Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint


Saw them last night and it ranks as one of the best concert experiences I've ever witnessed. The band consisted of Costello, the Imposters, the Crescent City Horns, a second guitarist and Toussaint. Costello did most of the vocals. The show started with Costello and the Imposters doing a couple of Costello songs, they were then joined by the Crescent Horns and finally Toussaint entered and they did his "On Your Way Down". For the next hour or so they primarily did Toussaint songs and songs from their new collaborative album "The River In Reverse". Toussaint then left the stage and the remaining band performed a number of Costello songs with updated Toussaint arrangements. After five or six songs Toussaint rejoins the band and they play another handful of songs penned by both artists. Everybody leaves the stage and then for an encore just Costello & Toussaint re-emerge. Toussaint plays a solo piano tribute to Professor Longhair and does a duet with Costello. The entire band joins in and they play 3 or 4 more songs. They exit the stage, the lights come on and the audience starts to leave. We're standing in the lobby about 10 minutes later and suddenly the music has restarted. We walk back in and the place is half empty, but the entire band is back on stage and they performed another half dozen songs. Finally, slightly more than 3 hours after starting the concert ended. I'll say it again, it was one of the best concerts I've ever attended. It was a major musical treat.
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Wow! I saw them at the New Orleans Jazzfest in May, but it was mainly Tousssaint and his band with Elvis joining on vocals for a few numbers. No Imposters. Still, it was great. The title track to The River in Reverse is very powerful. And Toussaint has penned a bunch of great, familiar tunes, hasn't he?
I found the EC/Toussaint cd to be both very good and a bit disappointing. First off, no denying that it's a good cd, but...
The choice of material!
Toussaint has done so much amazing music and I thought that, with the exception of "The River" and "On Your Way Down", the song choices were disappointing.

I will, however, check out the show when it hits LA.
Can't comment on the album since I haven't heard it yet, but the concert was mind blowing. The musicianship was superb. Toussaint is such a fine pianist, Steve Nieve never plays a bad note, Big Sam on trombone got the crowd going with every solo, the second guitarist (whose name I don't know) never took a solo, but his rhythm cemented the band's sound, and Elvis was in superb vocal shape. Costello doesn't possess a great voice and he has limited range and dexterity, but with suitable material his timing, dramatic and emotional qualities make him a very strong vocal presence. He's also quite an enthusiastic showmen.

High points of the show:

"On Your Way Down"
"Clubland"
"Watching the Detectives"
"Ascension Day"
"Bedlam"
"A Certain Girl"
"Working In A Coal Mine"
"Alison"
"I Can't Stand Up..."
"Professor Longhair Medley"
My parents saw this show in Ann Arbor - I don't think they had even heard of Elvis Costello. They both thought it was one of the best things they had ever seen. I would be seriously jelous if I hadn't caught a BRILLIANT T-Bone Burnett show at The Historic Mountain Winery that same week - I've never seen Jim Keltner live before, but I wondered why the drum sound was so good. It wasn't just the soundman.