There will be lots of lists printed which try and make everyone realise that Allen Toussaint was a great man, and a great musician. Which can only be a good thing because people do tend to forget.

A lot of them will no doubt focus on him as a songwriter and producer rather than as a performer in his own right. Which means they might run the risk of ignoring the masterful record that is Life, Love and Faith-

Which is sort of soul, funk and New Orleans all at once without being any in particular and is all the better for it. It’s also one of my favourite sleeves too – I can’t put my finger on it but it sho’ is funky.

That sleeve also features on the sleeve of another record for which Toussaint should be forever remembered.

This Meters record –

Which is home to more breaks than you could shake a stick at – and could maybe be the funkiest album ever made. Big claim sure, but it might be true and is in my head. And you’ll see Allen’s record just to that bootilicious babe’s right arm, straight above the watermelon. Allen produced Rejeuvenation for the Meters and it just doesn’t get any better than that so make the effort to play Just Kissed My Baby today and remember that greatness just moved on.
 

[as an aside Toussaint’s place in the history of New Orleans piano players – Professor Longhair, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Fats Domino, Tuts Washington, James Booker, Dr John et al – is also understated in the lists around today. But it was huge and occasionally it was caught on record … this one is a New Orleans take on Thelonious Monk that brings something else out of both the tune and Monk… Something very… New Orleans.  A sort of funeral song you’d like to party to]
 

-TH