| The Bright Mississippi | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 21, 2009 | |||
| Recorded | March 19–22, 2008 | |||
| Genre | Blues, R&B, jazz | |||
| Length | 1:01:27 | |||
| Label | Nonesuch | |||
| Producer | Joe Henry | |||
| Allen Toussaint chronology | ||||
| ||||
The Bright Mississippi is an album by the New Orleans Jazz and R&B pianist Allen Toussaint, released on Nonesuch Records in 2009. [1] The album reached No. 8 on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart. [2]
The album was produced by Joe Henry and features various guest artists, including Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman and Nicholas Payton. The album title is taken from the 1963 Thelonious Monk song of the same name and features a new version of the song. The album is a unique juxtaposition of modern and traditional jazz tunes with stylistic cues drawn from both worlds. In an interview shortly after it was released, Nick Spitzer noted that "there's a parade beat to it, a bit of a strut and shuffle. Are you merging the worlds of Monk and Toussaint?” “Well, there's no way around that,” Toussaint replied. [3]
Though mostly known for R&B, this is Toussaint's second jazz album. The first was Allen Toussaint's Jazzity Project: Going Places, released online through cdbaby in 2004.
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 83 [4] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [5] |
| The Boston Globe | (favourable) [6] |
| Robert Christgau | A- [7] |
| The New York Times | (favourable) [8] |
| The Observer | (favourable) [9] |
| Paste | 8.9/10 [10] |
| PopMatters | (favourable) [11] |
Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it a very favorable review on AllMusic, writing that it "stands alone among Toussaint albums". [5]
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