Artist: Allen Toussaint
Genre(s):
R&B: Soul
Rock
Other
Discography:
Southern Nights
Year: 2006
Tracks: 10
Motion
Year: 2000
Tracks: 10
Collection
Year:
Tracks: 21
Producer, lay maker, transcriber, session piano player, solo creative person -- Allen Toussaint has worn all these hats o'er the class of his drawn-out and prolific vocation, and his behind-the-scenes work solitary would welcome been enough to put up him a legend of New Orleans R&B. Thanks to his exploit with numerous other artists, Toussaint bore an enormous measure of money of responsibility for the sound of R&B in the Crescent City from the '60s on into the '70s. His productions unbroken with the times, moving from sportive, earthy soul in the '60s to granular, boisterous blue funk in the '70s. As a composer, Toussaint proven himself a consistent hitmaker, penning more than a few gems that cause since go R&B standards and been covered by innumerous artists on the job in many unlike styles. In guardianship with that panoptic appeal, Toussaint has worked in some encouraging capacity for a broad multifariousness of shake and vapors legends, specially from the '70s on. On round top of all that, Toussaint waxed his have records from clip to time, enjoying a originative peak in the '70s with several albums that highlighted his laid-back vocals and elegantly funky pianissimo exploit. Even if he wasn't always the most visible figure, Toussaint's contributions to New Orleans music -- and to rock candy & wave in ecumenical -- were such that he earned installation into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
Toussaint was natural January 14, 1938, in New Orleans, and began eruditeness piano at age seven, elysian by Professor Longhair; his style subsequently grew to include elements of Fats Domino, Huey "Piano" Smith, and Ray Charles. As a teenager, he played in a lot called the Flamingoes with bluesman Snooks Eaglin. Toussaint caught his first professional break-dance at geezerhood 17, when Earl King tapped him to fill in for Smith at a alive gig. Not long subsequently, renowned producer/songwriter Dave Bartholomew -- whose role in New Orleans R&B during the '50s was fairly analogous to Toussaint's by and by career -- hired him to lay down pat the forte-piano parts at a Fats Domino recording session for which Domino himself was unavailable. Bartholomew made even enjoyment of Toussaint, most notably on further roger Huntington Sessions for Domino and Smiley Lewis, and need for the young pianist's services grew quickly, specially afterwards he first-class honours degree displayed his talent as an arranger on saxman Lee Allen's biggest hit, "Walkin' With Mr. Lee." In 1958, Toussaint recorded an instrumental record album for RCA called The Wild Sound of New Orleans, under the alias Tousan; one of his original compositions for the record, "Java," went on to become a demolish hit for Dixieland jazz trumpeter Al Hirt basketball team eld later. Toussaint likewise began writing under the nom de guerre Naomi Neville, after his mother's maid identify.
In 1960, Toussaint was chartered by Joe Banashak as an A&R humanity for the brand-new Minit label; in practice session, he lesion up masterminding well-nigh of the label's recording roger Huntington Sessions. It was here that Toussaint in truth began to build his fable. His first home success as a producer came with Jessie Hill's R&B Top Five smash "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" in 1960, and the classical hits came flying and maddened after that: Ernie K-Doe's pop and R&B number one "Mother-in-law" (a Toussaint composing), Benny Spellman's "Fortune Teller," and "Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)" (both Toussaint tunes written as Naomi Neville, with the early subsequently covered by the Rolling Stones), Chris Kenner's original version of "Demesne of yard Dances," Lee Dorsey's "Ya Ya," and legion sides with New Orleans psyche queen Irma Thomas. Toussaint's singular touch on all these records redefined the profound of New Orleans R&B for a young decennium. When Banashak left Minit to found another label, Instant, Toussaint went with him to fill a good deal the same duties; he also freelanced elsewhere, most conspicuously with Dorsey's recordings for the Fury label, and cut a few low profile singles of his have, mostly for Seville. In 1963, Toussaint was drafted into the military, during which time he recorded with his mount band the Stokes patch on give; one of their tunes, the Naomi Neville credit "Whipped Cream," was covered by Herb Alpert in 1965 for an instrumental hit, which was in turn later adopted as the root word for TV's The Dating Game.
Upon his muster out in 1965, Toussaint teamed up with fellow producer Marshall Sehorn to mannikin a production company and record label, Sansu Enterprises. Sansu recorded the likes of Betty Harris, Earl King, Chris Kenner, and Lou Johnson, among others, often leasing their singles to larger labels for official acquittance. Their nearly profitable association was with Lee Dorsey, wHO returned to the upper reaches of the R&B charts with Toussaint-penned hits care "Ride Your Pony," the oft-covered "Get Out of My Life Woman," the immortal "Working in a Coalmine," and "Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On)" (covered by jazz musician Lou Donaldson). In 1966, Sansu also engaged the services of a theatre band dubbed the Meters, wHO supplied backing for well-nigh all of the company's productions; after the Meters started making their possess records in 1969 (produced by Toussaint), they developed into arguably the top of the inning instrumental funk ensemble of the '70s remote of the J.B.'s.
In 1971, Toussaint recorded his first solo record album in over a decennary for Scepter, calling it simply Toussaint (it was later reissued in the U.K. as From a Whisper to a Scream, later its best-known track). The following year, he touched up to Reprise for Life, Love and Faith, and he and Sehorn opened a state of the art recording studio in New Orleans called Sea-Saint, which became the site for most of his subsequent projects. In increase to his solo records, Toussaint was getting more high profile offers for international crop during the first-class honours degree half of the '70s. He did horn arrangements for the Band, Paul Simon, Little Feat, and Sandy Denny, and his continued ferment with the Meters was moving him into contemporary funk with a harder edge than his have albums. In fact, he wound up producing deuce of New Orleans' sterling funk records: Dr. John's Top Ten strike "Ripe Place, Wrong Time" and LaBelle's number one disco-funk blast "Ma'am Marmalade." In 1975, Toussaint released what many regarded as his finest solo record album, Southern Nights; the statute title track went on to become a immense strike for country-pop adept Glen Campbell, and "What Do You Want the Girl to Do?" was covered by Boz Scaggs, Lowell George, and Bonnie Raitt.
In 1976, Toussaint produced the Meters-related mathematical group the Wild Tchoupitoulas, whose self-titled debut was hailed as a classical of New Orleans funk. The record's experimentalism signaled a maturation desire to branch out in the Meters refugee camp, though, which would before long reason the band's stock split with Toussaint and, eventually, each early. The absence of their unerring mother humour of furrow was
