Allen Toussaint: "Toussaint (From A Whisper To A Scream)"

This rounds out my classic Toussaint trilogy, and is definitely the rarest of his early ‘70’s solo LP’s (the others being “Life, Love & Faith” and “Southern Nights”).  As always, Toussaint displays a dizzying array of styles and sounds, while still being firmly rooted in the New Orleans R&B traditions at the essential core of his musicality.  This is a bit of a rawer, less-slickly-produced effort than everything that came afterwards, which is wonderful in that it retains the same kind of down-home feel as the Toussaint-produced early Meters sides, although on this project he employs a different set of New Orleans session pros, among them Dr. John, Earl Turbinton and John Boudreaux.  Toussaint and the crew run the musical gamut here, from the radio-ready “Sweet Touch Of Love” to a more subdued reading of the oft-covered “Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky.”  “From A Whisper To A Scream” is the album’s best cut, a moody ballad that features a strong and affecting vocal performance by Toussaint himself.  The instrumentals on side two are some of the more interesting items in Toussaint’s rich and varied catalogue, with “Pickles” standing out as an exceedingly unique merging of blues and classical piano forms.  Toussaint is at his effortless peak here, crafting ingenious melodic hooks and lyrics over some decidedly cooking grooves from the house band.  If you’re any kind of NOLA music fan, this belongs in your collection.