Stanton Moore - With You in Mind (2017)

Stanton Moore New Album: With You In Mind:

The Songs of Allen Toussaint

Released: 21st July 2017

Cool Green Recordings / Mascot Label Group

Featuring: Jolynda Kiki Chapman, Cyril Neville, Nicholas Payton, Donald Harrison, Trombone Shorty, Maceo Parker, Nicholas Payton and Wendell Pierce.

“In the beginning was the beat. And the beat was strong . . .”   

Allen Toussaint

Besides his solo projects, studio and TV work, and teaching,  Stanton Moore  the drummer of Galactic, the funky New Orleans conglomeration now in its third decade of touring, and he still finds time to record and travel as a trio with David “Tork” Torkanowsky (keys) and James Singleton (bass).Besides his solo projects, studio and TV work, and teaching, he’s    Like Moore, Tork and Singleton are in high demand, so it takes some lead time to clear everybody’s schedule. The trio had a new record ready, they thought. But then, “a couple of days before we were supposed to start recording,” says Moore, “Allen Toussaint passed.”

Toussaint’s sudden death on November 10, 2015 (in Madrid, far from home, of a heart attack, after playing a concert) shocked the city. The polymath New Orleans producer, songwriter, arranger, bandleader, pianist, singer, and all-around figure of elegance had been a vital, active presence in New Orleans since the 1950s.

The three musicians immediately shelved their planned album and went into creative hyperdrive. “We already had studio time booked, we couldn’t wait,” Moore recalls. “It’s not like we wrote out all these arrangements ahead of time. We were flying by the seat of our pants.”

As they began working up pieces of Toussaint’s vast repertoire, it quickly became a vocal album with guest singers. “As Tork likes to say,” Moore comments, “being a musician in New Orleans is like having the greatest musical toolbox at your disposal.” Supplementing their trio with some of New Orleans’s living legends – their friends — they re-imagined Toussaint’s songs, conceptualizing and building out an album on the fly.

The idea of guest on particular tracks was the obvious musical path to travel after Torkanowsky invited the first guest vocalist, Jolynda Kiki Chapman, best known in New Orleans for singing with her mother, Topsy Chapman.  The collaboration with a variety of artists created an album that captures teh spirit of New Orleans and the magic of Toussaint’s work.

With You in Mind: The Songs of Allen Toussaint is built on the livest grooves the trio could deliver. It was a bittersweet project for all concerned, celebrating the memory of someone whose living presence was so important. “I didn’t get to work with Allen as often as I’d have liked to,” Moore says, “but I did get to.” Their friendship went back twenty years. “Through the years we crossed paths a few times. The first time he played with us was also the first time we played the Saenger Theater,” referring to the 2,600-seat New Orleans landmark.

“Allen Toussaint wrote the soundtrack to New Orleans,” says Moore. He came out of an environment that no longer exists.

The level of talent and ability and artistry that he embodied – we won’t see this again.”

Here Comes The Girls (feat. Cyril Neville & Trombone Shorty)

Life (feat. Cyril Neville, Nicholas Payton & Skerik)

Java (feat. Nicholas Payton, Donald Harrison & Trombone Shorty)

All These Things (feat. Jolyanda Kiki Chapman)

Night People (feat. Maceo Parker)

The Beat (feat. Cyril Neville)

Riverboat (feat. Nicholas Payton, Donald Harrison)

Everything I Do Gone Be Funky (feat. Maceo Parker)

With You In Mind

Southern Nights (feat. Nicholas Payton & Wendell Pierce)