I myself would even like a little higher ground

Readers of this space probably remember that one of the musical highlights of my 2005 was Allen Toussaint's performance at JazzFest in New Orleans, four months before the flood. Toussaint has landed in the public eye lately, largely due to his album and tour with Elvis Costello. I've been enjoying The River In Reverse for a few days now, and strongly recommend watching the DVD that comes with most pressings too. (I watched it before I even played the record.) There's even an additional song on there that didn't make the record for some reason or other.

There is a lot of strong material on the record -- old Toussaint numbers from the 1960s, a new Costello song, and a few new collaborations between the two. Most stunning of all is "Ascension Day," based on Toussaint's minor-key version of Professor Longhair's magnificent "Tipitina." It's hard to imagine anyone else doing such a thing credibly. Who else could get away with turning "Tipitina" into something somber? And turn it into the best song yet about one of the worst things that's ever happened in this country? You can hear Toussaint giving it everything he's got: his love of classical piano, the rolling Longhair licks, his own thing from all those 60s soul records on the Minit and Sansu labels. If you're going to mess with "Tipitina," you'd better do it right. He does.

As it turns out, there is a missing link. Toussaint performed a minor-key "Tipitina" at some Katrina benefits in New York. There's also a recorded version with two pianos, the other played by Jon Cleary. (Shades of another song's crooked path.) I love it when that happens.

There's a point in the DVD when Toussaint, the picture of elegance and composure throughout, is nearly speechless. (Actually there are several, particularly when he's riding around the devastated city, but I'm thinking of one moment in particular.) He measures his words very carefully as he says that just as with everything else in life, this disastrous time will bring great things one day soon. Now, I think part of the reason Toussaint is not a household name in this country is that he almost never left New Orleans. (Why would you, if you were him?) Except now old New Orleans is gone, and he had to go somewhere else just to survive... at which point it became obvious what a musical treasure had been hiding in plain sight down there for all these years. And sure enough, wider public acknowledgment of his greatness is finally happening. In (the pre-flood film) Make It Funky!, Bonnie Raitt says Toussaint deserves a Kennedy Center medal. Joe Henry says he's our living Duke Ellington. Hope his name is on a lot of lips this year -- maybe at Grammy time or something like that. It'd surely help.

I'll have more to say after their June 20th show in Oakland. Think I'd miss that one?


FMFM: "The River In Reverse," Costello's lone solo composition on the record, and it's a great one too.