Earlier this month we reported that Allen Toussaint would be teaming up with Paul Simon for a special benefit show in support of New Orleans Artists Against Hunger and Homelessness.
Photo by Matthew Straubmuller via CC BY 2.0 license.
Unfortunately, New Orleans and the music world were shocked and saddened when Toussaint passed away on November 10 following a concert in Madrid, Spain. While the benefit show can longer go on as planned, for obvious reasons, it will still go on.
The event, which is billed as “A Tribute to Allen Toussaint featuring Paul Simon and Friends,” will still take place at La Petit Theatre on Tuesday, December 8. Other than Simon, the rest of the show’s lineup has not yet been confirmed.
Upon hearing of Toussaint’s death, Simon posted a statement on his Facebook page that read, “Allen Toussaint was my dear friend. The most gifted, gracious and generous man that you could ever want to meet.”
The pair first collaborated over 40 years ago when Toussaint wrote the horn arrangements for “Tenderness,” a track on Simon’s 1973 album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon. More recently, Toussaint performed “Take Me to the Mardi Gras”–a tune that appears on the same record–at a Carnegie Hall tribute to Simon in 2014.
Tickets for the show are still on sale for $300-500. Proceeds will go to NOAAHH, a noprofit organization that was founded by Toussaint and Aaron Neville in 1985.
