RIP
Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic
POSTED: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2015, 1:49 PM
image: http://media.philly.com/designimages/partnerIcon-Inquirer-2014.jpg
Allen Toussaint, the New Orleans songwriter and pianist responsible for a long list of hits recorded by artists that included Aaron Neville, Ernie K-Doe, Irma Thomas, Bonnie Raitt, Glen Campbell, Dr. John, Lee Dorsey, Warren Zevon, Robert Plant, Robert Palmer and Devo, has died. He was 77.
Toussaiint died of a heart attack on Monday after a concert in Spain in the midst of a European tour, according to a report by New Orleans television station WWL. The native of the Crescent City's Gert Town neighborhood spent most of his career working as a behind the scenes songwriter, arranger and producer, shunning the spotlight to the point where many of his early three minute masterworks, including "Do-Re-Mi," "Fortune Teller" and "Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette)," were written under pseudonyms, with Toussaint most frequently using his mother's maiden name, Naomi Neville.
Always impeccably dressed and gracious on and off the stage - it was not uncommon to see the salt and pepper haired pianist walking the dusty grounds of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in a suit and tie - Toussaint was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 1998. President Obama awarded him with the National Medal of Arts in 2013.
Like many a New Orleans keyboard player, Toussaint was influenced by polyphonic pianist Henry Roeland Byrd, known as Professor Longhair. But Toussaint, whose many collaborations included The River In Reverse, a 2006 post-Hurricane Katrina team up with Elvis Costello, which the the British songwriter details in his new memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink, has an elegant, understated style of his own. His list of clever, cannily crafted, stylishly syncopated songs is long: "Mother In Law," "A Certain Girl," "Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky," "Working In A Coal Mine," "Southern Nights," "Ride Your Pony," "Ruler Of My Heart" and "Get Out Of My Life Woman." He also produced Labelle's 1973 album Nightbirds, which included the Patti LaBelle led group's breakout his "Lady Marmalade."
"A Certain Girl" is below, along with Dorsey's hit version of "Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inthe...l3GpVpRUoEF1.99
Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic
POSTED: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2015, 1:49 PM
image: http://media.philly.com/designimages/partnerIcon-Inquirer-2014.jpg
Allen Toussaint, the New Orleans songwriter and pianist responsible for a long list of hits recorded by artists that included Aaron Neville, Ernie K-Doe, Irma Thomas, Bonnie Raitt, Glen Campbell, Dr. John, Lee Dorsey, Warren Zevon, Robert Plant, Robert Palmer and Devo, has died. He was 77.
Toussaiint died of a heart attack on Monday after a concert in Spain in the midst of a European tour, according to a report by New Orleans television station WWL. The native of the Crescent City's Gert Town neighborhood spent most of his career working as a behind the scenes songwriter, arranger and producer, shunning the spotlight to the point where many of his early three minute masterworks, including "Do-Re-Mi," "Fortune Teller" and "Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette)," were written under pseudonyms, with Toussaint most frequently using his mother's maiden name, Naomi Neville.
Always impeccably dressed and gracious on and off the stage - it was not uncommon to see the salt and pepper haired pianist walking the dusty grounds of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in a suit and tie - Toussaint was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 1998. President Obama awarded him with the National Medal of Arts in 2013.
Like many a New Orleans keyboard player, Toussaint was influenced by polyphonic pianist Henry Roeland Byrd, known as Professor Longhair. But Toussaint, whose many collaborations included The River In Reverse, a 2006 post-Hurricane Katrina team up with Elvis Costello, which the the British songwriter details in his new memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink, has an elegant, understated style of his own. His list of clever, cannily crafted, stylishly syncopated songs is long: "Mother In Law," "A Certain Girl," "Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky," "Working In A Coal Mine," "Southern Nights," "Ride Your Pony," "Ruler Of My Heart" and "Get Out Of My Life Woman." He also produced Labelle's 1973 album Nightbirds, which included the Patti LaBelle led group's breakout his "Lady Marmalade."
"A Certain Girl" is below, along with Dorsey's hit version of "Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inthe...l3GpVpRUoEF1.99
