Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Bright Eyes

The years since Hurricane Katrina drove him from his hometown have been fertile, creatively speaking, for New Orleans icon Allen Toussaint. Since the levees broke, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee has produced some of the finest and most emotionally gripping music of his storied 50-plus-year career. His latest album, the Grammy-nominated The Bright Mississippi, the virtuosic pianist is an elegant exposition of jazz and blues classics from the likes of Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt and Duke Ellington, and cements Toussaint’s legacy as an incalculably important figure in American music. Saturday, June 5, he appears with legendary clarinetist Don Byron at the Flynn MainStage as a headlining performer at the 2010 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival.