New Orleans pianist Jon Cleary will pay tribute to Allen Toussaint on his new album, Occapella. In an effort to “have fun” with Toussaint’s songs, Cleary recruited a mix of players for the project, including Dr. John, Bonnie Raitt and his longtime group The Absolute Monster Gentlemen.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a tribute,” Cleary says of Occapella. “The term ‘tribute’ sounds rather corny, really. On the back of the album, I just put, ‘Having fun with the songs of Allen Toussaint,’ which sums up the vibe a bit better. Toussaint’s music was the soundtrack of my adolescence, I’ve played a lot of his songs with the guys who had the original hits with them, and we’ve crossed paths on numerous occasions. So this record was a logical thing for me to do.
“My inclination at first was to pick the most obscure tunes I could find, because I’ve always been a bit of a funk detective,” he continues. “Then one of my managers said, ‘It’s a great idea, but if you’re gonna do this, make sure there are some songs that people recognize.’ So I picked a couple of his better-known tunes, but I tried to take them in a different direction — to take an aspect of the melody or the chord progression, or perhaps his original arrangement, and present it in a different box, as it were.”
Cleary will release Occapella on April 17 through his own label. He will perform at New Orleans’ d.b.a. this Wednesday and Thursday.
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