Bman's Blues Report

On 4 th of July, America’s birthday, we review American Tunes ...  the last, and posthumously released, album by one of the USA’s most influential, diverse, and loved musicians, composers, and musical luminaries, the late. This album finds Toussaint many times alone at his piano. When he is accompanied it is often sparse but with impeccable precision.    As his persona requires, all the accompanists are top notch musicians in their own right. A man well known for his own compositions, American Tunes instead features Toussaint’s unique interpretations of other people’s American music.   Many are well known classics from his hometown, New Orleans.    The album starts off with Delores’ Boyfriend with Toussaint alone at the piano doing what I call a “sportin’ parlor ragtime blues.”   It sounds and smells like pure New Orleans, and is the first of only 2 cuts on the album written by Toussaint himself. The second track, Viper’s Drag...