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Allen Toussaint album: The Bright Mississippi

I just wanted to call attention this 2009 album I heard on the radio today. Very beautiful music that I find too little of.

From allmusic:
including clarinetist Don Byron, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, guitarist Marc Ribot and, on a track a piece, pianist Brad Mehldau and saxophonist Joshua Redman -- to support the pianist (Toussaint) on a run through jazz standards ranging from Duke Ellington and Django Reinhardt to Louis Armstrong and Thelonious Monk, whose 1963 classic provides the album its title.

Give it a listen and enjoy!

Phil
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Showing 2 responses by martykl

martykl
3,578 posts
 
Great SQ, too.
martykl
3,578 posts
 
Phil,

SQ is sound quality and I think it's one of the better sounding releases in recent memmory.

Toussaint has had an almost unbelieveable depth of r'n'r impact. Very early on, he had a hit with "Workin' In a Coal Mine" and wrote Ernie K-Doe's hit "Mother In Law". Shortly thereafter, he produced all the records by "The Showmen", including "It Will Stand" one of the earlier r'n'r anthems and an early example of morphing doo-wop style vocal music into r'n'r, ala The Beach Boys.

In the '70's/'80's he released an awesome array of pop/funk records, the best known of which is propbably "Southern Nights". (His 2 cd Warner Bros Years retrospective is tremendous.) He was also a major influence on Lowell George of Little Feat and really schooled a lot of white folk on the basics of funk.

Bright Mississippi is great, but it's really far afield from Toussaint's historical sweet spot, so loving this record (as I do) doesn't guarantee that you'll dig the earlier stuff. But, OTH, you just might.

Marty
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