New Orleans pianist, songwriter, producer, performer Allen Toussaint dies at

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, who was 77, died suddenly in Madrid shortly after performing Monday at the Spanish capital’s Teatro Lara. Born in 1938 in New Orleans, Toussaint was revered by British artists such as The Rolling Stones and The Who, who both covered his song Fortune Teller.

The musician suffered a heart attack in his Madrid hotel and was revived by rescue workers, an emergency services spokesman told the Associated Press.

Artists including Dr. John, the Neville Brothers, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Robert Palmer and Labelle recorded at the studio, according to Toussaint’s biography for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, into which he was inducted in 1998.

“He was an inspiring, prolific songwriter and performer whose unmistakable sound has forever defined our city’s unique cultural heritage”, said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu in a statement a few hours after Toussaint’s passing.

A true professor on the keys and a legend with a pen, Allen Toussaint’s passion for New Orleans musicians is as clear as the tunes that came off the ivories he played and the people he touched are just as resonant.

As a New Orleans-based songwriter, pianist, producer and arranger in the late ’50s and early ’60s, Toussaint brought the music of his hometown into the R&B era, creating hits for Lee Dorsey (“Get Out of My Life, Woman”), Irma Thomas (“Ruler of My Heart”), Ernie K-Doe (“Mother-in-Law”) and Benny Spellman (“Lipstick Traces”). He and business partner Marshall Sehorn formed a production company, Sansu, then built a recording studio, Sea-Saint, in the Gentilly neighborhood that served as Toussaint’s private musical “sandbox”.

“As I grew up and paid more attention to pop music, I noticed that Toussaint was responsible for writing numerous songs I heard on the radio and liked, ” Morrison said in an email. But for the architect behind so much of the most revered music to come out of New Orleans, fun was always part of the puzzle.

The song turned out to be a financial windfall for Toussaint.

Over the decades, many of his songs have lived multiple lives as succeeding generations of artists rediscovered and re-recorded them.

US President Barack Obama hailed Toussaint for returning to New Orleans when he presented him in 2013 with the National Medal of the Arts.

“He was never one to yell at anybody, even when he was in the studio, and you could see he was getting upset and he wouldn’t yell”, Thomas said.

Toussaint also was a well-regarded performer in his own right.

Allen continued to record and perform until his death.

Tributes poured in from across the music world. “There are new things being performed every day”, he once said in a New Orleans TV interview. Survivors include a daughter from his first marriage, Naomi Rios of New Orleans; two children from his second marriage, Clarence “Reginald” Toussaint of Houston and Alison Toussaint-LeBeaux of New Orleans; and six grandchildren.