Allen Toussaint was in Las Vegas this past weekend performing at the city's free Jazz in the Park series and performs a week's residency at New York's Village Vanguard next week, joined by most of the musicians off his recently released solo Nonesuch debut, The Bright Mississippi. "Allen Toussaint's new album couldn't sound more like New Orleans," says the Boston Globe. The pianist "revisits jazz classics ... and takes them for a stroll through Preservation Hall, imbuing his own funky brand of pop-song charisma." Throughout, "Toussaint's musical soul guides all, making the classics sound like his own." The St. Petersburg Times gives it an A; the Lexington Herald Leader calls it "sublime."

Allen Toussaint, fresh off the heels of his New Orleans JazzFest performances, is set to play a free outdoor performance in Las Vegas Saturday night. The New York Daily News writes of his solo Nonesuch debut, The Bright Mississippi: "It's a marvel on every level ... The feel for New Orleans music offered on the CD defies every garish cliché of the region, epitomizing instead a subtlety and dignity that have marked Toussaint's music from the start." All About Jazz calls it "a rich and multi-layered CD ... Toussaint, with producer Joe Henry, has crafted a sound that is modern yet traditional, jazzy yet funky, soulful yet pristine and completely elegant." The Ottawa Citizen gives it four stars, exclaiming: "It's a killer."

Allen Toussaint helped close the 40th anniversary New Orleans JazzFest "on an upbeat note" yesterday, says USA Today. NPR's Fresh Air says that "Toussaint sounds as eternal as New Orleans" on his recent Nonesuch release, The Bright Mississippi. "Whether he's reworking Ellington, Bechet or Reinhardt, Toussaint infuses the numbers with his own elegant funk, particularly evident in his piano work, never so varied and flowing." The Observer says the pianist and his band "dip into the New Orleans fountain of jazz youth" on the album, and "Toussaint's own piano rolls along as ornately and authentically as ever.

Allen Toussaint is back home in New Orleans and, as one would expect from the artist featured on the official JazzFest poster, playing a number of festival events, following the release of his new album, The Bright Mississippi. "You’re going to love this," says the Buffalo News of the new album in its four-star review. "Not to be missed." The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette gives the album an A, exclaiming, "Emotional, toetapping and richly spacious, this is one very cool album." Blurt says, "New Orleans could hardly ask for a better tribute."

The Times (UK) gives four stars to Allen Toussaint's recent Nonesuch solo debut, The Bright Mississippi, which the paper calls "a relaxed, confident homage" to New Orleans jazz, concluding that "albums such as this serve to remind us how much pop across the Western world owes to the hurricane-menaced old place." The New York Observer calls it "immaculate," with Toussaint and his band "calm, swampy, smoky, rakish and velveteen: Clarinetist Don Byron sounds like bourbon, and Marc Ribot’s guitar on 'West End Blues' will make anyone who loves his playing on Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs weep with happiness."

The Bright Mississippi, Allen Toussaint's Nonesuch solo debut, hit stores yesterday. Time Out New York says that Toussaint's "natural balance between silken refinement and syncopated pizzazz is matched by the sass and subtlety of his sidemen," exemplified on the closing duet with guitarist Marc Ribot, "swoonworthy enough in its boudoir charms to spark a new baby boom." Jazzwise gives the album four stars, describing the pianist as "soused in that full, sumptuous verve and affection that is New Orleans at its good times rolling best." Pop Dose calls it "a gorgeous record to listen to ... We get why Allen Toussaint is a cultural treasure and a purely American phenomenon."

Allen Toussaint Nonesuch solo debut, The Bright Mississippi, is out today. The Washington Post calls it an "exquisite new set of Crescent City-associated jazz" that reveals Toussaint's "great flair and imagination as an interpreter and performer." The Philadelphia Daily News rates it an A-, and Audiophile Audition gives four stars to "one of the finest releases of Toussaint's extensive, storied discography ... Highlights are many." Creative Loafing gives it a perfect five stars, describing it as "nothing short of a revelation, an album ... that both honors and reinvents a number of songs associated with early New Orleans blues and jazz."

Allen Toussaint's Nonesuch solo debut album, The Bright Mississippi is set for release tomorrow. "Mr. Toussaint brings to these songs his own elegant, reserved sensibility," says the New York Times. "He doesn’t rip them apart or interrogate them on the harmonic or rhythmic terms with which they’ve usually been met; he shines them up and levels them out into slow-rolling and grandiloquent New Orleans songs, full of tremolo chords and serenity no matter whether they were written by Duke Ellington or Thelonious Monk or Django Reinhardt." The Chicago Tribune gives four stars to the "top-notch" new album; The Independent gives it four stars too and describes Toussaint as "the jewel in New Orleans's crown," citing one track as "a bravura performance that bears out Van Dyke Parks's estimation of Toussaint as 'the greatest piano player alive.'"

Allen Toussaint's Nonesuch solo debut, The Bright Mississippi, is set for release on Tuesday, April 21. You can catch a glimpse of the songs, songwriters, and guest artists on the album and take a look behind-the-scenes with Toussaint at piano and producer Joe Henry at the boards in a short video on nonesuch.com/media. The Detroit Free Press gives the album four stars. Rolling Stone says it's "pure Toussaint, emotionally and structurally expansive, yet as keenly done as one of Toussaint's perfectly knotted ties." Dusted magazine says, "It’s quite simply one of the best albums we’ll hear in 2009."

"Composer, pianist and living legend Allen Toussaint has helped shape the sound of R&B, soul and funk while infusing a little bit of New Orleans into it," says KCRW in naming as yesterday's Top Tune the Thelonius Monk–penned title track of Toussaint's forthcoming Nonesuch solo debut, The Bright Mississippi. Toussaint will perform during both weeks of the 40th anniversary New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which runs April 24–30 and May 1–3. Given his prominent place in the festival and the city's musical history, it's no surprise that Toussaint has made his way onto the official JazzFest 2009 poster, by artist James Michalopoulos.

Allen Toussaint, fresh off his celebratory weekend at the Grammys, during which he was awarded the Trustees Award and performed on the live CBS telecast, is in the New York City studios of WNYC to talk with Soundcheck this afternoon about his forthcoming Nonesuch debut, The Bright Mississippi, and perform songs from the album. It is Toussaint's first solo record in more than a decade. Fans in New York City this weekend can also catch Toussaint perform live at Joe's Pub on Sunday.

Grammy week is under way, which means not only the culminating awards ceremony, which will be held this Sunday night, but also various special events, including a conversation with and performance by Allen Toussaint tonight at the Grammy Museum, and an invitation-only ceremony honoring Toussaint and Elliott Carter with the Trustees Award Saturday night. Toussaint will also perform on the live broadcast of Sunday's awards ceremony with an eclectic group of fellow New Orleans artists. Nonesuch artists and albums have been nominated for a total of 13 Grammys this year.