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Allen Toussaint

Allen Toussaint

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Allen Toussaint: The Jazz Café, London

Live Review by Simon Witter, Daily Telegraph, 9 November 2006

THOUGH HE IS the greatest living exponent of the extraordinary New Orleans piano tradition that produced Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Huey Smith, James Booker, Dr ...

Audio interviews

Allen Toussaint (1985)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, October 1985

The New Orleans master talks about the music of his youth; the Second Line; the piano and Professor Longhair; black music in the south; the musicians he worked with, and what makes New Orleans music different.

File format: mp3; file size: 36.3mb, interview length: 39' 36" sound quality: ***

Allen Toussaint (1987)

Interview by Simon Witter, Rock's Backpages audio, 1987

The First Gentleman of New Orleans on the city's music then and now, on Ernie K-Doe, Irma Thomas, Lee Dorsey and the Meters, and on songwriting, producing and performing.

File format: mp3; file size: 66.4mb, interview length: 1h 12' 30" sound quality: ***

List of articles in the library

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Lee Dorsey: Lee's Back — Thanks To The Talented Mister Toussaint

Interview by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 30 April 1966

YOU PROBABLY first heard of Lee Dorsey after you asked the DJ what that record was he just played with the gun banging in it. ...

Lee Dorsey: Things You Don't Know About Lee

Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 30 April 1966

FOR A LONG time Lee Dorsey has been the golden boy of the in-most R&B hippies. His first couple of American hits were 'Ya Ya' ...

Made in New Orleans: Record Production Techniques and the Land Of Dreams

Overview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 24 May 1969

THERE WAS a time, not so long ago, when almost all the writing about popular music was descriptive or informative. ...

Producer's soul

Overview by Tony Cummings, Record Mirror, 5 June 1971

ISAAC HAYES has really turned the world of soul production upside down. ...

Behind the Scenes with Harold Battiste

Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 9 July 1971

FREQUENTLY, we receive letters from readers' asking us to write about the people behind the scenes in our music. For example, the features we did ...

Allen Toussaint

Profile by Charlie Gillett, Fusion, 23 July 1971

IF BRITAIN HAD a good system of radio stations, the history of the world might have been at least a little different. ...

Toussaint: Life, Love And Faith

Review by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, October 1972

TO PUT THIS album in its proper perspective, I’d need to rhapsodize at length over New Orleans R&B and the neglected talents of Allen Toussaint, ...

Jerry Butler and Allen Toussaint: The Spice Of Life

Profile by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 7 October 1972

IT'S NOT so long since soul albums were merely collections of singles, plus a few make-weight tracks. ...

Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, the Meters: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 7 July 1973

VOODOO CHILE ...

Allen Toussaint, Producing the New Orleans Feel

Interview by Barbara Charone, New Musical Express, 14 July 1973

QUESTION: What could Alvin Lee, Frankie Miller, Mac 'Dr. John' Rebennack, Robbie Robertson and Lee Dorsey possibly have in common? Answer: Allen Toussaint. ...

Allen Toussaint: Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky

Profile and Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 21 July 1973

THEY KNOW, of course, which one is Dr John. The Swiss photographers huddle around the stage, clicking their Nikons like American tourists determined to capture ...

Allen Toussaint: Introspective Funk

Retrospective and Interview by Joe McEwen, The Real Paper, 2 October 1974

PRODUCER ALLEN TOUSSAINT hunches forward over the expansive 16-track control board and stares impassively through the glass at two singers in the orange studio beyond. ...

Allen Toussaint: Southern Nights (Reprise K 54021)

Review by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 12 April 1975

Testimony to Toussaint ...

Marshall Sehorn: The Night They Drove Lee Dorsey Down...

Interview by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 12 April 1975

MARSHALL SEHORN had to get him out of jail. ROGER ST. PIERRE raps to one of the mainmen of New Orleans soul. ...

Little Feat, Allen Toussaint: Beacon Theater, New York NY

Live Review by Ian Dove, The New York Times, 21 April 1975

LITTLE FEAT HEARD IN RELAXED BLUES ...

Allen Toussaint: Southern Nights

Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 26 April 1975

IF ALLEN TOUSSAINT ever wants to make the great album he's obviously capable of, he'd be best advised to first take a year's sabbatical from ...

Allen Toussaint: Southern Nights

Profile and Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 3 May 1975

Way down yonder in New Orleans, ALLEN TOUSSAINT is an ace hitmaker. He's had a hand in such classics as 'Mother-In-Law', 'Land of 1,000 Dances' ...

Little Feat, Allen Toussaint: Little Theatre, New York NY

Live Review by Penny Valentine, Record Mirror, 10 May 1975

LITTLE THEATRE — once a rather seedy showcase home for acts that couldn't make the bigger circuits — has undergone a recent facelift and is ...

Johnny Bristol and Allen Toussaint: Producers 'N' Performers

Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 27 May 1975

IT SEEMS that it's an increasingly notable fact that more and more producers, after scoring successfully in that field, are turning their attention to the ...

Allen Toussaint: Southern Nights (Reprise)

Review by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, June 1975

ALLEN TOUSSAINT certainly has an impressive track record: Smiley Lewis, 'Ooh Pa Pah Doo', Lee Dorsey, Ernie K-Doe, Benny Spellman, Irma Thomas, Frankie Miller, the ...

Allen Toussaint: Southern Nights (Reprise)

Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 14 June 1975

Toussaint's Night Flight ...

Allen Toussaint: Southern Nights (Warner Bros. K 54021)***

Review by Tony Cummings, Black Music, August 1975

THE FRUSTRATION of unfulfilled potential is never more strongly felt than when listening to the recordings of Allen Toussaint. As a producer for others he ...

Allen Toussaint: Feel Like Staying Home

Profile and Interview by John Morthland, Creem, September 1975

NEW ORLEANS, LA – Allen Toussaint has moved into the pop spotlight lately via Labelle and Paul McCartney but it's not his first time there. ...

Toussaint's New Orleans: a New Home for R&B?

Profile and Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Penthouse, February 1976

HAVING EXHAUSTED the "Motown Sound" in the sixties, soul music is now dominated by the "Philly Sound" — a triumph of polish and strings. True ...

Mardi Gras in New Orleans (Mardi Gras MG 1001); New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 1976 (Island 1SLD 9424)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 July 1977

IN NEW Orleans it is easier to perceive an American musical tradition than anywhere else; the city is the fount not just of jazz, but ...

Allen Toussaint Listens to New Orleans

Profile and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 28 July 1977

NEW ORLEANS — Allen Toussaint is the Crescent City's premier composer/producer, and his success behind the scenes is obvious: he's written ten gold records and produced ...

Allen Toussaint: Toussaint

Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 28 January 1978

SO NOW the whole Toussaint catalogue is available again, enabling listeners of taste to trace for themselves the development of the New Orleans man's approach, ...

The Meat And The Motion

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 April 1978

Allen Toussaint: Motion (Warner Brothers Import)Lee Dorsey: Night People (ABC) ...

Jerry Wexler: Producer with a Fan's Passion

Interview by Sam Sutherland, High Fidelity, August 1978

ON A BLEAK, sunless afternoon, Jerry Wexler sits comfortably in the shadows of a recording studio control room, listening to the playback of a vocal ...

Allen Toussaint

Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 23 December 1985

THE EXCITEMENT of performing before a live audience is the incentive for most pop artists to enter show business but it's taken Allen Toussaint almost ...

Allen Toussaint: Club Lingerie, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 30 December 1985

A NEW ORLEANS KING ...

New Orleans Pianos: Talking Fingers

Film/DVD/TV Review by Don Snowden, The Boston Phoenix, 16 September 1986

You don't have to be addicted to New Orleans piano style to savor the rich portrait of Stevenson Palfi's Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together ...

Allen Toussaint: The Collection

Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Reprise Records, 1991

BY THE TIME Allen Toussaint released his first Warner Bros. album, Life, Love And Motion, in 1972, it was already impossible to look at New ...

Dan Penn, Allen Toussaint, Guy Clark, Joe South, Vic Chesnutt: Southern Songwriters' Circle, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Live Review by Paul Sexton, The Times, 27 July 1994

A southern heaven ...

Lee Dorsey: Why Isn't This Man in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Retrospective by Geoffrey Himes, Oxford American, July 1998

NO SINGER in the Big Easy had a more easygoing manner than Lee Dorsey. The rhythms behind him could be wickedly syncopated (they usually were), ...

Joe Henry

Interview by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 10 January 2006

BEFORE PRODUCING Solomon Burke's modern-day soul landmark, Don't Give Up On Me, in 2002, Joe Henry was a modest-selling "critic's darling" with a reputation for ...

Interview: Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint

Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, May 2006

ELVIS COSTELLO is rock's renaissance man. Along with writing and recording his own songs — some of the wittiest and most acerbic in the pop ...

Paul Simon: Bloomsbury Theatre, London; Allen Toussaint: Bush Hall, London

Live Review by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, 3 June 2006

LET'S LOOK at what Paul Simon and Allen Toussaint share. They both wrote songs that helped shape this thing of ours, this culture we've shared ...

Toussaint Explores Life Outside Big Easy

Profile and Interview by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 14 May 2007

ALLEN TOUSSAINT never left New Orleans. He spent virtually his entire distinguished career playing piano, singing, writing songs and making records with other people in ...

Allen Toussaint: Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 7 August 2008

ALLEN TOUSSAINT talks of his sporadic, unbought solo work and the royalties from the hits he's created for others with equal affection. ...

Lee Dorsey: The Star in Greasy Overalls

Retrospective by Gavin Martin, Record Collector, October 2011

IT'S 1980; six years before Lee Dorsey's unexpected death, but his recording career is already over. What will prove to be his last album, Night ...

New Orleans Funk Volume Three (Soul Jazz Records)

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 13 November 2013

Note: Contains Spoilers for the HBO TV show Treme ...

Allen Toussaint: City Winery, New York

Live Review by Larry Jaffee, Huffington Post, 3 June 2014

It's A New Orleans Thing Rejoices Allen Toussaint ...

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