⬇️ ALLEN TOUSSAINT ⬇️
DISCOGRAPHY 1970-2019 (44CD/DVD)
BIOGRAPHY
Allen Toussaint (January 14, 1938 – November 10, 2015) was an American
musician, songwriter, arranger and record producer, who was an influential
figure in New Orleans rhythm and blues from the 1950s to the end of the
century, described as "one of popular music's great backroom figures".
The youngest of three children, Toussaint was born in 1938 in New
Orleans and grew up in a shotgun house in the Gert Town neighborhood,
where his mother, Naomi Neville (whose name he later adopted
pseudonymously for some of his works), welcomed and fed all manner of
musicians as they practiced and recorded with her son.
His father, Clarence, worked on the railway and played trumpet. Allen
Toussaint learned piano as a child and took informal music lessons from
an elderly neighbor, Ernest Pinn. In his teens he played in a band, the
Flamingos, with the guitarist Snooks Eaglin, before dropping out of
school. A significant early influence on Toussaint was the syncopated
"second-line" piano style of Professor Longhair.
After a lucky break at age 17, in which he stood in for Huey "Piano"
Smith at a performance with Earl King's band in Prichard, Alabama,
Toussaint was introduced to a group of local musicians led by Dave
Bartholomew, who performed regularly at the Dew Drop Inn, a nightclub on
Lasalle Street in Uptown New Orleans. His first recording was in 1957 as
a stand-in for Fats Domino on Domino's record "I Want You to Know", on
which Toussaint played piano and Domino overdubbed his vocals. His first
success as a producer also came in 1957 with Lee Allen's "Walking with
Mr. Lee". He began performing regularly in Bartholomew's band, and he
recorded with Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Lee Allen and other leading New
Orleans performers.
After being spotted as a sideman by the A&R man Danny Kessler, he
initially recorded for RCA Records as Al Tousan. In early 1958 he
recorded an album of instrumentals, The Wild Sound of New Orleans, with
a band including Alvin "Red" Tyler (baritone sax), either Nat Perrilliat
or Lee Allen (tenor sax), either Justin Adams or Roy Montrell (guitar),
Frank Fields (bass), and Charles "Hungry" Williams (drums). The
recordings included Toussaint and Tyler's composition "Java", which
first charted for Floyd Cramer in 1962 and became a number 4 pop hit for
Al Hirt (also on RCA) in 1964. Toussaint also recorded and co-wrote
songs with Allen Orange in the early 1960s.....
(Wikipedia)