The Wild Sound Of New Orleans: The Complete 'Tousan' Sessions
CD plus 20 page booklet. Although he has been the presiding genius of New Orleans R&B; since the late Fifties, Allen Toussaint has made relatively few recordings under his own name. These are his first sides; they were made for RCA and Sevile in 1958-1959. Toussaint assembled a crack New Orleans band, including Red Tyler, Roy Montrell, Melvin Lastie and Hungry Williams, and led them through a program of wonderfully inventive instrumentals that includes the original version ofJavaand 26 other songs, likeWhirlaway,Po Boy Walk,Cow Cow Blues, andReal Churchy. The roots of Sixties New Orleans R&B; are here.