Steinway & Sons Mourns The Passing Of Allen Toussaint

The House of Steinway notes with profound sorrow the passing of Steinway Artist Allen Toussaint, one of the most beloved figures in New Orleans soul and R&B, and one of America’s most prolific songwriters and producers. Toussaint passed away in Madrid on November 10, just hours after concluding an electrifying concert with two of his best-known compositions: “Southern Nights” and “Brickyard Blues.” A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Hall of Fame, and the Blues Hall of Fame, Toussaint was 77.

Widely considered one of the great American songwriters of the century, Toussaint was an accomplished pianist, record producer, singer, and songwriter. A native of New Orleans, he was known to friends as a soft-spoken, modest gentleman with a flair for fashion and style, a self-effacing musician and composer who was often reluctant to take the role of front artist.

He picked up music as a child after finding inspiration during his sister’s piano lessons in the family living room. “I fell in love at first touch,” he later said, of his first encounter with a piano. But while his sister studied classical music and helped her brother understand the technicalities of music theory, young Allen was known to prefer the “off-book” sound of the blues and boogie-woogie he heard on the radio during the forties and fifties in New Orleans. As a teenager, he joined a local R&B band that also featured guitarist Snooks Eaglin, played with Earl King, and even had the good fortune to stand in for the legendary Fats Domino during a recording session. These early opportunities paved the way for him to work with “Professor Longhair” Henry Roeland Byrd, a man Toussaint considered his musical mentor.

After Hurricane Katrina destroyed Toussaint’s home in 2005, he relocated to New York City and began performing more solo concerts. Considered a “musician’s musician,” Toussaint was never far from a piano, and he revered his relationship with Steinway & Sons. In The Allen Toussaint Touch, a 2006 documentary produced by the BBC, Toussaint recounted the experience of arriving in New York after the loss of his personal Steinway piano in New Orleans. “When I first got to New York after Katrina, I did a couple of radio interviews,” he said. “I was talking about my Steinway at home being wiped out. Steinway heard me talking on the air. They told me to come down and pick one out, and they had this whole place full of Steinways. I could not do such a thing. So I asked the guy to narrow it down, and he narrowed it down to three. I really like this one a lot.”

In the film, Toussaint sat at the piano and played for a moment, then paused. “Music has been my company my whole life,” he said. “It’s what I wake up and go to immediately. Music is everything to me, short of breathing.”

Steinway & Sons extends sincere condolences to Allen Toussaint’s family, friends, and colleagues.

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Allen Toussaint’s last live performance, just hours before his passing:
http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2015/11/allen_toussaint_dead_madrid_co.html