Between headliner Dr. John and special guest Allen Toussaint, the Town Hall presented over a hundred years of New Orleans piano playing with four keyboards crowding the stage by the end of the evening.
Time will tell and Toussaints Southern nights gent met Dr. John's gris gris voodoo swamp thing and both came out better for the mash up. First Allen came out alone and performed 30 minutes of seamless New Orleans ivory pop. Many (nowhere near all) of the hits were performed with a smooth intensity and intelligence and two instrumentals failed to derail the proceedings.
At 75 years of age Allen has a playful demeanor, an ease with himself on stage , that allows him to be always himself on stage and the effect is alarming. It is like a constant state of grace, Allen doesn't have to push the call and response of "Certain Call" or jump up and down during the "Fortune Teller"/"Mother-In-Law"/"Working On The Coal Mine" or the self evident "Funky From Now On".
As an instrumentalist is steady but not percussive, and when he goes off on a tangent it isn't Dr. John he summons but George Gershwin. In a way speedy half hour, the versatile man knocked off a lovely "Molly Malone" in celebration of St. Patrick's Day as smart as his lime green suit. But it is "Southern Nights" we are waiting for and he redeems it from Glen Campbell and brings it back to us in one piece.
But if Allen Toussaint is a dream of Southern Hospitality and gentility, Dr. John leads you into the swamps with voodoo in the air: death is a not untypical subject matter for the pianist who, along with his five Nite Trippers plays a smart and perfected hour long set covering huge amounts of ground with a dexterous indifference. Dr. John doesn't particularly notice the audience" Allen played for them, Dr. John played to them and when he spoke it was to perform a little stand-up comedy. Funny but distancing. Part of that must be that Mac Rebennack dons a persona on stage, so distancing is the schtick and maybe part of it is style. It didn't derail the set built it did keep us at arms length.
His current band is a goodie, especially bandleader, trombone player Sarah Morrow who provided the personal tough missing and ran off with a song here and there. But not on a blues boogie "Let The Good Times Roll" and not on the touch minded "Big Shot" off Dr. John's fine latest album Locked Out produced by the Black Keys Dan Auerbach, who had the smartness to get out of the way and leave him to it.Dr. John isn't missing much in 2013 that he didn't have in 1973 and the set built through strange segues and jazz, r&b and blues excursion all unmistakable and his from "Iko Iko" to such a night. Still, this can work against Dr. John, whatever he does he sounds just about the same and while I like that sound a lot, it is a little too much. Especially since he has an air of going through the motions. I enjoyed him but I couldn't take a steady diet.
But the encore as the real treat. Allen pushed his piano mid stage and Allen and Dr. John played together and Bobby Felton added his organ. They performed "Same Same Same", "Mister Mardi Gras" and closed the evening with "Such A Night". Oddly, Allen really pounded out "Mister Mardi Gras" and Dr. John seemed laid back on "Such A Night". The styles mesh more in your head than in your ears but there was a feeling of a tribute to the city which oozes music through the sidewalks second only to New York City.
A lot of love and a lot of respect on stage between the two premiere New Orleans pianists. Such a southern night tripper, it was.
Grade: B+