Mervin Toussaint — musician, educator, and arts administrator extraordinaire — joins Talie for the first Table Sessions of the 2023-24 season on November 16 and 17. As we get ready for these Sessions, Mervin spoke with IJ’s executive director, and shared a little more about his process of creation, his music, and his hopes for the upcoming Sessions. Read on for more about Mervin, and don’t forget to get your tickets for the November event!
Tell me about yourself.
I'm an artist — and we tend to wear a million hats! I work as an arts administrator and teacher, and I'm a performer, composer, and arranger. The throughline I see through all of those things is impact: How can I impact my students? The constituents that I serve as an administrator? How can I impact the people who come to listen to me play? How can I help the musicians around me? How can I help my community? It's the driving force behind my career and my music.
How would you describe your music?
I'm Haitian, and I was always surrounded by music growing up - my mom sang hymns around the house, but I found everything full of music. When she would crush garlic in the mortar and pestle, the rhythm was so clear. That finds its way into my music, and I always wonder: How can I leave someone with a little piece of myself? It creates a feedback loop — you experience the world, create art that's a synthesized response to the world, and then you share that back out. It's hard to create something actually new, but if you think of the word, "originality," you start with "origin," or, where does this come from? The biggest thing we can add to music is ourselves. While these things may have been done before, it's never been done in the way that I create.
My music needs to feel like me and needs to feel alive with drama and dynamics and vibrancy. Humans are dynamic beings, changing from moment to moment, and I want my music to feel empathetic. My Haitian roots show up in my music in rhythms and shapes, as does jazz, a genre I'm deeply in love with, hip hop and Black musical genres. This wide variety of influences and styles meld together, and it gives the people I'm playing with a chance to add themselves into the music, too.
Who's your musical hero?
All of my musical heroes have an obsessive commitment to being themselves and making their voice come out. There are the greats, like John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, and my mentor, Haitian American saxophonist Godwin Louis. But I'm also inspired by the people I make music with on a regular basis — including Talie, who's one of my musical heroes.
What's your hope for this Table Session with Talie?
I want people to leave with something special. You know that feeling, on certain Sundays at church, when there's a particularly good service, or the music was really great, and you leave with a feeling of contentment — an "Ahhhhh, I needed this today." I want people to feel nourished at the end of the night, filled with energy and the ability to tackle whatever's next.
Don’t miss Mervin on November 16 and 17 for The Table Sessions, held in Southwest Philadelphia at Bartrams Garden.