Jump to content

Allen Toussaint


Morganized

Recommended Posts

Allen Toussaint can't sing much, at least for my ears, but he's written a slew of very fine songs, and produced and played on a slew of classic New Orleans r&b songs. And he's a good player in the Profesor Longhair tradition. Check out Piano Players Hardy Ever Play together, as Medjuck suggested. All of that's enough for me to respect him - and dig some of the music he's made.

As for Mac Rebennack, who's been mentioned, he was strictly a minor leaguer in the glory days of New Orleans r&b, and never amounted to anything much until he got into his Dr. John/Gris Gris schtick and found something that white folks could latch onto. And if I compare his voice to Mac Rebennack's, Allen Toussaint can sing some.

My opinion - and I know that Jeff disagrees with me about Mac Rebennack.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Allen Toussaint can't sing much, at least for my ears, but he's written a slew of very fine songs, and produced and played on a slew of classic New Orleans r&b songs. And he's a good player in the Profesor Longhair tradition. Check out Piano Players Hardy Ever Play together, as Medjuck suggested. All of that's enough for me to respect him - and dig some of the music he's made.

As for Mac Rebennack, who's been mentioned, he was strictly a minor leaguer in the glory days of New Orleans r&b, and never amounted to anything much until he got into his Dr. John/Gris Gris schtick and found something that white folks could latch onto. And if I compare his voice to Mac Rebennack's, Allen Toussaint can sing some.

My opinion - and I know that Jeff disagrees with me about Mac Rebennack.

Paul and I have already had our discussion about Mr. Rebennack's voice, so I won't get into that again. But I wouldn't say that he was a "minor leaguer" in his early days, unless you're talking about his own records, which certainly didn't sell a bunch. Starting when he was 16, he was a pretty busy studio musician, producer and songwriter - a role not unlike Toussaint's.

And ironically, young Mac Rebennack seemed to agree with you about his singing ability. He sang on very few of his early records - most were instrumentals, which is probably why they didn't sell. And Rebennack wasn't supposed to be Dr. John. (Sorry if this story is common knowledge.) The "Dr. John" idea was cooked up by Rebennack, producer Harold Batiste, and keyboardist/singer Ronnie Barron. Barron was to be Dr. John, the Night Tripper; Rebennack was just going to play keys and guitar. At the last minute, Barron backed out, so they went ahead with Mac R. in the Dr. John role.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've seen a few dance floors packed to this one (which I suspect is built for dancing and not for listening):

Slick? Hell yeah. They put wax on dancefloors to make them slick, and when somebody asks, they got wax powder they sprinkle on it to make it even more slicker. So, yeah, slick, functional, and proud of it!

Anyway, I'm cool w/Dr. John in some kind of place and in some kind of way. He's cool, But he ain't Alan Toussaint. He's Dr. John/Mac Rebennak.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

I loved Allen Toussaint's music from the time I heard his songs and record productions in the early 1960's. That was before I knew who he was or even that there was a person named Allen Toussaint. I grew up listening to his music and stayed with it.

Thank you for everything, Mr. Toussaint. You were appreciated and you'll be missed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎9‎/‎17‎/‎2012‎ ‎8‎:‎44‎:‎04‎, paul secor said:

 

 

As for Mac Rebennack, who's been mentioned, he was strictly a minor leaguer in the glory days of New Orleans r&b, and never amounted to anything much until he got into his Dr. John/Gris Gris schtick and found something that white folks could latch onto. And if I compare his voice to Mac Rebennack's, Allen Toussaint can sing some.

My opinion - and I know that Jeff disagrees with me about Mac Rebennack.

My one experience with Mac Rebennack/Dr. John was in 1981, on a gig I was on at Tramp's with Big Joe Turner (and subsequently was fired from by Doc Pomus----another story for another day). Dr. John came in during our one rehearsal to pay his respects to the old man. I was on the bandstand and he came up, sat at the piano, started a slow blues---and didn't kick me off.

I don't know about the gris gris stuff, but the man could definitely play the blues.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎18‎/‎09‎/‎2012‎ ‎01‎:‎44‎:‎04, paul secor said:

Allen Toussaint can't sing much, at least for my ears, but he's written a slew of very fine songs, and produced and played on a slew of classic New Orleans r&b songs. And he's a good player in the Profesor Longhair tradition. Check out Piano Players Hardy Ever Play together, as Medjuck suggested. All of that's enough for me to respect him - and dig some of the music he's made.

Exactly what I feel about him.

RIP

MG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...