A few years back, Allen Toussaint sat for a wide-ranging, 38-minute-long interview with Larry Appelbaum (a music specialist at the Library of Congress) about "his hit records, life in the recording studios, the New Orleans piano tradition, Professor Longhair, the challenges of songwriting and producing and the impact of Hurricane Katrina".

This is great stuff for fans of New Orleans music. A couple of highlights:

• Toussaint is seated at piano, which enables him, at the 6:15 mark, to demonstrate aspects of Professor Longhair's style.
• Starting at the 13 minute mark, he talks about a milestone in his career: "Dave Bartholomew called me in to play like Fats [Domino] would play... I was taken a bit more seriously then, in fact I took me a bit more seriously then as well.... And one of the highest complements of my life was Fats told me 'Allen, I couldn't tell if that was me or you'."

Note that while the audio quality of the interview is fine, the level is low, so you'll probably have to turn up the volume a bit.

For a transcript and more information, visit the LOC site.