Allen Toussaint Birthday Celebration
Fassler Hall
Tulsa
Jan. 12, 2024
As downtown Tulsa continues to grow in both its human and business populations, a few nightlife haunts stay consistent. Fassler Hall is one of those dependable places, where even though there might be a horseback brawl between new Tulsa weekend warriors happening on the street outside, you can count on catching at least one excellent band per week.
The evening of Jan. 12th exhibited this duplicity with a packed house under the rafters of the beer hall. The room was pretty evenly divided between those who were there to bullshit and those who came to witness a tribute to the King of New Orleans soul, Allen Toussaint.
(Toussaint claimed New Orleans — and any place or object he encountered, for that matter — would talk to him through touch. He could place his hand on a chair, and feel an inaudible “hello.” Standing in Fassler Hall, I placed my hand on my schnitzel sandwich, and it said: “Hello, chicken fry.”)
Toussaint is one of those figures who is downright worshiped by the musically obsessed, and has shaped the consumption of even the most casual music listener. Born and raised in New Orleans, Toussaint’s approach to piano playing forged the very foundations of rock ‘n’ roll, drew the first paisley patterns of southern psychedelia, and formed pop culture phenomena like “Lady Marmalade.” His compositions have been performed and covered by artists as varied as Otis Redding and The Doors.
It’s just as impossible to sum up his work in words as it was for Friday’s 11-member band to cover all the sonic alleyways he’s walked down. But 11 musicians tackling 26 of his hits between two separate sets was a good start.
Toussaint’s music is New Orleans personified, from the Creole language and the cuisine to the “second line” celebrations some call “funeral parades.” Many in this night’s band share common experience with Toussaint, with pianist and bandleader Chris Foster and trombonist Greg Fallis having lived in New Orleans themselves.
Along with Fallis, multiple members of the Toussaint tribute play with King Cabbage Brass Band, which has performed in multiple second line life celebrations. KCBB’s saxophonist Andrew McCormick, percussionist Kristen Ruyle, drummer Nicholas Foster, trumpeter Bishop Marsh, and bassist Jordan Hehl were joined by vocalists Delaney Zumwalt and Cassie Latshaw, and Mercury Lounge’s Bluegrass Brunch master of ceremonies, Johnny Mullenax, on guitar. (King Cabbage have an Allen Toussaint tune coming out later this year with Mullenax.)
The all-star cast ripped through songs spanning Toussaint’s “boogie woogie” (as he called rock ‘n’ roll) era, on through his southern soul, funk, and NOLA R&B staples. The whole group sang on possibly his most well-known production, “Lady Marmalade,” with Zumwalt taking the lead. Frontwoman for Tulsa psych rockers Free Association, Zumwalt exudes the warm approachability of a pre‑K teacher, a fun contrast to the risqué words she sang in French.
Anyways: girl can wail.
As with NOLA’s second line approach to funerals, the assembled musicians’ approach to his songs was as reverent as it was playful. And if there is a music that gets to the heart of the word “play,” it is Toussaint’s. Smiles and nods bounced between the players as music dripped from their fingers like melting pralines.
Sheet music for this stuff could just be recipe cards. Toussaint’s chord charts and lyrics form the vegetable trinity and roux, which can be neither rushed nor messed with. The inflections of the guitar, stabs of the horns, and piano trills of Toussaint — a combination of classical, “boogie woogie,” and NOLA jazz — are dictated as “a pinch here” and “season to taste.” Band members added their own personal spins, with improvised solos and an original horn arrangement leading the group out of the Toussaint classic “Southern Nights.”
Chris Foster mounted a tribute show similar to this one shortly after Toussaint’s death in 2015. He grew up in NOLA in the ‘70s, when Toussaint was making his music there. In an interview I did with him about that show for The Tulsa Voice, Foster wondered if he had “some sort of cosmic connection” with Toussaint. “Southern music is lavish, but for normal folks,” he said. “Southern folks put so much into a pot of étouffée, or a record, and say ‘we’re gonna deck this out and put a suit on it.’”
That 2016 concert was the genesis for Foster’s band The Grits, and I recently asked him if he still felt this way about Toussaint and southern music in general.
“Seems half of music is becoming more modern and sterile and another large part of the music fans are turning to the Golden Era of records, the ‘60s and ‘70s, at least for inspiration and building hybrid styles (such as Neosoul),” he said.
“The question is: Is it still relevant? God, I hope so.”
