Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaintwas an American musician, songwriter, arranger and record producer, who was an influential figure in New Orleans R&B from the 1950s to the end of the century, described as "one of popular music’s great backroom figures." Many musicians recorded Toussaint's compositions, including "Java", "Mother-in-Law", "I Like It Like That", "Fortune Teller", "Ride Your Pony", "Get Out of My Life, Woman", "Working in the Coal Mine", "Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky", "Here Come the Girls", "Yes We Can Can",...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth14 January 1938
CityNew Orleans, LA
CountryUnited States of America
Allen Toussaint quotes about
When you're playing live, those people who you're trying to please and reach, they're right there giving you feedback. And you don't get that feedback in the studio.
My whole zone is dead. No electricity, no gas, no stores open nearby, but the spirit is there.
The mother-in-laws themselves weren't natural jokes but most comedians used to use that.
As an early child, I tried to play every kind of music that I heard. I thought everyone was doing that.
Whenever I wrote songs - particularly back then - it would always be for a particular artist.
I never planned on being a live performer. My whole forte was about being in the studio, producing, playing the piano on recording sessions. I was all about the studio.
To play with a band all of the time, just about nightly, was good for me because I wrote lots of arrangements and I got a lot of my transposition and chords ironed out.
As a young child, I thought that all pianists played everything. I mean, I thought anything on piano - any piano music, all pianists played it.
To get to New Orleans you don't pass through anywhere else. That geographical location, being aloof, lets it hold onto the ritual of its own pace more than other places that have to keep up with the progress.
And do respect the women of the world; remember you all had mothers.
My music is homegrown from the garden of New Orleans. Music is everything to me short of breathing. Music also has a role to lift you up - not to be escapist but to take you out of misery.
Wow. Good heavens. I'm getting drenched just looking at these pictures. The water is whipping my body.
holed up at the New Orleans Superdome hoping to get on a bus for Houston's Astrodome.
So many people have reached out in wonderful ways. New York has been wonderful.