Allen Toussaint

I'm a huge fan. "Mississipppi" is great and sounds great, but IMHO it's a little diversion from his "power alley". I'm really a huge fan of his old 1970's Warner Bros funk/pop. He also did some great stuff as a producer/writer/sideman in the early '60's with Ernie K-doe and, later, The Showmen.

I have always considered his 1971 LP on Scepter 24003 titled "Toussaint" to be the total masterpiece.Not only for Mr. Toussaint,but for all New Orleans soul as well.Try to find the video "Piano Players rarely play together" which has fascinating footage of Toussaint in his studio and also features Professor Longhair,and the oft overlooked Tuts Washington.

I was just listening to his "Saint Of New Orleans" and really enjoying it, I really like how the percussion punctuates certain parts and adds to the depth of the music experience

classic in every sense imo

As Marty notes, "Mississippi" is an unusually fine recording, at least on my CD.

Any other CDs of his up to that standard of recording?

John

John,

I think that I own 'em all and the answer is:

None comes remotely close to "Bright Mississippi" for SQ.

I do have a soft spot for the sound of the Showmen records. These are pretty primitive recordings, but IMHO they manage to capture the essence of Norman "General" Johnson's voice. Anyone who is interested in the evolution of rock 'n' roll might want to check out The Showmen ("It Will Stand" is a Greatest Hits collection that is available on CD and IMHO it contains a pretty well chosen selection of their material).

For context on The General: Johnson had his 15 minutes of fame later on with The Chairmen of the Board and his stuttering vocals on their hit "Just Gimme a Little More Time" - if that rings a bell.

The "It Will Stand" CD documents how doo wop was morphing itself to accomodate the emerging influence of rock n roll. Pretty much the Southeastern US flipside to what Brian Wilson was doing with the earliest Beach Boys records on the West Coast. Maybe a litttle less inventive, but very, very good stuff if you enjoy the genre.

This is more rewarding musically than sonically, however. The Warner Brother Greatest Hits collection is great, but inconsistent on the SQ. Some of the funk is nicely captured, the ballads not so much (for my taste, anyway). IIRC, most of the individual WB records were a mess sonically and the earlier stuff ("Mother-In-Law", "Workin' In a Coal Mine", etc. ) isn't very good sounding either.

He's done a sh*t load of great records over the course of his career, but none are great sounding and there's definitely nothing (that I know of) that approaches "Bright Mississippi".

Marty