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With a career spanning forty years, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Allen Toussaint is one of America’s greatest musical icons. A singer, pianist, songwriter, arranger, and producer, this New Orleans native has had an influence on American music that extends from rhythm and blues, pop, and country to musical theater, blues and jazz.

Toussaint’s career began at age 17, when he signed on with Earl King’s band for a gig in Alabama and became a fixture on New Orleans’ thriving music scene. In his early twenties, Toussaint was hired by Minit Records to supervise recording activities; he accumulated an amazing string of hits for the label, producing, writing, arranging, and often performing on tracks by Ernie K-Doe, Irma Thomas, Art and Aaron Neville, Chris Kenner, Jessie Hill and Benny Spellman.

In 1958, Toussaint cut his first solo record for RCA. Two of his earliest tunes, “Java” (which later became a hit for trumpeter Al Hirt) and “Whipped Cream” (the Herb Alpert hit and theme for The Dating Game) became instrumental standards. In the late 1960’s, Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn formed Sansu Enterprises, scoring hits with Lee Dorsey and the funky backing group The Meters.

Toussaint’s output in the seventies for his Sea-Saint Recording Studios (founded in 1973 with Sehorn) included some of the most seminal recordings of the funk and disco era, including Dr. John’s “Right Place, Wrong Time” and Patti Labelle’s “Lady Marmalade,” while his horn arrangements were featured on such legendary rock recordings as The Band’s “Rock of Ages,” and Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome.”

Some of the best-known hits penned by Toussaint include: “Mother-in-Law,” “Fortune Teller,” “Working in the Coal Mine,” and the Grammy-nominated “Southern Nights.”  Toussaint has produced artists such as Etta James, Albert King, The Meters, LaBelle, and Dr. John, and has been covered by or performed with Bonnie Raitt, The Judds, Robert Palmer, Otis Redding, Boz Scaggs, Ringo Starr, Paul Simon, Lenny Kravitz, and Elvis Costello, among others.

As a solo artist Toussaint released From Whisper to a Scream on Scepter Records and three more albums for Warner Brothers/Reprise: Love, Life and Faith, Southern Nights and Motion.

A 1998 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Toussaint was featured in the award-winning documentary, Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together and has also written for live theater.

Toussaint co-founded NYNO Records in 1996 and recorded his first full-length national release in nearly two decades, titled Connected. Toussaint is also the co-founder (with Aaron Neville) of New Orleans Artists Against Hunger and Homelessness.