Perhaps never meant to be a star, Allen Toussaint was one of those great working-class, behind-the-scenes talents – he did session work, produced, helped with A&R, wrote songs – who made the record business go back in the day. In this way, Toussaint was the tireless, beating heart of New Orleans music in the early 1960s – yet still found relevance with the rockers later on.
He made important contributions to Paul McCartney’s Venus and Mars, made in New Orleans (“Listen What the Man Said”); that was him scoring the horns for the Band’s gritty and groovy Last Waltz performance, filmed by Martin Scorcese in the mid-1970s. As a pianist, you hear influences in Allen from his great funky forebears – Huey “Piano” Smith, mostly; but also Fats Domino, Fess, and Ray Charles.
At one point, Allen Toussaint had a part in every important record (seems like) out of New Orleans — most particularly, on Minit. That meant doing it all: writing, arranging, producing, and playing on hits by Ernie K-Doe, Irma Thomas, Jessie Hill, Chris Kenner, Barbara George, Lee Dorsey, Benny Spellman, the Showmen, and many more — “his rolling keyboards vital to the charm of virtually all of them,” as Bill Dahl so rightly wrote.
[SOMETHING ELSE! INTERVIEW: The late Allen Toussaint joined us in typically warm conversation where we discussed the joys of hearing his songs interpreted by others – and coming back stronger after Katrina.]
His greatest association? The Meters. Enough darn well said. Robert Palmer, Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello and dozens of others have recorded his songs, yet Allen Toussaint’s solo records somehow continually found less success. So, it was perhaps no surprise that Connected, issued in 1996 on the NYNO label, became yet another undervalued gem in his catalog.
Rollicking numbers like “Funky Bars,” “Oh My” (my favorite) and “Ahma” remind you of the utter brilliance of classic okey-dokey stomps like “Mother-in-Law,” while Toussaint once again provides a fonky platform for New Orleans musicians both veteran (the Meters’ guitarist Leo Nocentelli) and new (jazzers Russell Batiste on drums and Roland Guerin on bass).
It didn’t sell too well. Most people, I imagine, never studied the vintage liner notes long enough to notice someone like Allen Toussaint buried there. The quick disappearance of Connected seem to underscore the idea that he was destined to remain an underground legend.
Then Katrina happened, and suddenly Toussaint’s career profile completely changed. He seemed, suddenly, to be everywhere – finally getting his due. Still, fans of so-called comeback projects like 2009’s The Bright Mississippi shouldn’t skip over Connected as they make a bee line for his classic-era albums.
See, he didn’t really come back. This record shows Allen Toussaint never left.
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