But Toussaint stopped breathing during the ambulance ride to a hospital and efforts to revive him again were unsuccessful, the spokesman told the AP.
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Even though his recorded output slowed in the “80s and ’90s, Toussaint continued to perform, and numbered among the many artists whose work enjoyed a period of rediscovery during the sample-heavy hip-hop era. He wrote, arranged and produced many great records”.
Toussaint may not be as instantly recognizable as other acts to come out of his hometown of New Orleans, but he was easily as important and influential.
Toussaint was known as being humble and always happy to remain behind the scenes to mould and countless number of musicians. Toussaint thought Southern Nights was his most successful album.
“Mother-In-Law”, Ernie K-Doe (1961): Toussaint hit the top of the Hot 100 as the writer and producer of this good-humored Ernie K-Doe single. In 2013 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama at a ceremony in Washington.
“Working In The Coal Mine”, Lee Dorsey (1966): Lee Dorsey scored the first hit with Toussaint’s ode to the working man, taking it to No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Two years after his drafted service in the US Army in 1963, Toussaint returned to New Orleans and embarked on his most successful recording period. In 2009 he was on to talk about a jazz project he was working on, and in 2011 he performed a recent piece that he hadn’t ever recorded – appropriately, entitled “It’s A New Orleans Thing”. In 1973, Toussaint and Sehorn built their own Sea-Saint studio, which attracted local musicians like Dr. John and the Neville Brothers, as well as established stars like Paul McCartney, Paul Simon and Robert Palmer.
In the 1970s, Toussaint teamed with Patti Labelle and produced the album “Nightbirds”, which birthed the No. 1 hit “Lady Marmalade”.
In a career that stretched across 60 years, Toussaint worked with hundreds of artists from across the musical spectrum. As far as the “New Orleans sound” goes I don’t just put it into a record and say, ‘I’ve done my job.’ I have to do much more than that.
Toussaint was on tour across Europe and set to play London’s Barbican this Sunday.
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Funeral arrangements are pending.
