‘People-ish’ plurality

“It felt royal,” Toussaint said. “Especially with this president. He’s a hands-on person. You can feel it in his handshake. He didn’t send someone to do it. He was there, body, mind and spirit.”

Wednesday, Toussaint will show why he’s a national treasure as he shares a Wharton Center bill with another New Orleans institution, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

First, Toussaint will play a set of his own hit tunes, giving a seminar in R&B-rock-funk pop-country history going back to 1961. After that, the Preservation Hall band will take the stage for a traditional New Orleans jazz party. For a finale, Toussaint will come back to the piano and everyone will jam at once.

Some jazz can be smug, self-referential and insidy, but Preservation Hall’s raucous concerts are as inclusive and infectious as they come.

“There’s a joy in that music,” Toussaint said. “It’s very honest, very people-ish. It has that foot tapping vibe, but in the slow, mournful tunes, you can feel its foundations and its roots are intact, that it wasn’t meant to be trendy or commercial.”

In the past 50 years, Toussaint has worked with dozens of artists in dozens of musical styles, from the Kennedyera crooning of R&B singer Ernie K-Doe (look him up) to the earnest vibrato of Elvis Costello.

“I’m inspired by whoever I’m with at the time,” Toussaint said. “I feel like a sort of chameleon. I like it that way.”

Even if you think you don’t know Toussaint’s songs, you probably do.

Many of them seeped into American culture in weird and wonderful ways.

“Working in a Coal Mine,” a monster hit for R&B great Lee Dorsey in 1966, snuck into Martin Scorsese’s film “Casino” and was covered by Devo in 1981. “Mother-in-Law,” the definitive word on the dreaded relation “sent from below,” was a No. 1 hit for K-Doe in 1961. “Certain Girl” was the B-side of the Yardbirds’ debut single in 1964. Toussaint will play them all Wednesday.

“And of course, I don’t leave home without ‘Southern Nights,’” he added.

“Southern Nights” is Toussaint’s signature song from his signature 1975 album. In Toussaint’s LP version, the song is a strange swim in a syrupy swamp, but it was turned into peppy No. 1 hit by Glen Campbell in 1977.

Toussaint revels in his chameleon colors. The artists who commissioned his songs and arrangements pushed him in directions he might not have taken otherwise.

“If it wasn’t for Lee Dorsey, I certainly wouldn’t have written ‘Working in a Coal Mine,’ at least not that way,” Toussaint said.” You certainly wouldn’t write it for Luther Vandross.”

For dessert, expect Toussaint to serve “Java” (trumpeter Al Hirt’s biggest single, from 1964) and “Whipped Cream,” a No. 1 hit for Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, known to many as the theme for TV’s “The Dating Game.”

In recent years, Toussaint has worked with Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and many other pop stars. Toussaint called his 2006 album with Costello, “The River in Reverse,” a “milestone” for him.

“After all of these years of doing what I do, that was a quite a luxury,” Toussaint said. “He is a great songwriter and he has heart, soul, and respect for all musics.”

While pronouncing that last word, Toussaint put a pointed accent on the “s.” He is proud of his plurality and respects it in others.

“That’s who we are as Americans,” he said. “I’m very glad I was open enough to accept it all and take it very seriously with equal respect for all genres.”

At 75, Toussaint is working as hard as ever. He’s got a crowded calendar of gigs, both solo and with other artists, and is writing a lot of new music. He’s now busy recording music he wrote for a play based on Mary Pope Osborne’s children’s book, “A Good Night For Ghosts,” about two kids who go back in time to 1920s New Orleans and meet Louis Armstrong. He’s just finished music for two ballets, including “Waitin’ at the Station,” for celebrated choreographer Twyla Tharp, and has a new album coming out soon.

Clearly, the medals and accolades aren’t weighing him into complacency.

“I’ve never been tricked into that vibe,” he said. “No way. As soon as I get through receiving an award, I’m back to the drawing board. Getting a medal is an intermission.”

Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Allen Toussaint

7:30 p.m. Wed., Oct. 8 Wharton Center Cobb Great Hall $15-45 (517) 353-1982, whartoncenter.com