ALLEN TOUSSAINT

At the World Cafe Live - Philly (11/30/06)

 


 



At 7:10pm, Allen Toussaint and his band started the first set...personally, I don't know which was better: the music or the way that Allen humorously talked about people that were close to him. The band started with a funk jam that was a little reminiscent of The Meters's "Fire on the Bayou" featuring the Nawlins-jazz style piano riffing by Allen. The medley of "Certain Girl/Mother-in-Law/Fortune Teller/Working in a Coal Mine" was great, especially the fast-tempo cymbal playing of drummer Herman LeBow on "Fortune Teller" and the way that Allen stop the song "Working in a Coal Mine" just to get the fans to participate by saying "You can't have the mine without the OOPS!" The bad part of the medley was that the lead guitar (courtesy of Anthony Brown) was WAY TOO LOW on "Fortune Teller"! The next song was a song that Allen wrote for Dr. John (that appeared on the "Right Place, Wrong Time" album)...that was followed by a song called "Don't Leave Me No More" (I hope that title is correct?!)...the lead guitar was actually louder on this one! The next song "With You in Mind" was a nice R&B ballad with some great saxophone work by Breeze! Allen talked a good bit about how special a person the late Ed Bradley was, before going into "Brickyard Blues"...great punchy verses with a taste of funk! He talked about Elvis Costello before going into the next song. Things got hot real quick with the song "Big Chief" (dedicated to Prof. Longhair)... interesting enough, the song went from festive to a classical jazz number called "Thank You Lord", before it went back to the festive mode. The band took a break and Allen stayed onstage, performing Prof. Longhair's "Tipitina" and something that sounded like the "Harlem Globetrotters's Theme Song"! Allen wrote a song for Lee Dawson...it was a song that the Pointer Sisters covered called "Yes We Can Can"...funky stuff with a great sax solo and some really burnin' lead guitar riffing! Two more songs were performed, including one with Chris Severn playing some super-funky slap bass!! Afterwards, he told a long story about how he loved to go out to the country with his dad and escape the city...that story led to the beautiful "Southern Nights", which ended the set around 8:40pm.



Go back to my home page

 




Submit suggestions or comments to david.brooks@brookenstein.com