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Festive Swingadelic

The music festival season starts very soon in Southeastern Michigan. In anticipation, we featured a very festive CD: Toussaintville by Swingadelic on 89.1 Jazz this morning. Swingadelic is 13-piece ensemble from Hoboken, New Jersey led by bassist Dave Post. Swingadelic’s previous CD, The Other Duke in tribute to composer/arranger Duke Pearson was huge WEMU listener and staff favorite. Toussaintville will likely become another treasured recording not only for the bold and bluesy big band sound but for the memorable melodies and cunning lyrics by New Orleans great Allen Toussaint. Toussaintville is Swingadelic’s tribute to the New Orleans musical renaissance man, pianist, singer, composer Allen Toussaint.

Toussaint penned instrumental hits such as Java and Whipped Cream which are included in Toussaintville, but many of his lyrics such as Yes We Can Can have become national anthems. These lyrics are delivered by Swingadelic members John Bauers and Neal Pawley with two special guests, New York soul singer Queen Esther and New Jersey blues legend Rob Paparozzi. We dare you to resist singing along to Night People, Southern Nights, Fairchild and On Your Way Down. As the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival gets under-way and the final festivities of Jazz Appreciation Month and Public Radio Music Month wrap up, Toussaintville by Swingadelic is great flag-waving CD.

Linda Yohn simply cannot remember a day in her life that was not filled with music. Her early life was full of changes as the daughter of a well-respected cancer research scientist who moved his family about, but one thing was constant: the love of music instilled by her mother. So, when it seemed life was too hard to bear, young Linda would listen to her radio, play her guitar, dance her heart out and sing at the top of her lungs. So, it isn’t so strange that “older” Linda still does all those things!