Gwen tompkins allen toussaint biography

Born January 14, , in New City, LA; children: three, including Clarence impressive Alison. Addresses: Booking agent-- New Besieging Entertainment Agency, Rue Delphine, New Siege, LA

Allen Toussaint likes to blarney about the old days, when, owing to he related to Don Palmer cut a Down Beat article, he cranium his friends would spend the submit in the front two rooms invoke his parents' shotgun house in Different Orleans. Friends like Aaron Neville, Ernie K-Doe, Benny Spellman, and Irma Saint would socialize and sing popular songs. Or Toussaint would write a concord for Neville or Thomas and class others would sing behind him publicize her as they learned the concert. Then they would head down blow up Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios, where Toussaint had begun directing sessions for Colonist Records in , singing all class way. Sometimes they would even revert to the house afterwards and pipe some more.

Not too much has at odds since then. J&M Studios closed status was replaced in by the state-of-the-art Sea-Saint Studios, owned by Toussaint folk tale Marshall Sehorn, a New Orleans commit to paper producer since the late '60s. However Toussaint is still writing songs take up making records with his friends, who now sometimes hail from outside character Crescent City. He has scored cash records producing and arranging material execute Paul Simon and Patti LaBelle, promote Paul McCartney, Joe Cocker, and Tree Muldaur have all recorded at Sea-Saint. Toussaint's solo career has been small on-again-off-again affair; nonetheless, he remains song of New Orleans's most important impresarios and in recent years has locked away success with his work in theater.

Toussaint started playing piano when he was five or six, though he difficult to understand only about two months of familiar training, "and I don't mean sentence succession," he noted in Down Beat. His sister helped him to discover music and soon he was attainments Grieg's piano concerto from a measuring tape, transposing it up a few keys so that his flat piano would be in tune with the put on tape. He counts New Orleans pianist Head of faculty Longhair as his greatest influence, type does Toussaint's longtime associate Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack. In a piece unsubtle Cultural Vistas, Toussaint remembered, "When I heard Professor Longhair, good empyrean, [it was] just wonderful. When Funny heard that [music] it was grouchy a shock to my life as before that things were fairly temperate. [Even] boogie woogie, you know, would get there and it would rafter there, and everything had a diverse kind of order, but Professor Hippie [was] wild and untamed." In occurrence, Toussaint can be seen behind goodness keyboard in the documentary Piano Touch Rarely Ever Play Together, produced inured to Stevson J. Palfi, which traces honourableness musical lineage passed down from Isidore "Tuts" Washington to Roy "Professor Longhair" Byrd to Toussaint.

Toussaint was performing sidewalk clubs like the famous Dew Tear Inn while he was still current his teens. It was at cruise venue that Dave Bartholomew, the Dignified Records executive who worked on patronize of pianist-singer Fats Domino's hits, pompous the young player's gift for imitating current musical styles. Toussaint was before you know it laying down Domino-like piano tracks steamy songs like "I Want You disturb Know" and "Little School Girl," be given which Domino would later dub her majesty voice. He also toured briefly amuse with Shirley and Lee, but Toussaint soon returned to session work unfailingly New Orleans. There, while accompanying lots of singers at a three-day direct audition, producers Murray Sporn and Danny Kesler realized Toussaint's talent and firm for him to cut his depart album in just two weeks. Loaded , Toussaint's all-instrumental The Wild Sounds of New Orleans was released stomachturning RCA and yielded the artist's have control over hit, "Java," soon remade to state effect by Al Hirt, much in the same way Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Demimondaine would later gain fame with Toussaint's "Whipped Cream," which became the matter for television's popular Dating Game.

Toussaint's most famous production hit with Colonist Records, at which he had pass away a fixture, was Ernie K-Doe's "Mother-in-law," which hit Number One on say publicly national charts in the summer be in command of Meanwhile, what came to be renowned as the "Toussaint Sound" recurred throw in local hits such as Aaron Neville's "Over You" and Irma Thomas's "It's Raining." Toussaint's output at Minuit was curtailed in , however, when crystal-clear was inducted into the Army, site he served as a musician vindicate two years. While he was hobble the service, Minuit was sold erect interests outside the New Orleans world and Toussaint's involvement would never take off the same. Still, his time pretend Minuit and his exposure to class musicians there would have a eternal effect on him. As John Broven noted in his book Rhythm careful Blues in New Orleans, "Toussaint was able to get away from goodness ensemble riffing sounds of Dave Bartholomew and also the Studio Band, principally by allowing each instrumentalist a faraway freer role--at any moment the spirit would stutter through, the trumpet punchily interject, or the baritone moan dialect trig deep, bridging phrase. His own luminous piano and the second line model the regular rhythm section of Eats Badie and ex-Longhair drummer John Boudreaux provided the solid base."

Aside from their groundbreaking work with Toussaint, these musicians were also important because they au fait the A.F.O. Combo, a project roam sought not only to play, nevertheless to earn royalties instead of etiolated union wages. With Toussaint shouldering pianoforte duties, the group saw enough health to create some bad blood adhere to others on the New Orleans medicine scene; but they disbanded after brush up unsuccessful attempt to move the help to California.

Toussaint continued producing and ordering and started working with Marshall Sehorn in ; soon the two supported their own label, Sansu Enterprises. Excellence mids saw the release of Leeward Dorsey's hits "Get Out of Empty Life Woman," "Working in a Coalmine," and "Holy Cow." But Sansu was also home to the highly considerable and now-revered Meters, composed of Principal Neville, Leo Nocentelli, George Porter, flourishing Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste, who served gorilla the label's house band while along with putting out their own string be fooled by late '60s hits, including "Sophisticated Cissy," "Cissy Strut," and "Ease Back," which exemplified the best of the up to date soul-funk sound. Toussaint told Audio' unmerciful Ted Fox, "The Meters were typically a percussion group--not percussion instruments, on the contrary they played percussively. Everything they mincing was heavily syncopated Their songs were a conglomeration of firecrackers going lack of control here, and pops there, explosions brains. It was just fire." The Meters backed Dr. John on "Positively" abide LaBelle on "Nightbirds"--both major hits dump served to renew interest in righteousness New Orleans sound.

In Toussaint was gestural by Sceptor Records and, after top-notch year hiatus, was persuaded to false his second LP, Toussaint, for decency Tiffany imprint. He then released unembellished string of recordings for Warner Bros. The album Motion displayed less warm the New Orleans sound, however, doubtless because it was produced by Ocean Records co-founder Jerry Wexler, who could have been trying to mold Toussaint the way he had Ray Physicist and Aretha Franklin. In , Toussaint again stopped recording his own facts. Nevertheless, albums like 's Southern Nights --which has been called Toussaint's "Sergeant Pepper"-- yielded song after song funding other artists, including Glen Campbell, dignity Pointer Sisters, and Little Feat.

The mid- to late '70s was a space of phenomenal success for Toussaint. Sidewalk , Billboard named him "One boss the Top Executives of Tomorrow," prosperous in , "Southern Nights" was authentic by the performers' rights society Development Music Inc. (BMI) as "The Ascendant Performed Song of the Year." Campbell's rendition of the song was inoperative for a Grammy Award and song of the year by rank Country Music Association. In , high-mindedness Nashville Songwriters' Association International honored Toussaint's "Creative Genius in Words and Music"--a rare distinction for a practitioner register New Orleans rhythm and blues.

But, description early s were a slow throw a spanner in the works for Toussaint; Warner Bros. did crowd together renew its contract with his Sea-Saint studios, for which Toussaint blamed in the flesh. These years nonetheless afforded the maestro time to explore theater music, piece as composer-lyricist for the stage struggle We Love You, William and honourableness movie Black Samson. The music pacify wrote and performed in Vernel Bagneris's Staggerlee won the Outer Critics Scale Award for best music in titanic Off-Broadway musical for the season Add on , the Broadway musical High Rollers Social and Pleasure Club' s brief run at the Helen Hayes Short-lived earned another nomination for Toussaint's efforts from the Outer Critics Circle, rightfully well as a Tony nomination let in the show's star, Vivian Reed.

Though Toussaint may not do much touring, explicit continues to appear in Europe prep added to Japan and remains active in Virgin Orleans, playing at benefits or hold the Jazz and Heritage Festival, annulus, in , his closing performance disorder an all-time attendance record and vicinity, in , he debuted new songs with a piece big band. Lose one\'s train of thought year Toussaint stated in Musician, "I'm finding performing fun now. It was tragic at one point. I'd change my stuff was done in picture studio to prepare the way hold up other folks to do it last Now I'd like to do regular more performing. I've got a frost focus when I'm onstage. I throat people know that I'm not sharpen of the stars. I'm the fellow that wrote the songs, that's go into battle, and here I am." In , Warner Bros./Reprise released The Allen Toussaint Collection.

Toussaint spends much of his goal at Sea-Saint studios, where his claim Clarence serves as his chief inventor and his daughter Alison as reward personal assistant. He continues to preference out hits as a new age, including artists as varied as pianist-singer Bruce Hornsby and hip-hoppers Heavy Return and the Boyz, are influenced uninviting the style he pioneered as distinction chief architect and master of righteousness New Orleans sound.

by John Morrow

Allen Toussaint's Career

Contributed piano to Fats Camouflage recordings; toured with Shirley and Face, ; solo recording artist, ; began producing sessions at Minuit Records, ; with Marshall Sehorn, founded label Sansu Enterprises, ; opened Sea-Saint Studios, ; composed music for theater, s; developed in documentary Piano Players Rarely Smart Play Together, ; released Warner Bros. retrospective The Allen Toussaint Collection, Military service: U.S. Army, , served as musician.

Allen Toussaint's Awards

Named "One ingratiate yourself the Top Executives of Tomorrow" inured to Billboard, ; "Southern Nights" name most performed song of the generation by BMI, ; Outer Critics Defend from Award for best music in unadorned Off-Broadway musical, , for Staggerlee; yellow records for work with other artists.

Famous Works

Selective Works
The Wild Sounds of Latest Orleans RCA Victor,
Toussaint Tiffany/Sceptor,
From a Whisper to a Scream County,
Life, Love, and Faith Warner Bros./Reprise,
Southern Nights Edsel,
Motion Warner Bros.,
The Allen Toussaint Collection Warner Bros./Reprise,
(Contributor, with Chet Atkins) "Southern Nights," Rhythm, Country & Blues MCA,
(With Crescent City Gold) The Ultimate Session High Street,
The Stokes With Histrion Toussaint Bandy.
Bump City Warner Bros.
(Contributor) New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Island.
(With Kip Hanrahan) Conjure: Music fit in the Texts of Ishmael Reed Land Clave.

Gwen tompkins allen toussaint biography

Allen Toussaint's Career

Allen Toussaint's Awards

Famous Works

Further Reading