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.
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