New Orleans-Style Funeral For Allen Toussaint in Washington Square Park
(DNAINFO) Danielle Tcholakian | November 26, 2015 — New Yorkers can experience a New Orleans-style funeral in Washington Square Park this weekend, thanks to a grieving jazz lover who needed to find a community to share his heartbreak over the death of legendary musician Allen Toussaint.
Jeff Grippe, 57, lives in New York but spends a third of the year in New Orleans. The city, and its music in particular, has special meaning for Grippe, and Toussaint was “one of the defining people in New Orleans music,” he said.
“And really in modern popular music as a whole,” Grippe added. “As a writer, arranger, producer — he is just one of the most important influences on modern popular music, and certainly he reflects the New Orleans musical tradition as well.”