New Orleans radio station WWOZ FM celebrates Allen Toussaint's birthday

The work of legendary New Orleans pianist/composer/producer Allen Toussaint is celebrated today on WWOZ-FM. 

Here's the scoop...

WWOZ 90.7 FM New Orleans is celebrating Allen Toussaint on what would've been his 88th birthday by digging deep into the archives on Wednesday, January 14! Tune in all afternoon to hear rare and never-before-rebroadcast recordings honoring one of New Orleans’ greatest musical minds.

At 1pm CT, Missy Bowen will kick things off with a rarely-heard performance by Allen and his band at WWOZ's Piano Night concert in 2005.

At 2pm CT, hear an amazing interview from the vaults: in 1986, Allen Toussaint stopped by the radio show of the late Billy Delle, when WWOZ was located in Armstrong Park, for a wide-ranging conversation covering Allen's career up to that point.  This recording was made available to the Archive of the Jazz & Heritage Foundation by AJ Rodrigue and Marlene Delle, and was then digitized courtesy of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.  It has never been aired on WWOZ since that evening in 1986.

At 3pm CT, we'll switch gears with another super-rare recording: Allen Toussaint's Jazzity Project, recorded in the Jazz Tent at Jazz Fest in 2010, which takes us until 4pm and the start of "Jazz from Jax Brewery."

At 5pm CT, hear WWOZ's two-part tribute to Allen Toussaint, which originally aired in 2016 on WWOZ's syndicated program "New Orleans Calling," hosted and produced by George Ingmire. Part One, "Say Yes To Music," begins at 5 pm, and Part Two, "Last Train," begins at 6 pm. 

This tribute features the voices of Irma Thomas, Leo Nocentelli, George Porter Jr, Sarah Dash of LaBelle, Dr. Ike of the Ponderosa Stomp, and Allen himself from archival interviews, plus lots of Allen's music!

These recordings all appear on WWOZ courtesy the Archive of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation.

Tune in and spend the afternoon celebrating the legacy of Allen Toussaint with us! Listen locally at 90.7 FM or from anywhere at wwoz.org. The entire afternoon will also be available after-the-fact on our 2-week archive.

Watch a couple of Allen Toussaint's performances and recordings below including the overlooked gem "Mind Over Matter" from Hamilton's own Richard Newell aka "King Biscuit Boy" written, arranged and produced by Allen Toussaint in 1974.