ALLEN TOUSSAINT, NICHOLAS PAYTON and THE JOE KROWN TRIO November 14, 2010

Lehman Center for the Performing Arts brings the sound of New Orleans to the Bronx as NEW ORLEANS NIGHTS combines the extraordinary talents of legendary songwriter and bandleader ALLEN TOUSSAINT, trumpeter/composer NICHOLAS PAYTON, and a masterful B-3 organ trio led by JOE KROWN on Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 6pm. 1998 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and 2009 recipient of the prestigious Grammy Trustees Award, ALLEN TOUSSAINT shaped the music of New Orleans writing such timeless hits as “Working in the Coal Mine,” “I Like It Like That” and “Right Place Wrong Time.” Called “abundantly gifted” and “a high-wire soloist” by The New York Times, NICHOLAS PAYTON is a composer, bandleader and trumpet wizard whose recordings have consistently charted in the Billboard Top 20 Jazz albums, from his first recording, From This Moment (#15) to his current release Into the Blue (#11). THE JOE KROWN TRIO, a killer collaboration of three of New Orleans’s greatest players, merges the big sound of Joe Krown’s Hammond B-3, the soulful vocals of Walter “Wolfman” Washington, and the masterful drumming of Russell Batiste Jr.

Lehman Center for the Performing Arts is on the campus of Lehman College/CUNY at 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, NY 10468. Tickets for NEW ORLEANS NIGHTS featuring Allen Toussaint, Nicholas Payton and The Joe Krown Trio on Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 6pm, are: $35, $30 and $25 and can be purchased by calling the Lehman Center box office at 718.960.8833 (Mon. through Fri., 10am–5pm and beginning at 12 noon on the day of the concert), or through 24-hour online access at www.LehmanCenter.org. Lehman Center is accessible by #4 or D train to Bedford Park Blvd. and is off the Saw Mill River Parkway and the Major Deegan Expressway. Free on-site parking is available.

Allen Toussaint is a living legend whose work as a composer, producer, arranger, pianist and singer in the ‘60s and ‘70s helped shape the sound of R&B, soul and funk. In his 50-year+ career, he has produced, written for, arranged, had his songs covered by, and performed with such music giants as Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, Patti LaBelle, Mac “Dr. John” Rebennac, Aaron and Art Neville, Joe Cocker, The Meters, Glen Campbell, The Band, The Rolling Stones, Irma Thomas, Etta James and Ramsey Lewis. Growing up in New Orleans, he began playing professionally at age 17 and soon became a permanent fixture on the New O music scene. His first recording, an album of instrumentals for RCA Victor under the name of Al Tousan, included his song “Java,” which became a big hit for Al Hirt. In the early ‘60s when he was in his twenties, Toussaint was hired by Minit Records to supervise its recording activities and quickly scored a string of hits for the label and put his signature New Orleans sound on the map. In the ‘70s, he developed a funkier sound, writing and producing for the likes of The Meters and Dr. John, and also began working with artists beyond New Orleans, including B.J. Thomas, Robert Palmer, Willy DeVille, Sandy Denny and Solomon Burke. Toussaint launched a solo career that peaked in the ‘70s with the albums From a Whisper to a Scream and Southern Nights. In 1975 he teamed with Patti Labelle to produce their highly acclaimed Nightbirds album that included the #1 hit “Lady Marmalade.” The same year, Toussaint collaborated with Paul McCartney and Wings on Venus and Mars. Two years later, Glen Campbell recorded Toussaint’s “Southern Nights” and carried the song to #1. Toussaint’s 2009 album The Bright Mississippi rose to #2 on the Billboard Top Jazz Album chart.

Nicholas Payton was born into a musical family and mentored by two Crescent City jazz masters, Clyde Kerr Jr. and Ellis Marsalis. Since emerging on the New York scene in the early ‘90s and making his recording debut as a leader with 1994’s From This Moment, the trumpeter has been lauded as a significant voice in jazz and one of the new-generation guardians of the hard bop flame. Payton put his own spin on Louis Armstrong-associated music on his sophomore CD, 1995’s Gumbo Nouveau. Over the next several years, he worked with such jazz legends as Doc Cheatham (on their Grammy® Award-winning 1997 duo), Hank Jones, Elvin Jones, and Ray Brown. In 2003 he went beyond the straight-ahead, shocking the jazz world with his adventurous CD Sonic Trance, combining hip-hop, electronic, and effects-driven trumpeting. The 37-year-old arrived at a new plateau of jazz maturity with Into the Blue, his ninth album and his first for Nonesuch.

Joe Krown, who held the keyboard chair with Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and Gate’s Express from 1992 until Gatemouth’s passing in the fall of 2005, is featured on the chart-topping albums The Man, Gate Swings, American Music, Texas Style and Back to Bogalusa. Krown is also featured with Gatemouth’s band on Carlos Santana’s Carlos Santana Presents Blues at Montreux 2004. Krown has been a headline performer at WWOZ’s Piano Night during the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival every year since 1997. In the late ‘90s, he held the Traditional Piano Night slot at the famed Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans and followed that strong tradition with his debut solo release Just the Piano . . . Just the Blues (1998). His New Orleans Piano Rolls was released in 2003. The Joe Krown Trio’s 2008 album Live at the Maple Leaf has garnered rave reviews.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. Lehman Center also receives support from the New York State Council on the Arts.