King Biscuit Boy with The Meters and Allen Toussaint

I had just about forgotten about this record until I saw Blue Dragon post a couple later KBB records. Those were posted at the request of Rivercityslim and I'm betting he will enjoy this one as well.

This album was done in 1974, right around the same time as Rejuvenation.

Lou Johnson - With You In Mind & more

 After the Sweet Southern Soul session and album one might think Jerry Wexler would have kept Lou around, but timing is everything and around this time two factors conspired against Lou. First, Wexler had become dazzled by a new talent named Donnie Hathaway, second Johnson had developed an increasingly problematic heroin habit. I would guess that both were in play in Atlantic dropping Johnson.

Johnson struggled with the habit until 1970 when he moved home to his mother's house in NY to get clean. By 1971 Lou was clean and looking for work, when in the lobby of the CBS building he ran into Allen Toussaint whom he knew from a 1966 session in New Orleans. Once he had confirmed that Lou had put his habit behind him, Toussaint invited Lou down to New Orleans for 30 days that resulted in this album.

I'm guessing that most of you know by now that the SeaSaint band of the time would have included The Meters, the horn section would be Gary Brown and company, the backup singers include Eldridge Holmes and Toussaint....you get it. Oddly enough, the excellent Toussaint penned ballad that is used as the album title, isn't on the album!

Anyway, once the album is finished, Marshall Seahorn deigns to release the album on one of his own labels, but instead sells it to Isaac Hayes and Dave Porter at Stax/Volt. Well okay, they had a better distribution network, but be it intentional or not there was a prejudice against non-homegrown products at Stax and the promotion/distribution teams never really got on board behind the album. The album went predictably nowhere and that was essentially the end of Johnson's solo career.

I am going to tack on here a goody from Kent records that our Shares Ninja patsoul kindly left in the shares - it contains all of Lou's earlier work with Burt Bacharach and his first New Orleans tracks with Toussaint from 1966. Together with the earlier post, this pretty much completes the Lou Johnson story.

Betty Harris - Soul Perfection Plus - Complete Jubilee - Sansu - 555 International Masters 1963-1969

 I'm not sure how it took me so long to get to this! Sometimes the obvious escapes your attention.Thanks to Cliff for this nice Westside edition which sounds far better than my old Charley version.

"Betty Harris (born 1939, in Orlando, Florida) is an American Soul Singer. Her recording career in the 1960s produced three hit records that made the Billboard R&B and pop charts: "Cry to Me" (1963), "His Kiss" (1964) and "Nearer to You" (1967). However, her reputation among soul music connoisseurs far exceeds her commercial success of the 1960s, and her recordings for the Jubilee and Sansu record labels are highly sought after in the 2000s by fans of Northern Soul and Deep Soul.

In 1963, after being in the music business for a few years, Betty Harris recorded a slowed down version of Solomon Burke's hit of the year before, "Cry to me", produced by the original record's producer, Bert Berns, and released on the Jubilee record label. Taken at a slower pace, Betty's rendition turned the song into a Billboard pop# 23 hit and Deep Soul Classic. A total of 8 songs further singles were released on Jubilee, also produced by Bert Berns, with "His Kiss" released 1/04/64, another Deep Soul ballad, making the lower part of Billboard#89 Pop and R&B charts.

In 1964, Betty Harris switched record labels to Sansu, a New Orleans label, where she was produced by legendary New Orleans producer Allen Toussaint. Her Recording with Sansu produced 20 singles. Of those, only "Nearer to You" Billboard # 85, an atmospheric, dramatic soul ballad, now considered one of the milestones of Deep Soul, achieved U.S. national chart success. However, practically all of her recordings for Sansu, uptempo tunes and ballads alike, featuring Allen Toussaint's raw yet sophisticated Southern Soul arrangements behind with Betty's rich, distinctive vocal, are considered prime specimens of the classic soul era; some notable recordings were "I'm Evil Tonight", a beat ballad favored among Northern Soul circles; "I Don't Want To Hear It", "Show it" and "Twelve Red Roses", stirring uptempo tracks; "Can't Last Much Longer" and "What'd I Do Wrong", emotive Deep Soul ballads.

All of the Sansu recordings were compiled into an album released in the U.K. (but not the U.S.), in 1969, called "Soul Perfection", an album which, in its vinyl format, although not extremely rare, commands relatively high prices of $200 to $300 in 2007.

A comprehensive CD compilation of Betty Harris recordings was released in 1999 by UK rerelease label, West Side.

In 2004, Betty Harris returned to the music business after a long departure.

She has made several public appearances in the U.S. and Europe, including the 2007 Porretta Soul Festival in Italy, and has recorded a new album, Intuition.

Allen Toussaint - Sehorn's Soul Farm

This 2 disc collection represents the height of Toussaint's production career where he was instrumental in creating the soul/funk for which New Orleans is justly famous. My first version of this set was of utterly wretched sound quality, but this one is audibly improved, tho still not adequately remastered given the importance and quality of the music contained here.

The Minit and Instant Story

Allen's first work as a fledgling producer is featured here, particularly on disc 1.- 

 Minit Records was a record label originally based in New Orleans and founded by Joe Banashak. After making a distribution deal with Imperial Records, the label released its biggest hit, the #1 Mother-in Law by Ernie K-Doe. A number of Allen Toussaint productions were issued on Minit, including hits by Irma Thomas. After the hits dried up, the label was sold to Imperial Records. Banashak also owned Instant Records which he kept. Minit was acquired by Liberty Records in 1963 as part of its acquisition of Imperial Records. Later its records were re-issued between 1966 and 1970 by Sunset Records and the label was active during the same time period as a soul music label. The Minit catalog is currently owned by EMI.

"This 52-song collection doesn't entirely overlap EMI's Minit Records Story box set, which has a few rarities and obscure tracks, but it's a good overview of some of the best and most interesting of the label's output, and also the sheer diversity of the company's output, from the hard blues of Jessie Hill to the smooth, near-pop stylings of Allen & Allen. Joe Banashak, who founded Minit and Instant, was truly in love with the sounds he heard from the clubs in New Orleans, and he seldom seems to have heard any artists expressing confidence and inspiration who he didn't want to release. Thus, hard-rocking numbers like Lee Dorsey's "Lottie Mo" share space on this set with harmony numbers like "The Owl Sees You" by the Showmen (aka the Humdingers) and the sultry, seductive soul of Irma Thomas ("It's Too Soon to Know," "Ruler of My Heart," "It's Raining"). British Invasion fans will find a lot to keep them busy as well, given the originals by several Brit-rock favorites, including "Fortune Teller," "Something You Got," and "I Like It Like That" represented here. Throughout both of these discs, Allen Toussaint is represented as producer, arranger, and frequently songwriter as well; if anyone needed convincing that Banashak had a resident genius under contract, the first few tracks do the job. The second disc moves up through later, post-Toussaint Instant and Seven B label tracks that feature Eddie Lang, Skip Easterling, and Eddie Bo, as well as Bo's production work from the mid- and late '60s. The sound is excellent as well, and one only wishes that a bit more material from Minit's early history was present, and that a few more details were available on some of the lesser-known artists.  AMG

Allen Toussaint - Motion & Life, Love and Faith

 A dreary gray day here in the city that care forgot. The sky has joined the music lovers of New Orleans in shedding tears for the loss of a great man. Even those who have felt wronged by him at some time would never wish him the fate of passing away alone in a hotel, so far from his beloved New Orleans. The apparent glamour of the life of a musician has a dark side that is too easily forgotten. I'm a little surprised by the depth of sadness and loss I am feeling today as I sit to write this while listening to Motion. Through my friend Zigaboo I had been introduced to the imperfect side of Allen, but over time I've let it go. It is a sign of your own mortality when your heroes are dying at such an alarming rate.

"It could be the closest I've ever come to greatness.

I was at an outdoor daytime concert at the Old U.S. Mint in New Orleans. Just before the music began, a slim, elegant figure emerged. He leaned against a wall near where I was standing and proceeded to listen to the music by a band that enjoyed playing the songs of the great Louisiana swamp rocker Bobby Charles.

It was Allen Toussaint.
Toussaint, who died Monday at 77, was a seminal force in New Orleans rhythm and blues. Yet there he was, by himself, no entourage or posse or special treatment, dapper as always in a suit despite the New Orleans heat, mingling with the masses and enjoying the tunes.

Toussaint, a disciple of New Orleans piano legend Professor Longhair, was a protean musician, a singer, a splendid piano player in a city that has produced so many of them, and, most important, a prolific songwriter and producer.  He wrote so many of the songs that define the extremely fertile era of 50s and 60s New Orleans R&B – think Mother-in-Law and Lipstick Traces and Working in the Coal Mine and I Like It Like That and Ruler of My Heart. He collaborated with Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney and Patti LaBelle. He  arranged horns for The Band. His songs were covered by the Rolling Stones (Fortune Teller) and Glen Campbell (Southern Nights). He was named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and he received a National Humanities Medal from President Obama.
He is a national treasure.

Yet for all his achievements, for all that prodigious talent, Allen Toussaint never became a household name  – except in the right households. And, of course, in New Orleans, where he was royalty." Rem Reider, USA Today

Allen Toussaint - The Complete Tousan Sessions

Allen's first solo recordings.

A lovely contribution from our pal Morris:

"From the German-based Bear Family Records reissue label comes over two-dozen selections by a young Allen Toussaint (piano) during his earliest outings as a solo artist -- albeit under the slightly truncated nom de plume of "A. Tousan" or simply "Tousan." Although he'd been gigging and sitting in on a variety of Crescent City R&B sessions, it was RCA Records' Danny Kessler who took the initiative to book studio time for Toussaint. That very first endeavor -- held on January 29, 1958 -- featured Toussaint supported by other Nola locals Alvin "Red" Tyler (baritone sax), Nat Perrilliat (tenor sax), or Lee Allen (tenor sax), either Justin Adams (guitar) or Roy Montrell (guitar), Frank Fields (bass), and Charles "Hungry" Williams (drums). While the exact lineup may not be certain, what is undeniable is the masterful energy of these seminal sides. Toussaint revealed to a reviewer that he "had no involvement in the titles of the songs. When I played them, I referred to them as 'Song Number One,' 'Song Number Two' and so on. It wasn't until the record came out that I was informed Kessler had chosen to name each piece after a different racehorse." Once "Whirlaway" b/w the raucous sacred-inspired "Happy Times" scored favorable results, Kessler hit Toussaint up for enough material to compile what would become the full-length Wild Sound of New Orleans (1958) LP. Arguably the best-known of the instrumental lot is the perky "Java" -- which Al Hirt (trumpet) was able to take to the top of the pop singles survey, not to mention carve out a nice career for himself in the process. Other entries worthy of multiple spins include the mile-a-minute "Tim Tam," "Bono," and the musical Mardi Gras that is "Nashua" -- which owes much to Professor Longhair and points the way for Toussaint's future musical aspirations. Similarly, "Wham Tousan" and "Pelican Parade" are evidence of Toussaint's already fully formed keyboard style. The second half of the Complete "Tousan" Sessions (1992) is dedicated to tracks destined for the Seville imprint and credited to "Al Tousan and His Piano." Of the 15 tunes documented during the December 7 and 8, 1959 session only a handful were ever released. Namely, the 45s "Chico" b/w "Sweetie Pie," "Naomi" b/w "Back Home Again in Indiana" -- a rare cover tune for Toussaint, "A Blue Mood" b/w "Moo Moo" (aka "Cow Cow Boogie"), and "Real Churchy" b/w "Twenty Years Later." Interestingly, the latter is nothing more than a recycled and abbreviated edit of the aforementioned "Sweetie Pie." The remainder make their debut and in true Bear Family style are thoroughly annotated in the 20-page liner notes booklet."

Allen Toussaint - Southern Nights

Hard to wrap your mind around - I just saw him play a couple weeks ago and ran into him a couple days later on Royal St. as I was coming out of the grocery. He looked the picture of health. This is my personal favorite album. I was surprised to discover I hadn't posted it before.

No matter what issues anyone may have had with him it is very sad to know that he died alone in a hotel room so far away from home.

Allen Toussaint - From a Whisper to a Scream 1970

We have lost another giant.

 From a Whisper to a Scream. 

The album predates the Sea-Saint era, it was recorded in Los Angeles but with a cast of New Orleans players including Mac Rebennack, John Boudreaux, Clyde Kerr and Earl Turbinton. Released on the English Kent label the album wasn't given wide distribution in the states and quickly disappeared from print. The record featured Toussaint versions of Working in a Coal Mine and Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky both of which were previously released by Lee Dorsey. 

Allen Toussaint - From a Whisper to a Scream

Kent 1970

1) From a Whisper to a Scream
2) Chokin' Kind
3) Sweet Touch of Love
4) What is Success
6) Everything I Do Gonna be Funky
7) Either
8) Louie
9) Cast Your Fate to the Wind
10) Number Nine
11) Pickles

Earl King - New Orleans Blues

How about some Earl King with the mighty Meters, Allen Toussaint and that Sansu horn section that usually included Gary Brown and Clyde Kerr and a rotating cast of other guys. This album has been out under the names Street Parade and A Mother's Love as well as New Orleans Blues but never seems to stay around for very long. A damn shame too because this is some of the best of all Earl's work; it was the one he seemed to personally like best, at least that's what he said in a interview I recall hearing a year or so before he died. Most of the songs are Earl's of course but a couple are penned by Toussaint. The Meters give it all a funky under layer but most of these tunes lean more towards blues and r & b than the pure NOLA funk usually associated with the Funky Four. There are 3 or 4 more tracks from these sessions that haven't been included for some reason but ya takes what ya gets.

Earl King - New Orleans Blues
Sansu 1972, Tomato 2005 [uber std mp3]

01 Mother's Love
02 Part of Me
03 Am I Your Dog
04 Fallin'
05 I'm Gonna Keep on Trying
06 Love Look Out for Me
07 Mama & Papa
08 Medieval Days
09 Some People
10 Street Parade
11 Do the Grind
12 Real McCoy
13 Up on the Hill
14 This Is What I Call Living
15 You Make Me Feel Good

Lee Dorsey - Yes We Can and then some

Lee Dorsey..the man with a big smile in his voice...New Orleans' answer to Al Green.

Born Irving Lee Dorsey in New Orleans, Louisiana, Dorsey moved to Portland, Oregon when he was ten years old. He served in the United States Navy and began a career in prizefighting. Boxing as a light heavyweight in Portland in the early 1950s, he fought under the name "Kid Chocolate" and was quite successful.

Dorsey met songwriter/producer Allen Toussaint at a party in the early 1960s, and was signed to the Fury record label. The song that launched his career was inspired by a group of children chanting nursery rhymes - "Ya Ya" went to number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. He recorded other songs for Fury before the label folded, and Dorsey went back to his car repair business.

Toussaint later came back on the Amy label and began to work with Dorsey once again. From 1965 to 1969 Dorsey put seven songs in the Hot 100, the most successful of which was "Working in the Coal Mine" in 1966. It was to be his second and last Top Ten song. In 1970 Dorsey and Toussaint collaborated on an album entitled Yes We Can; the title song was Dorsey's last entry in the singles chart. It was later a hit for the Pointer Sisters under the title, "Yes We Can Can".

Dorsey appeared on an album with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, which led to more recordings on his own with ABC Records in the late 1970s. In 1980, Dorsey opened for English punk band The Clash on their U.S. tour.

Dorsey contracted emphysema and died on December 2, 1986, in New Orleans, at the age of 61.

Dorsey's songs have been covered by artists as diverse as Petula Clark ("Ya Ya Twist," a 1962 French version of "Ya Ya") and Devo ("Working in the Coal Mine"). "Ya Ya" was also covered on John Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll album, and The Beatles Let It Be... Naked contained an extended live jam, with Tommy Sheridan on vocals.

  Ask anybody in New Orleans who knew him about Lee Dorsey and you get the same response "Man that was the nicest dude you ever want to meet". This is usually accompanied by glistening eyes as they remember that he's gone.

This album was his master work; Allen Toussaint wrote most of the songs and arranged them all, the music comes from the endless supply of tunes he had the Meters work up in the studio (they were never in the studio with Lee). These tunes all come from the heyday of Sea-Saint / Sansu with Allen, The Meters, Gary Brown, Harold Batiste and AFO... just a boatload of talent. The fact that this record did not break through sent Lee back to auto body shop, convinced that the music scene wasn't for him. Listening to this album today you can understand his frustration because they couldn't have made a better record than this, it stands as my numba one fave from this period (1970). Thankfully this reissue also contains quite a few extra tunes that wouldn't fit on the LP. There are so many highlights amongst the songs it is unfair to single out any - they are in fact 'all killer, no filler'. Enjoy this, it is a treasure!

Lee Dorsey - Yes We Can and then Some
Polydor Records 1970
[uber std mp3(vbr)]

1 Yes We Can part 1
2 Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley
3 Occapella
4 Riverboat
5 O Me-O My-O
6 If I Were a Carpenter
7 When the Bill's Paid
8 A Place Were We Can Be Free
9 Hello Good Lookin'
10 As Quiet as It's Kept
11 Lonely Avenue
12 Games People Play
13 On Your Way Down
14 When Can I Come Home
15 Tears, Tears and More Tears
16 If She Won't, Find Someone Who Will
17 Gator Tail
18 Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further
19 Yes We Can part 2
20 Freedom for the Stallion

Lee Dorsey vocals
with Allen Toussaint, The Meters, Gary Brown
Harold Batiste and AFO, others

Lee Dorsey - Ride Your Pony - Get Out My Life Woman

Some day I would love to know what in the hell this cover has to do with this album; I mean who are those people? None of them have anything to do with the album, nor does the New York or Chicago city scape behind them. What the hell does this smiling group of urban teens or twenty somethings have to do with a Southern Soul album from New Orleans? Baffling!!

This album is in the pocket of Lee's second wave of success in the mid 60's (he had first enjoyed success with "Ya, Ya", "My Old Car" and such in the early 60's).  The first 12 tracks here are from the original Bell album Ride Your Pony; the first group of musicians listed play of those tracks.

Tracks 13 thru 23 are with the second group of musicians including the Mighty Meters. These are recorded from 1967 thru about 70 but at no time over that period - including the Yes We Can sessions as well - were The Meters and Lee ever in the studio together. The Meters never even knew who their music was intended for and weren't informed or paid when these and other records came out. As a general rule at Sea-Saint, the only people who ever made money were Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn, everyone else had to be satisfied with crumbs while they drove Rolls Royces (well, at least Toussaint did).

1.  Ride Your Pony (2:51)
2.  The Kitty Cat Song (2:06)
3.  Shortnin' Bread (2:52)
4.  So Long (2:31)
5.  People, I Wish You Could See (2:05)
6.  Work, Work, Work (2:26)
7.  Get Out Of My Life, Woman (2:26)
8.  Here Comes The Hurt Again (2:32)
9.  Hello Mamma (2:30)
10.  Can You Hear Me (2:13)
11.  The Greatest Love (2:19)
12.  Feelin' (2:02)
13.  I Can't Get Away (2:14)
14.  Go-Go Girl (2:22)
15.  I Can Hear You Callin' (2:35)
16.  My Old Car (1:59)
17.  Love Lots Of Loving (2:59)
18.  Take Care Of Our Love (3:16)
19.  Vista, Vista (2:41)
20.  Cynthia (3:15)
21.  Wonder Woman (2:40)
22.  Four Courners - Part I (3:04)
23.  Four Corners - Part II (2:59)

PERSONNEL
Lee Dorsey - vocals
Collective personnel includes:
Allen Toussaint - producer, composer, piano
Deacon John Moore - guitar
Vincent Toussaint - guitar
Walter Peyton Sr. - bass
June Gardner - drummer

Marcel Richardson - piano
Arthur Neville - organ
Leo Nocentelli - guitar
George Porter, Jr. - bass
Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste - drums

Albert King - New Orleans Heat

Not your normal Albert King album with the fiery guitar licks and all that, there are plenty of those albums to choose from. Here Albert came down to New Orleans and received the full Sea-Saint Toussaint / Quezergue treatment with horns and back-up singers and such. The music focuses on King as a singer and sets him up with some Chitlins Circuit type vehicles that he has some fun with.

Albert King - New Orleans Heat

Tomato Records 1978

1. Get Out Of My Life Woman
2. Born Under A Bad Sign
3. The Feeling
4. We All Wanna Boogie
5. The Very Thought Of You
6. I Got The Blues
7. I Get Evil
8. Angel Of Mercy
9. Flat Tire

*The players on New Orleans Heat (Note: the horn section is unlisted but it almost certainly would have included Gary Brown and Clyde Kerr):

Albert King – vocal, electric guitar
Leo Nocentelli – electric guitar
Allen R. Toussaint – acoustic piano, 88 RMI Echoplex
Wardell Quezergue – electric piano
Robert Dabon – electric piano, RMI
George Porter, Jr. – bass
Charles Williams, June Gardner, Leroy Breaux – drums
Kenneth Williams - percussion 

Now I ain't saying this is Albert's best album or anything silly like that but it is some good fun. The session was also the last recording of the great New Orleans drummer Charles 'Hungry" Williams who became The Man when Earl Palmer went to L.A. This is my LP rip from my perfect copy.