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Elvis Costello has hailed Allen Toussaint as a "master of music," but it almost seems like an understatement when describing this New Orleans icon, who was forced to flee his hometown last year in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Currently on tour with Costello to promote their stirring new album, The River in Reverse, this 68-year-old Big Easy native has long shunned the spotlight, preferring to work as a songwriter, producer, arranger and studio pianist, par excellence. But many music fans have heard at least a few of the landmark recordings Toussaint has worked on by The Band, LaBelle, Paul McCartney, The Pointer Sisters, Paul Simon, Joe Cocker, Little Feat, Sandy Denny, Dr. John, Etta James, The Meters, Mighty Diamonds and others.
A 1998 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, he has also written more than 700 songs. Dozens of them became hits for other performers, including "Working in the Coal Mine" (Lee Dorsey, The Judds, Devo) and "Yes We Can Can" (the Pointer Sisters).
Now based in New York, Toussaint hopes to resume living in New Orleans by the end of the year, even though his historic recording studio, Sea Saint, was destroyed by Katrina. His two-story home near the New Orleans Fairgrounds had two feet of flooding.
Katrina was so severe that Toussaint — who rode out every previous hurricane to hit New Orleans in his lifetime — reluctantly left for New York two days after it struck.
"I've been back many times, and my place is not livable yet. The progress is very slow in New Orleans, but very sure. Since I'm on tour I can't be there every moment, but my heart is there," he said from a recent tour stop with Costello in Tokyo. The two perform next Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the 28th annual Playboy Jazz Festival.
Toussaint's heart is also in The River in Reverse, which teams him with Costello and members of their respective bands. It was recorded late last year, first in Los Angeles and then in one of the only two New Orleans recording studios to emerge relatively unscathed.
Originally conceived by Costello as a Toussaint songbook album, the 13-track release features seven numbers from Toussaint's back catalog. It also includes five new songs they wrote together, along with The River in Reverse's deeply moving title track, which Costello wrote about the aftermath of Katrina's devastation.
The song begins: "How long does a promise last? / How long can a lie be told? / What would I take in exchange for my soul? / Would I notice when it was sold? / Wake me up / Wake me up with a slap or kiss / There must be something better than this / I don't see how it can get much worse / What do we have to do to send / The river in reverse?"
Most of the songs by Toussaint that Costello chose date back 30 or more years, but seem well-timed now, post-Katrina. Their titles alone seem almost prophetic, most notably "On Your Way Down" and "Tears, Tears and More Tears." Then, there's "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?," which was written for Lee Dorsey in 1970 as a Civil Rights-inspired call for equality.
"Elvis is such a wide-awake individual, and so sharp and perceptive about things," Toussaint said. "He found certain songs that were relevant to today and the events at hand, like 'Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?' He really thought that would be a (timely) song, and he was especially fond of the verse "What happened to the Liberty Bell / I heard so much about? / Did it really ding-dong? / It must have dinged wrong / It didn't ding long."
"He found that totally applicable to some of the aftermath of Katrina, and to some of the (government) response we would have hoped to have gotten. And my (1973) song 'Freedom for the Stallion' could have been written as a direct response to Katrina. I'm glad Elvis is giving these songs new meaning and importance."
The destruction caused by Katrina has turned much of the historic Crescent City into a ghost town, as the DVD that accompanies The River in Reverse makes chillingly clear. But Katrina has also given Toussaint a renewed belief in the power of music, both as a healing force and as a means to focus attention on New Orleans' ongoing battle to recover.
"Music does have a double purpose at this moment, because it helps to get certain messages out there that need to be known," he said. "This record isn't all about Katrina, but it had a lot to do with the timing of it and the rhyming of it. I say that because, at the time Elvis and I recorded it (late last year), there had to be some undercurrents about Katrina that inspired certain (new) lyrics and songs."
Toussaint launched his career in 1955 at the age of 17 when he substituted for Huey "Piano" Smith in singer-guitarist Earl King's band. He recorded his first solo album in 1958, then went on to write, produce and arrange vibrant hits for such Big Easy vocal stalwarts as Ernie K-Doe ("Mother-in-Law"), Jessie Hill ("Ooh Poo Pah Doo"), Irma Thomas "It's Raining") and many more.
In 1996, he formed his own label, NYNO Records, to promote New Orleans-based artists. His goal now is to help promote his beloved city as it struggles to regain its footing.
"I'm glad to be in a position to be a positive force, if I can," Toussaint said. "As catastrophic as Katrina was, I'm glad I was there when it happened. I would not have wanted to be somewhere afar when such an event took place."
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