Allen Toussaint and his music live on with Jan. 30 U.S. Postal Service issue

By Scott Tiffney

At a Jan. 30 first-day ceremony in New Orleans, La., the United States Postal Service will celebrate the musical career of virtuoso pianist, singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and producer Allen Toussaint (1938–2015) with a nondenominated (73¢) forever stamp that will be available in panes of 20. The new stamp is the 48th issue in the Postal Service’s Black Heritage series.

Forever stamps are always valid for the current first-class domestic letter rate for machineable mail weighing 1 ounce or less.

Designed by USPS art director Ethel Kesseler, the forever stamp features a photograph taken of the acclaimed rhythm and blues artist by photographer Bill Tompkins in New York City in 2007, with Toussaint seated at the piano in a black suit against a black background with purplish lighting.

The first-day ceremony for the Toussaint issue will take place on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 11 a.m. Central Time at the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center, 1225 N. Rampart St., in New Orleans.

Present for the event will be Gary Barksdale, chief postal inspector for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Quint Davis, chief executive officer for Festival Productions Inc.

The first-day event for the Allen Toussaint Black Heritage stamp is free and open to the public. Those wishing to attend the ceremony are encouraged to register online with the Postal Service.

There are a number of previous issues in the Black Heritage series that have honored musical performers, most notably composer and pianist Scott Joplin (Scott 2044), bass-baritone singer and actor Paul Robeson (3834), opera singer Marian Anderson (3896), singer-songwriters Hattie McDaniel (3996) and Ella Fitzgerald (4120), and singer and actress Lena Horne (5259).

The Postal Service has also celebrated rhythm and blues in the past with the 1993 Legends of American Music, Rock ‘n’ Roll/Rhythm and Blues series, which commemorated artists Clyde McPhatter (Scott 2726), Otis Redding (2728) and Dinah Washington (2730), all of whom were contemporaries of Toussaint and had worked with him during their careers.

For the Allen Toussaint stamp, the USPS contracted the Banknote Corporation of America to print 30 million stamps in a quantity of 1.5 million panes of 20.

To read the complete story about the new Allen Toussaint stamp, subscribe to Linn’s Stamp News.

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