culture

Crescent City Legend Allen Toussaint Takes Center Stage

By April Baer (OPB)
June 27, 2015 1 p.m.

When it's time for me to get planted on the proverbial desert island, I'll go gladly and quietly, as long as I'm supplied with the complete recorded works of Allen Toussaint.

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Toussaint rarely performed as a soloist before Hurricane Katrina forced him to temporarily relocate to New York. "New York was a wonderful place to be, if you have to be someplace else for a while."

Toussaint rarely performed as a soloist before Hurricane Katrina forced him to temporarily relocate to New York. "New York was a wonderful place to be, if you have to be someplace else for a while."

I'm not even kidding. Once you've heard his songs — sinuous, graceful, and elemental — it's impossible not to go back for second and third helpings. The range of his musical ideas is staggering, spread across jaunty, steady-rolling '50s and '60s R&B, through the slow-simmered funk grooves of the 70s, into the beautifully balanced and understated albums he's released in the past decade.

Toussaint's songwriting credits include some of New Orleans' most iconic titles (Dr John's "Right Place, Wrong Time", LaBelle's "Lady Marmelade"). He's counted among the city's most gifted pianists. As a producer, he shepherded session after session of records that defined the city's sounds, bringing Crescent City's indelible rhythms into the American musical mainstream. (The house band for the studio Toussaint co-founded, The Meters, were the defining New Orleans funk masters of their era, influencing generations of rhythm sections.)

Allen Toussaint is headed to Portland for a Friday night 7 p.m. performance at the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival.

He's bringing with him a choice group of New Orleans session players, including guitarist Renard Poche, and Toussaint's son-in-law, Herman LeBeau.

Don't skip the sound file attached — we dare you to keep still for these grooves — but here's a taste of what Toussaint had to say in our interview:

  • On growing up in the shadow of New Orleans piano greats like Professor Longhair: I was trying to learn everything I'd ever heard out there. When I first started playing, and heard pianos on the radio, I thought all piano players could play everything I heard, and I was the only one who couldn't.
  • On what he was listening to in the early 70s - an explosively creative period: A lot of classical! I would scan the radio from time to time, but when I wanted to be away from what I normally did I'd listen to classical. It was soothing, and just softened the walls around me.
  • On the losses of Hurricane Katrina, including his home and every instrument he owned up til 2005: Nothing was saved, but I was OK. Everything I'd had until that day served me well, so I was grateful. I'm here, let's get going, see what happens next.
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