Words by ROBERT FOLSOM
Photos by SCOTT SPYCHALSKI
It was 5 degrees outside when Allen Toussaint took the stage Friday night, but things were about to heat up inside the Folly Theater. The man who Bill Shapiro and Cyprus Avenue was presenting to Kansas City brought the warm musical currents of New Orleans with him.
A recorded announcement introduced Toussaint as "the high priest of New Orleans music," and Toussaint looked every bit the part with a royal purple scarf and glittering tie.
The Crescent City native charmed the crowd with his banter. And he had a songwriter's stories to tell, like watching a television commercial about a chocolate man. He didn't recall exactly what was
being sold (it was Axe Dark Temptation fragrance), but he did say "the music which he was walking down the street to was me." That was the cue for the band to play "Sweet Touch of Love," a song that would set the pattern for the night: Each song would be a gumbo of styles and genres. The strolling groove of "Sweet Touch of Love" morphed into a Bo Diddley jungle-like beat over which Toussaint quoted Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" on the Folly's Steinway grand piano.
He talked about recent appearances on the Sundance Channel's
Spectacle program with Elvis Costello and the Levon Helm Band on Imus
in the Morning. That led into "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further," a
song that appears on the Costello/Toussaint album The River in Reverse.
Costello's version is the 2006 vintage, but Toussaint wrote the song
for Lee Dorsey, whose career spanned the 1960s.
And that's what you get with an Allen Toussaint concert: Pop music history from the 71-year-old producer, songwriter and performer.
Then the Toussaint ensemble began with one of those morphing songs that had sax man Brian Breeze Cayolle taking the lead with a soulful, slurring clarinet solo. "St. James Infirmary" was next, one of the songs Toussaint said he was glad he didn't write. "It's kind of gory," he said. But the instrumental performance was spirited with drummer LeBeaux slapping his hands on his thighs to keep the time.
When Toussaint went back to the oldie "Everything I Do Gonna Be
Funky (From Now On)," he quoted Chopin's "Military Polonaise in A
Major" as well as jazz legend Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo à la Turk." Of
course all this was done with constant nods to Professor Longhair, so
anything resembling classical sounded like it was being played in a
French Quarter parlor.
But what do they do during Mardi Gras in New Orleans but rain down
beads and masks and trinkets on one another? Toussaint brought out a
bag of treats during "Mr. Mardi Gras" and tossed goodies to the
animated crowd. It was during this performance that bassist Roland
Guerin got to step out front with a slap-and-pop solo on his six-string
bass.
The encore had Toussaint in a piano-vocal moment with Paul Simon's
"American Tune." The white-haired gentleman had a little trouble
finding comfort with the range of the song, but once he did, he
conveyed its emotion sincerely. Then the band joined in for the night's
finishers, "Shoo-Rah! Shoo-Rah!" and "Fun Time." And a fun time it was,
with warm wafts of New Orleans rhythms chasing the Kansas City cold
away.
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