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Two Saints: Allen Toussaint & the French Quarter
by James Michalopoulos
Buy It Now!!!
No matter how much you know about New Orleans' music, you probably don't know the half of Allen Toussaint's central role in crafting and exporting the New Orleans sound from the 1960's through today.
Songwriter, producer, arranger, session pianist and solo artist—these terms barely convey his reach. Toussaint's work includes songs and productions for such well- known New Orleans stars as Irma Thomas, Lee Dorsey, Ernie K-Doe, The Meters, Dr. John, and most other New Orleans singers. In addition, his nearly 800 songs have been covered by a who's who of rock, R&B and country music: Otis Redding (Pain in My Heart), The Dave Clark Five (I Like It Like That, co-written with Chris Kenner), Boz Scaggs (What Do You Want the Girl To Do?), Glen Campbell (Southern Nights), Robert Palmer (Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley), The Pointer Sisters (Yes We Can Can) and hundreds more by The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Yardbirds, Iron Butterfly, Devo, The Judds and even The Notorious B.I.G.!
As a producer, Toussaint put together albums for Joe Cocker, Etta James, LaBelle, Ramsey Lewis and Elvis Costello, among many others, arranged horns for The Band on Martin Scorcese's film The Last Waltz and for Paul Simon on There Goes Rhymin' Simon and played piano on Wing's Rock Show, which was recorded at his own Sea-Saint Studios. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and received the Recording Academy Trustees Award at the 2009 Grammys.
No one can capture the quiet power of this multidimensional musical icon better than his equal in painting, the prolific and influential James Michalopoulos. Michalopoulos previously laid bare the essence of Dr. John, Louis Armstrong and most recently Fats Domino in his sold-out contributions to the Jazz Festival poster series, and he does so again. Here is a joyous Toussaint in one of Michalopoulos’ signature swirling French Quarter landscapes, with the spire of St. Louis Cathedral behind him. The firm confidence of Toussaint’s hands is juxtaposed with the warm and somewhat reticent gentleness of his visage. In a stunning example of artistic mastery, Michalopoulos creates the illusion of reflective polished ebony in the piano top even as the entire print is rendered in flat silk-screen inks. A timeless paean to an American Master celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the world's greatest musical event by another master and a perfect match in size and composition to Michalopoulos' sold-out 2006 Fats Domino Jazz Fest portrait.
All prints are limited edition numbered silk-screens produced on acid-free archival paper. Artist and Artist-Performer (Remarque) signed prints are produced on 100% cotton rag museum-standard sheets. The C-Marque edition is printed on artist’s canvas and selectively over-painted by Michalopoulos and signed by him and Toussaint. The Remarque edition bears an individual hand drawing by the artist and is signed by the artist and his subject.
Editions:* 10,000 numbered posters, 20” x 36”, $69; 3,000 Artist-signed & numbered prints, 21” x 38”, $239; 750 Remarqued and Double-signed & numbered prints, 22” x 40”, $595; 350 C-Marque, Double-signed and Over-painted numbered canvasses, 26” x 40” (unstretched size), $895.
* Specifications, edition sizes and prices subject to change until date of actual release. Orders received prior to any price increase will be filled at the ordered price. Image shown is original artwork and is subject to minor change when translated by hand into a silk-screen print.
Image TM & © 2009 NOJ&HF, Inc. TM & Text © 2009 ProCreations Publishing Company
Variations on a Treme: A Portrait of Trombone Shorty
by Gilbert Fletcher
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Troy Andrews (a.k.a. Trombone Shorty) has been playing music and leading bands since he was six years old - before he could push the trombone's slide fully out. Yet if you've caught any sets with his band, Orleans Avenue, you know this 22-year-old’s muscular energy is wrapped in a musical surety lacking in people twice his age. New Orleans is a singular environment that nourishes talent beyond anything elsewhere and Andrews has grown huge in this unique atmosphere. Yet even as this horn player (he also plays a wicked trumpet) and singer blows the soul of New Orleans through the doors of hip-hip, rock & roll, pop and funk, he was shocked when tapped to be on this poster. "I thought you only did posters of older folk." Well, yeah, until someone comes along who warps time and leaps to the head of New Orleans' indelible second line.
To fully divine the story that informs Andrews, we called on a seasoned master, New Orleans-born Gilbert Fletcher. This Carver High School graduate earned his B.A. from Dillard University 16 years before Andrews was even born. Best known for his acclaimed portrait series Painted Voices: an Artist's Journey into the World of Black Writers, in which he depicted 28 pivotal African-American writers, Fletcher searches out his subjects' defining attributes. Here, he poses Andrews in front of a New Orleans corner store, which defines the old city of New Orleans in much the same way Troy Andrews defines the new. This deeply felt unified portrait in situ tells us more about the city and its progeny than the most detailed picture of either alone could ever do. And following the lead of its 2007 Congo Square predecessor, the artist has scattered the Jazz Festival Congo Square legend throughout the artwork, obviating the need for add-on type.
Fletcher now lives and works in New York. He has exhibited at the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Museum of Afro-American Art in Boston, the Brooklyn Museum and at the legendary Cinque Gallery, founded by Romare Bearden, Ernest Crichlow and Norman Lewis and named after the African who led a mutiny aboard the Amistad that ultimately forced the U.S. Supreme Court to allow its captives to return to their homeland. His Painted Voices series has toured schools, museums and universities through the nation and abroad.
All prints are limited-edition numbered silk-screens produced on acid-free archival paper. Artist and Artist-Performer double-signed prints are produced on 100% cotton rag museum-standard sheets. Congo Square is part of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. It is a living celebration of the African-Caribbean culture at the root of much of America’s art and music.
Editions:*3,000 numbered posters, $69, 22" x 34"; 1,000 Artist-signed & numbered prints, $239, 23" x 36"; 500 Double-signed (Fletcher & Andrews), remarqued by Fletcher & numbered prints, $329, 24" x 38".
* Specifications, edition sizes and prices subject to change until date of actual release. Orders received prior to any price increase will be filled at the ordered price. Image shown is original artwork and is subject to minor change when translated by hand into a silk-screen print.
Image © 2009 art4now, inc. TM NOJ&HF, Inc. Text TM & © 2009 ProCreations Publishing Company