The final album released during the legendary New Orleans musician’s life, Allen Toussaint’s The Bright Mississippi is like a career compendium, capturing the arc of New Orleans music that happened under Toussaint’s career, from dixie jazz to New Orleans soul, and back through Second Lines and funk. Instead of bringing the fireworks of albums like Nightbirds or any by the Meters, however, The Bright Mississippi is Toussaint filtering his life back through the piano jazz of pioneers like Thelonious Monk in this piano-led album. It’s arguably his masterpiece, a late career triumph that served to remind folks that Toussaint was more than just the man behind the curtain; he was a genius at center stage too. 

The first in a three album arc of Paragon titles celebr...