'Apres vous, M. Toussaint'
The Daily Yomiuri, Japan reports -
Hurricane Katrina, the music of New Orleans and Allen Toussaint, one of the foremost exponents of that music, were the threads linking appearances in Tokyo this week by British singer Elvis Costello and J-pop superstar Mika Nakashima.
At a press conference in a chapel in Shinagawa, Tokyo, on Wednesday, Toussaint and Nakashima performed the charity single "All Hands Together" followed by a performance by Toussaint and Costello of material from their album The River in Reverse.
But before the mini gig had a chance to start, Toussaint generated titters of laughter and bewilderment among assembled reporters when he lauded the role of Hurricane Katrina.
"Well, I must say that Katrina was supposed to be a tragedy, but Katrina turned out in being a great booking agent," Toussaint said dryly.
Toussaint thinks the only way to move forward from the disaster of the hurricane and its aftermath is to look for the positives that came out of it.
"I definitely take a positive slant because it was so devastating that there's nothing else to do. So when the soak ended I let it soak out of me and I immediately began thinking, 'What an opportunity to start afresh!'" said Toussaint, whose fabled Sea-Saint studio was destroyed in the hurricane along with its equipment, his grand piano and various gold discs he'd collected during his career.
Toussaint said one of the best things to come out of the disaster were the various examples of collaborations and cooperation among the general public and among musicians.
Nakashima was one of the people Toussaint came into contact with for a musical collaboration after the hurricane--a rather unlikely combination of towering New Orleans giant and beguiling J-pop icon.
"I didn't know much about Mika's music but they sent me a couple of examples and I fell in love with the sound of her voice and the spirit that came through," Toussaint said.
Nakashima showed some of that spirit during a performance of "All Hands Together," which she sang with the New Orleans veteran on piano, backed up by a band of bass, percussion, accordion and guitar, plus a 20-member choir.
The powerful gospel vibe of the track was mesmerizing and had those sitting in the pews converted to the idea of Nakashima's New Orleans vision. But her subsequent performance of "Wonderful World"--covered by Ken Hirai in recent years--revealed a less convincing choice of material that did not play to the natural strengths of Nakashima's sensuous if not overly powerful voice.
Resplendent in an off-white floor-length dress and green, purple, red and yellow hair extensions, Nakashima explained the background to the rousing "All Hands Together."
"It's not like I've listened [to Allen's music] from way back when, but I've been able to listen to a lot of it. From the time I heard about the situation in New Orleans, I wondered if there was anything I could do and decided to make a charity single," Nakashima explained. "When you think of New Orleans, you think of Allen, but even though I thought it would be impossible to actually get him to play, we decided to ask him anyway."
If Toussaint's collaboration with Nakashima was an unlikely meeting of strangers, his linking up with Costello was more like a reacquainting of old friends. Costello explained that they first worked together back in 1983 when Toussaint produced a Costello cover of "Walking on Thin Ice" by Yoko Ono. They then performed together five years later on Costello's angry album Spike.
It was the Katrina disaster that brought them together again after Costello had performed Toussaint's track "Freedom for the Stallion" at benefit gigs in aid of those affected by Katrina. They sang the song as a duet at a September charity concert organized by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in New York and the idea to make an album together crystallized in Costello's mind that same month.
"I thought there should be a brand-new Allen Toussaint songbook record, but that would be six or seven CDs if you chose all the great songs Allen wrote," Costello said. Eventually, they recorded seven of his classic songs, five joint compositions and the Costello-penned title track--all with "gentleman producer" Joe Henry at the controls.
But it took a while to gel on the joint compositions, Costello acknowledges, due to a standoff of mutual respect.
"It was a strange feeling when we first sat down to write some new songs to add to the songs from Allen's catalog. We were almost too polite to begin. Alan would say, 'After you, Mr. Costello' and I would say 'Apres vous, M. Toussaint' and neither of us would touch the piano," Costello explained. "But once we got started there was no stopping us."
The duo gave a taste for the gospel and New Orleans-driven sound of the release with performances of nine tracks from the album.
While the lanky Toussaint spiced up the sound with New Orleans fills on the piano, there was no denying that, of the three performers at the mini concert, Costello left the biggest impression. His emotionally charged renditions of songs from River in Reverse soon broke down any initial reticence on the part of the audience. His performances of the title track, Toussaint's "Nearer to You" and their joint composition "The Sharpest Thorn" were the highlights of the duo's 35-minute introduction to the album.
Costello's performance was stunning and visceral, and not surprisingly his later comments regarding the hurricane left no doubts on the position he takes on it.
"The river didn't flood New Orleans. The sequence of events was a hurricane approached New Orleans and probably its worst force was felt further along the coast. But when enough rains fell it revealed the very, very insecure state that the city had been allowed to live in all this time. They had been living, as Allen said, on luck, and these are man-made disasters," Costello said before lambasting the slow response of U.S. federal authorities in offering suitable assistance.
"I think it is a symbol of a lack of care for each other and that's really what the song ['River in Reverse'] speaks of. If we can change this then we'd really be achieving something profound," Costello said.
But if Costello sees the Katrina disaster symbolizing some of the social ills of the United States, and by extension the West, Toussaint was sticking to his positive spin on things:
"One of the finer things that happened was this collaboration between Elvis and I, and it was quite timely that we were in the same place at the same time--thanks to the booking agent Katrina."
The Daily Yomiuri, Japan
(Jun. 3, 2006)
Katrina the booking agent
Paul Jackson / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
Hurricane Katrina, the music of New Orleans and Allen Toussaint, one of the foremost exponents of that music, were the threads linking appearances in Tokyo this week by British singer Elvis Costello and J-pop superstar Mika Nakashima.
At a press conference in a chapel in Shinagawa, Tokyo, on Wednesday, Toussaint and Nakashima performed the charity single "All Hands Together" followed by a performance by Toussaint and Costello of material from their album The River in Reverse.
But before the mini gig had a chance to start, Toussaint generated titters of laughter and bewilderment among assembled reporters when he lauded the role of Hurricane Katrina.
"Well, I must say that Katrina was supposed to be a tragedy, but Katrina turned out in being a great booking agent," Toussaint said dryly.
Toussaint thinks the only way to move forward from the disaster of the hurricane and its aftermath is to look for the positives that came out of it.
"I definitely take a positive slant because it was so devastating that there's nothing else to do. So when the soak ended I let it soak out of me and I immediately began thinking, 'What an opportunity to start afresh!'" said Toussaint, whose fabled Sea-Saint studio was destroyed in the hurricane along with its equipment, his grand piano and various gold discs he'd collected during his career.
Toussaint said one of the best things to come out of the disaster were the various examples of collaborations and cooperation among the general public and among musicians.
Nakashima was one of the people Toussaint came into contact with for a musical collaboration after the hurricane--a rather unlikely combination of towering New Orleans giant and beguiling J-pop icon.
"I didn't know much about Mika's music but they sent me a couple of examples and I fell in love with the sound of her voice and the spirit that came through," Toussaint said.
Nakashima showed some of that spirit during a performance of "All Hands Together," which she sang with the New Orleans veteran on piano, backed up by a band of bass, percussion, accordion and guitar, plus a 20-member choir.
The powerful gospel vibe of the track was mesmerizing and had those sitting in the pews converted to the idea of Nakashima's New Orleans vision. But her subsequent performance of "Wonderful World"--covered by Ken Hirai in recent years--revealed a less convincing choice of material that did not play to the natural strengths of Nakashima's sensuous if not overly powerful voice.
Resplendent in an off-white floor-length dress and green, purple, red and yellow hair extensions, Nakashima explained the background to the rousing "All Hands Together."
"It's not like I've listened [to Allen's music] from way back when, but I've been able to listen to a lot of it. From the time I heard about the situation in New Orleans, I wondered if there was anything I could do and decided to make a charity single," Nakashima explained. "When you think of New Orleans, you think of Allen, but even though I thought it would be impossible to actually get him to play, we decided to ask him anyway."
If Toussaint's collaboration with Nakashima was an unlikely meeting of strangers, his linking up with Costello was more like a reacquainting of old friends. Costello explained that they first worked together back in 1983 when Toussaint produced a Costello cover of "Walking on Thin Ice" by Yoko Ono. They then performed together five years later on Costello's angry album Spike.
It was the Katrina disaster that brought them together again after Costello had performed Toussaint's track "Freedom for the Stallion" at benefit gigs in aid of those affected by Katrina. They sang the song as a duet at a September charity concert organized by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in New York and the idea to make an album together crystallized in Costello's mind that same month.
"I thought there should be a brand-new Allen Toussaint songbook record, but that would be six or seven CDs if you chose all the great songs Allen wrote," Costello said. Eventually, they recorded seven of his classic songs, five joint compositions and the Costello-penned title track--all with "gentleman producer" Joe Henry at the controls.
But it took a while to gel on the joint compositions, Costello acknowledges, due to a standoff of mutual respect.
"It was a strange feeling when we first sat down to write some new songs to add to the songs from Allen's catalog. We were almost too polite to begin. Alan would say, 'After you, Mr. Costello' and I would say 'Apres vous, M. Toussaint' and neither of us would touch the piano," Costello explained. "But once we got started there was no stopping us."
The duo gave a taste for the gospel and New Orleans-driven sound of the release with performances of nine tracks from the album.
While the lanky Toussaint spiced up the sound with New Orleans fills on the piano, there was no denying that, of the three performers at the mini concert, Costello left the biggest impression. His emotionally charged renditions of songs from River in Reverse soon broke down any initial reticence on the part of the audience. His performances of the title track, Toussaint's "Nearer to You" and their joint composition "The Sharpest Thorn" were the highlights of the duo's 35-minute introduction to the album.
Costello's performance was stunning and visceral, and not surprisingly his later comments regarding the hurricane left no doubts on the position he takes on it.
"The river didn't flood New Orleans. The sequence of events was a hurricane approached New Orleans and probably its worst force was felt further along the coast. But when enough rains fell it revealed the very, very insecure state that the city had been allowed to live in all this time. They had been living, as Allen said, on luck, and these are man-made disasters," Costello said before lambasting the slow response of U.S. federal authorities in offering suitable assistance.
"I think it is a symbol of a lack of care for each other and that's really what the song ['River in Reverse'] speaks of. If we can change this then we'd really be achieving something profound," Costello said.
But if Costello sees the Katrina disaster symbolizing some of the social ills of the United States, and by extension the West, Toussaint was sticking to his positive spin on things:
"One of the finer things that happened was this collaboration between Elvis and I, and it was quite timely that we were in the same place at the same time--thanks to the booking agent Katrina."
"The River in Reverse" is out now on Universal; "All Hands Together" comes out on Wednesday on Sony Music Associated Records.