CostelloNews.com

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Costello and Toussaint in Oakland

Michael Bazeley, 02:02 AM in Concerts

By Shay Quillen

Mercury News

Liverpool met New Orleans on Tuesday as Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint joined forces at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre. As on their new collaboration, "The River in Reverse," Costello took most of the lead vocals, while Toussaint added his trademark piano and some nifty new arrangements performed by the four-piece Crescent City Horns. The result was a generous 2½-hour show that highlighted both men’s songwriting acumen while paying tribute to Toussaint’s battered hometown.

Some of the Katrina-related material from the new album – Costello’s angry "Broken Promise Land" and the title track, for example – didn’t impress. But there was more than enough good stuff to satisfy anyone in attendance.

Costello and the Imposters kicked the evening off with Nick Lowe’s "Peace, Love and Understanding," a tad more restrained than usual, before welcoming the horns, guitarist Anthony Brown and finally Toussaint, who glided onstage halfway through "Monkey to Man" to warm applause.

The rest of the show interspersed material from the new album – a mix of some of Toussaint’s weightier vintage compositions and new ones by both men – with selections from both men’s voluminous catalogs. One treat was new Toussaint horn arrangements for nine older Costello tunes. While they weren’t quite as inspired as his brilliant work on the Band’s "Rock of Ages," they added a refreshing dimension to songs both familiar (an "Alison" featuring flute and soprano sax) and nearly forgotten (a terrific "The Poisoned Rose" from "King of America.")

Toussaint was an inspired accompanist throughout, and he also took the occasional turn on the mike, singing the irresistible 1961 hit "A Certain Girl" early on, and later delivering the ’70s-era "Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)." Costello’s right-hand man, keyboardist Steve Nieve, mostly stuck to the Hammond B-3 organ, but he did take over the piano stool long enough during the encores for a sharp "Clubland" solo that seemed to please Toussaint. The horn section was first-rate, and charismatic trombonist "Big Sam" Williams in particular made a nice impression with his forceful solos.

Toward the end of the set, a couple of dark, dense numbers sans Toussaint hampered the good vibes slightly, but a string of Costello oldies starting with "Watching the Detectives" got the crowd back on its feet.

It was after 10:30 when the whole gang came out for one final set of encores, and the New Orleans party that had been threatening to break out all night finally erupted with the inevitable "Yes We Can Can" and a fun "Fortune Teller," before the show closed on a poignant note with the best of the new Toussaint-Costello collaborations, "The Sharpest Thorn."

It will be fun to see which favorites they pull out of the Toussaint songbag Wednesday at the Mountain Winery. I for one would love to hear Elvis take a crack at "Ooh Poo Pah Doo."

Contact Shay Quillen at squillen@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-2741.

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Posted on Wed, Jun. 21, 2006

CONCERT REVIEW

Elvis Costello, Allen Toussaint bring powerful New Orleans blues to Oakland

By Tony Hicks
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

It was just short of an Amen. And that's not bad, considering some think this whole collaboration between Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint is a stretch.

It's not. The English pop Renaissance man and the famed New Orleans soul pianist brought their unique, Katrina-inspired collaboration to Oakland's Paramount Theatre on Tuesday night. And while there were few moments that made one want to leap to one's feet, it was a mostly smooth trip through intersecting musical styles. While Costello garnered most of the attention, as frontman of the project and the bigger celebrity, most of the set was clearly on Toussaint's turf of roots soul and blues.

Costello loves going out of what appears to be his normal bounds. Because so many artists immediately went right to the aid of New Orleans' musicians after last year's devastating hurricane, this effort may have seemed forced. Seeing it live made it much more natural.

Much of the material from the 21/2-hour set came from the pair's new record "The River in Reverse." After Costello and his Imposters properly warmed up the crowd, opening with "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?" out came the four-piece Crescent City Horns to pump up Costello's "Monkey to Man," while Toussaint sauntered out about halfway through.

With the full band assembled, the musicians got right down to business on "The River in Reverse's" opening, mid-tempo blues chunker "On Your Way Down." Costello was clearly enjoying his foray into American roots, pushing his voice when presented with the chance, on songs like "Freedom for the Stallion." The arrangements were tight, with the horns packing extra punch for the older Costello songs. While there were ups and downs, and not everything worked well, there was still plenty of high points.

"Tears, Tears and More Tears" was as buoyant as Lyle Lovett's best live moments, splicing blues with gospel. "Broken Promise Land," had a tinge of the revivalist by the end, with Costello yelling the line "In the name of the father and the son, in the name of gasoline and a gun," playing to the political leanings of the crowd.

Costello's "Poisoned Rose," was a nice surprise; another example of how a change of scenery can do wonders for a song otherwise buried in a big back catalog.

Toussaint was content sideman for most of the night, though it was a great treat to see him pull out a big version of "Yes We Can Can," at the Paramount -- appropriate considering Oakland's Pointer Sisters made it one of their first big hits more than 30 years ago.

Toussaint disappeared for a few songs toward show's end, which may have contributed to a deflated vibe, though the audience did get up for Costello's "Watching the Detectives" and "Pump it Up." Toussaint returned with Costello for a bare-bones "Ascension Day," then with the full band on a rocking "International Echo." The pair put together a stunning new arrangement for "Alison," quieting it down and highlighting the song's feel with some selected, well-done sax and flute.

They brought everyone up out of their seats for the encores, including Toussaint's "Fortune Teller," and the perfect send-off from the new record, "The Sharpest Thorn." People were still humming it in the parking lot after the show -- always a good sign.

Tony Hicks is the Times' pop music critic. Reach him at 925-952-2678 or thicks@cctimes.com.

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Costello, Toussaint keep New Orleans in the forefront

- Joel Selvin, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

San Francisco Chronicle, USA

It would take some surly rock star from England to remind us Colonials of our own natural resources.

But Elvis Costello doesn't normally pull audiences to their feet at the end of every song. At the Paramount in his joint performance Tuesday with New Orleans music great Allen Toussaint, he was getting standing ovation after standing ovation for songs the audience had largely never heard before in an evening they won't soon forget.

With four brash and splashy horns, an extra guitarist and maestro Toussaint on the Steinway grand and vocals, Costello revamped his customary razor-sharp rock quartet into a full-blown New Orleans rhythm and blues orchestra. Not only did this luminous ensemble play the material from the recently released joint album by Costello and Toussaint, The River In Reverse, but Costello had Toussaint write new arrangements for nine of his other older songs -- from well-known pieces such as "Clubland" to songs that Costello allowed he and the band had forgotten about such as "Tears Before Bedtime" from his 1982 album, Imperial Bedroom.

Although Toussaint has been the dominant figure on the New Orleans R&B scene since Fats Domino stopped having hits, his work is not popularly known outside that endangered city. His arrangements not only graced the many '60s R&B hits he wrote and produced in New Orleans studios, but they brought figures such as Paul McCartney or The Band to New Orleans to work with him.

With their collaboration born from a series of benefits last fall in New York City, where lifelong New Orleans resident Toussaint is currently living while he rebuilds his destroyed home in his swamped neighborhood, Toussaint and Costello bring the specter of Hurricane Katrina and the disaster of New Orleans onstage with them. The four-man horn section, Toussaint's guitarist Anthony "AB" Brown, and Toussaint himself are actual victims of the storm. Costello certainly brought the subject powerfully alive with his song "River In Reverse," an angry ballad he wrote specifically to perform at one of last year's benefits with Toussaint.

Costello clearly relished the experience, staying onstage almost three hours, playing a generous 34 songs and sometimes acting like little more than just another fan with the best seat in the house as he glowed watching Toussaint weave his spell.

And Toussaint is truly an under-appreciated, virtually undiscovered gem. If anything good has come out of Katrina at all it is the increased national profile his career has received as a result of benefit albums he has appeared on, television appearances including last year's Grammys (too bad the knucklehead announcer couldn't get his name right), the first such appearance in his near 50 years in the record business, since he got his start putting piano parts on Fats Domino records while the '50s rock and roll star was on tour. He has long been a national treasure, just unknown outside New Orleans and record business circles.

Wearing a conservative tailored suit, socks and sandals, he presided over the keyboard with a dignity and authority uncommon outside the classical world. When he returned for an encore with his solo piano musings on the works of Professor Longhair, another little known New Orleans pianist, long dead, "Me and Tipitina," Toussaint held the crowd in the palm of his hand as he waltzed them through a piece that can only best be described as chamber R&B. He spun delicate and airy glissandos that hung in the air like lace.

Costello, standing by the side of the piano as entranced by what he was hearing as anybody, then explained that he asked Toussaint to transpose that piece and he wrote lyrics to the music to create a song called "Ascension Day," which they performed like they were in a cathedral. It was a solemn, sublime moment of artistic transcendence; the meeting many worlds, blending into one heartbeat, a profound convergence that held the standing crowd hushed.

Costello has been on an amazing creative roll in the past few years. He is still performing his first ballet score with symphony orchestras across the country and did an album with a 52-piece jazz orchestra with Charlie Mingus and Billy Strayhorn covers mingled with new versions of his old tunes. He has collaborated in the recent past with R&B songwriter Jerry Ragavoy, who co-wrote "Piece of My Heart," and, even more memorably, did an entire album with Burt Bacharach, Painted From Memory, in 1998.

But with Toussaint, Costello has really unearthed something special. Songs off their album such as the obscure "Who's Gonna Help the Brother," "Tears, Tears and More Tears," or "Nearer To You" were pure Toussaint classics, lingering forgotten in his massive back catalog. How Freedom For the Stallion has been lying around unused for all these years is a complete mystery; it's not as if the Pointer Sisters, Glen Campbell, Labelle and others haven't had big records with Toussaint. In the record business he hasn't been an unknown since Al Hirt made a No. 1 record out of his instrumental Java in 1964.

But his stunning remakes of Costello's songs were the treasures of the evening. He made "Poisoned Rose" sound like a forgotten Fats Domino blues. He gave "Clubland" this big, booming Cubano riff, which Costello keyboardist Steve Nieve matched on the piano, while Toussaint took over the organ for the sassy, brassy version. His supple, sweet high harmonies softened the sometimes harsh sound of Costello's gritty delivery. It was the big, billowing, seductive sound of Toussaint -- Elvis at the fore -- that had them jumping out of their seats.

The fans that came Tuesday may have been making a leap of faith since the new album has only been out a couple of weeks and has hardly been pounding from the radio anywhere or selling off the front counter at Tower Records. But Costello has tapped something very potent and vital in this historic collaboration.

With the future of the city itself something of a question mark, Costello and Toussaint are keeping New Orleans culture on the front lines. And it never needed to be there more.

Email Joel Selvin at jselvin@sfchronicle.com