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Rest in peace, Allen Toussaint.


Jim Gilchrist

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From writing "Down in the Coal Mine" for Lee Dorsey to "Southern Nights" for Glen Campbell Allen Toussaint was a one of a kind musician.

Here is "Night People" from the late 70's. Album was engineered by Jeff Wexler, but not our Jeff Wexler.

 

Edited by al mcguire
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From writing "Down in the Coal Mine" for Lee Dorsey to "Southern Nights" for Glen Campbell Allen Toussaint was a one of a kind musician.

Here is "Night People" from the late 70's. Album was engineered by Jeff Wexler, but not our Jeff Wexler.

 

Actually is was "Jerry" Wexler who produced the album.   He was famous for work with Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett.

The album Motion has some great players on it.  This track "Night People" has Etta James and Bonnie Raitt on background vocals; Richard Tee on piano, Jeff Porcaro on drums; etc etc.  Great stuff!   Allen was a remarkable musician and wrote many hits for other musicians.

Thanks for sharing guys!

 

Dave

 

ps:  Jerry Wexler    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Wexler

 

 

 

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An example of just one aspect of what makes him great:

"I found out Glen Campbell was going to do it after it was done. I love the story of how it came about. Someone told me that Jim Webb introduced Glen Campbell to it. He said, "Man, you ought to give that Toussaint song a listen and pick the tempo up, and I think you'll have something." And he was so right. I'm so glad he did that. I love Glen's version."

Rest of the article from Jan 2014:

http://www.songfacts.com/blog/playingmysong/allen_toussaint_-_southern_nights_/

And if you haven't heard it in a while, give Toussaint's album Southern Nights another spin. Great, languid, stretched-out stuff. Which, surprisingly, I was listening to on Monday.

 

e0199046_1971213.jpg

 

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I knew about Toussaint, the songs he'd written and acts he's produced before the first time I saw him perform live, opening one of the shows for Little Feat at the Lisner Auditorium in August of '77 that became the album Waiting for Columbus. He had a big band that included the Tower of Power horn section. He was incredible as was the band and his arrangements. I saw him a couple of other times over the years, the last time playing with a quartet at Blues Alley, a medium-sized nightclub. He was touring to raise money for performers who had lost everything to Katrina. A few songs into his set he did his famous medley of hits he'd written, with alternating verse-chorus-verse and chorus-verse-chorus of an amazing string of songs which went on for 15 minutes or so.

During the show he spoke about wanting to protect the legacy of Professor Longhair and attributed the benefits he was playing on his trip to selfishly wanting to bring the music he loved back to New Orleans where it belonged. 

 

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