spectacle show on the Sundance Channel in December 2009, singing "A Certain Girl." Toussaint appeared on Eric Clapton's 2010 album, Clapton, as "My Very Good Friend the Milkman" and "When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful."

He began performing in a late-blooming role as a performer when he accepted an invitation to attend a Sunday brunch session at an East Village pub. "I never thought of myself as a performer," Toussaint said in an interview with The Guardian in 2014. He and choreographer Twyla Tharp performed a ballet together in 2013. Toussaint, a Swedish-born New Orleans songwriter and performer Theresa Andersson, was a musical mentor. Toussaint's one marriage ended in divorce.

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