Allen Toussaint

Over his long and varied professional life, Allen Toussaint took on duties as producer, songwriter, arranger, session pianist, and solo performer, though the work he completed away from the spotlight would by itself have secured his status as a New Orleans R&B icon. Through his extensive collaborations, Toussaint shaped the direction of Crescent City R&B from the 1960s into the 1970s. His productions evolved with prevailing trends, shifting from lively, roots-oriented soul during the earlier decade to raw, high-energy funk afterward. As a writer, he demonstrated steady commercial instincts, crafting numerous songs that entered the R&B canon and received interpretations across multiple genres. Reflecting that broad reach, he provided support in various capacities to an array of rock and blues figures, especially after 1970. In addition, Toussaint issued his own recordings periodically, reaching a high point in the 1970s with several releases that showcased his relaxed singing and refined, groove-based piano style. Although he did not always command the most public attention, his impact on New Orleans music and on rock & roll earned him induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Born January 14, 1938, in New Orleans, Toussaint started piano lessons at age seven after hearing Professor Longhair; his approach later absorbed traits from Fats Domino, Huey "Piano" Smith, and Ray Charles. During his teenage years he performed with bluesman Snooks Eaglin in a group called the Flamingoes. His initial professional opportunity arrived at age 17 when Earl King recruited him to substitute for Smith at a concert. Shortly afterward, noted producer and songwriter Dave Bartholomew—who had occupied a position in 1950s New Orleans R&B comparable to the one Toussaint would later hold—engaged him to play piano on a Fats Domino session when Domino could not attend. Bartholomew continued to employ Toussaint regularly, notably on further dates for Domino and Smiley Lewis, and requests for the pianist’s services increased rapidly once he demonstrated his arranging skill on saxman Lee Allen’s major success “Walkin’ with Mr. Lee.” In 1958 Toussaint cut an instrumental album for RCA titled The Wild Sound of New Orleans under the name Tousan; one original piece from that project, “Java,” became a major hit five years later for Dixieland jazz trumpeter Al Hirt. He also began composing under the alias Naomi Neville, drawn from his mother’s maiden name.

In 1960 Joe Banashak brought Toussaint aboard the newly established Minit label as an A&R executive; in practice he oversaw nearly every recording session there. This period marked the true foundation of his reputation. His first national production success arrived with Jessie Hill’s R&B Top Five hit “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” in 1960, after which a string of classics followed swiftly: Ernie K-Doe’s pop and R&B chart-topper “Mother-in-Law,” a Toussaint composition; Benny Spellman’s “Fortune Teller” and “Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette),” both written by Toussaint under the Naomi Neville name, the former later recorded by the Rolling Stones; Chris Kenner’s original “Land of 1000 Dances”; Lee Dorsey’s “Ya Ya”; and numerous tracks with New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas. Toussaint’s distinctive imprint on these releases refreshed the sound of New Orleans R&B for the new era. When Banashak departed Minit to start Instant, Toussaint followed to perform similar functions; he also worked independently, most visibly on Dorsey’s Fury sides, and issued a handful of modest singles himself, chiefly for Seville. Drafted into military service in 1963, he still managed to record with his backing group the Stokes while on leave; one of their tracks, the Naomi Neville composition “Whipped Cream,” was recorded by Herb Alpert in 1965 as an instrumental hit that later served as the theme for the television program The Dating Game.

Following his release from service in 1965, Toussaint partnered with producer Marshall Sehorn to establish the production firm and label Sansu Enterprises. Sansu worked with artists including Betty Harris, Earl King, Chris Kenner, and Lou Johnson, frequently licensing singles to larger companies. Their most successful relationship developed with Lee Dorsey, who returned to the upper reaches of the R&B charts with Toussaint-penned successes such as “Ride Your Pony,” the widely covered “Get Out of My Life Woman,” the enduring “Working in a Coalmine,” and “Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On),” later recorded by jazzman Lou Donaldson. In 1966 Sansu enlisted the house band the Meters, who backed nearly all of the company’s productions; after the Meters began issuing their own recordings in 1969 under Toussaint’s guidance, they emerged as one of the leading instrumental funk groups of the 1970s outside the J.B.’s.

Toussaint returned to solo recording in 1971 with an album for Scepter simply titled Toussaint, later reissued in the U.K. as From a Whisper to a Scream after its best-known song. The next year he moved to Reprise for Life, Love and Faith, and he and Sehorn launched the state-of-the-art Sea-Saint studio in New Orleans, which hosted most of his subsequent work. Alongside his own projects, Toussaint received higher-profile outside assignments in the first half of the 1970s. He supplied horn arrangements for the Band, Paul Simon, Little Feat, and Sandy Denny, while his ongoing collaboration with the Meters steered him toward a tougher contemporary funk sound than appeared on his personal releases. In that vein he produced two landmark New Orleans funk recordings: Dr. John’s Top Ten single “Right Place, Wrong Time” and LaBelle’s number one disco-funk hit “Lady Marmalade.” In 1975 he issued Southern Nights, widely viewed as his strongest solo effort; the title track became a major success for country-pop artist Glen Campbell, and “What Do You Want the Girl to Do?” received covers by Boz Scaggs, Lowell George, and Bonnie Raitt.

In 1976 Toussaint produced the Meters-affiliated Wild Tchoupitoulas, whose self-titled debut was praised as a New Orleans funk classic. The album’s adventurous approach reflected growing ambitions within the Meters camp that would soon lead to the group’s separation from Toussaint and, ultimately, from one another. The loss of their precise rhythmic foundation was evident on Toussaint’s next solo album, 1978’s Motion. His output diminished in subsequent years, though he continued to produce, arrange, and play piano on select projects that included recordings by blues performers Etta James and Albert King as well as rock artists Elvis Costello and Joe Cocker. Meanwhile his extensive catalog remained a frequent source of cover material; the Lee Dorsey era proved especially generative, yielding not only “Working in a Coalmine” (recorded by Devo and the Judds) but also lesser-known songs such as “Yes We Can” (the Pointer Sisters), “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley” (Robert Palmer), and “Freedom for the Stallion” (the Oak Ridge Boys, among others). In addition, “Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)” became a hit for Three Dog Night, while Bonnie Raitt delivered a well-regarded version of “What Is Success.”

The Allen Toussaint Collection, a strong survey of his 1970s major-label work, appeared in 1991. In 1996 he launched the NYNO label and recorded a new album, Connected, at Sea-Saint. He also began documenting emerging Crescent City artists in an effort to maintain the classic New Orleans sound. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 in the non-performer category, he saw Going Places, credited to Allen Toussaint’s Jazzity Project, surface in 2005, followed by the Joe Henry-produced The Bright Mississippi on Nonesuch Records in 2009. Four years later the solo live set Songbook—drawn from 2006 performances—appeared on Rounder. Although Toussaint maintained an active performing schedule, Songbook marked his final release; he died in Madrid on November 10, 2015, while on tour. Several weeks before his death he rejoined Joe Henry to record material for a new project. Those sessions, combined with solo recordings from 2013, were assembled as the posthumous American Tunes, issued in June 2016.