Toots Thielemans

Toots Thielemans
Thielemans in 2006
Background information
Birth name	Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor Thielemans
Born	(1922-04-29)29 April 1922 Brussels, Belgium
Died	22 August 2016(2016-08-22) (aged 94) Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium[1]
Genres	Jazz bebop
Occupation(s)	Musician composer
Instruments	Harmonica guitar puccalo
Years active	1949–2014
Associated acts	Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder,[2] Kenny Werner, Pat Metheny[3]
Website	tootsthielemans.com
Notable instruments
Hohner Toots Thielemans Hard Bopper signature chromatic harmonica Rickenbacker Combo Gibson ES-175 Hohner Toots Thielemans Mellow Tone signature chromatic harmonica

Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans (29 April 1922 – 22 August 2016), known professionally as Toots Thielemans, was a Belgian and American jazz musician. He was known for his harmonica playing, as well as his guitar, whistling skills, and composing. According to jazz historian Ted Gioia, his most important contribution was in "championing the humble harmonica", which Thielemans made into a "legitimate voice in jazz".^[4] He eventually became the "preeminent" jazz harmonica player.^[5]

His first professional performances were with Benny Goodman's band when they toured Europe in 1949 and 1950. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1951, becoming a citizen in 1957. From 1953 to 1959 he played with George Shearing, and then led his own groups on tours in the U.S. and Europe. In 1961 he recorded and performed live one of his own compositions, "Bluesette", which featured him playing guitar and whistling. In the 1970s and 1980s, he continued touring and recording, appearing with musicians such as Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Werner, Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Elis Regina and Paquito D'Rivera.

Among the film soundtracks that Thielemans recorded are The Pawnbroker (1964), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Cinderella Liberty (1973), The Sugarland Express (1974) and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977). His harmonica theme song for the popular Sesame Street TV show was heard for 40 years. He often performed and recorded with Quincy Jones, who once called him "one of the greatest musicians of our time."^[6] In 2009 he was designated a Jazz Master by The National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honor for a jazz musician in the United States.

Early years

Thielemans was born in Brussels, Belgium, on 29 April 1922. His parents owned a cafe.^[6] He began playing music at an early age, using a homemade accordion at age three.^[7] During the German occupation of Belgium beginning in 1940, he became attracted to jazz, but was then playing on full-size accordion or a harmonica, which he taught himself to play in his teens.^[6][8]

After being introduced to the music of Belgian-born jazz guitarist, Django Reinhardt, he became inspired to teach himself guitar, which he did by listening to Reinhardt's recordings.^[7] At the time he was a college student majoring in math.^[9] By the war's end in 1945, he considered himself a full-time musician.^[6] He said in 1950, "Django is still one of my main influences, I think, for lyricism. He can make me cry when I hear him."^[10] During an interview in 1988, he recalled, "I guess I was born at the right time to live and adapt and be touched by the evolution in the jazz language."^[11]

Career

1940s–1950s

In 1949 he joined a jam session in Paris with Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis,^[12] Max Roach and others.^[13] He first heard the faster bebop style of jazz from records by Parker and Dizzy Gillespie after they had reached Belgium after the war. They became his musical "prophets."^[7] As his small collection of jazz records grew, the music of Benny Goodman and Lester Young began to impress him the most.^[10]

During a visit to the U.S. in 1948, an agent of Benny Goodman heard him play at a small New York music club. Not long after he returned to his home in Belgium, he received a letter inviting him to join Goodman's band while they toured in Europe, which he readily accepted and joined their tours in 1949 and 1950.^[7] During the tour, Goodman was "shocked" when he learned that these tours were the first time Thielemans had earned money from his playing.^[10] Although Thielemans was hired on as a guitarist, when Goodman's group debuted at the London Palladium, he played the harmonica due to union restrictions.^[10]

During those years, he also made his first record with fellow band member, tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims. In 1951 he toured with singer-songwriter and compatriot Bobbejaan Schoepen, performing strictly as a guitarist.^[14]

Thielemans moved to the United States in 1952 where he was a member of Charlie Parker's All-Stars and worked with Miles Davis and Dinah Washington.^[7] In 1957 he became a U.S. citizen.^[15] From 1953 to 1959 he played guitar and harmonica with the George Shearing Quintet.^[7] With Shearing, he added whistling to his repertoire.^[7] When on tour with Shearing, while playing in Hamburg in 1960 , he was noticed by a young musician and observer ( John Lennon) that Toots played a Rickenbacker guitar. Lennon was taken, and felt he had to have an American guitar and " if was good enough for Thielemans it was good enough for me." Lennon and the Beatles helped make Rickenbacker world famous.

Inn 1955, Thielmans he recorded his first album as a band leader, "The Sound."^[7] During the 1950s, Thielemans had dominated the "miscellaneous instrument" category in Down Beat magazine's poll.^[10] Jerry Murad, of Jerry Murad's Harmonicats recalls Thielemans' mastery:

Toots played the harmonica in much the same manner that many of the great jazz artists of that time played their respective instruments. No one played harmonica like Toots. I felt like throwing my harmonica away.^[10]

From 1959 on he toured internationally with his small group along with intermittently recording in the studio.^[7] He recorded with singers and musicians including Ella Fitzgerald,^[6] Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Stephane Grappelli, J.J. Johnson, Oscar Peterson, Shirley Horn, Joe Pass, and jazz pianist Bill Evans, among others. Thielemans says that his recording with Evans' trio, Affinity, (1979) was one of his favorites.^[7]

And once ("I'm a singer": The shadows of your smile) with Billy Eckstine. John Lennon bought his first Rickenbacker guitar after seeing Thielemans play it during a 1959 concert.^[16][17]

1960s–1970s

A jazz standard by Toots Thielemans is his own composition, "Bluesette," which he performed on harmonica^[18] or while playing the guitar and whistling in unison.^[7][19] He said, "If there's a piece of music that describes me, it's that song."^[7] First recorded by him in 1962, with lyrics added by Norman Gimbel, the song became a major worldwide hit.^[6] It has since been covered by over one hundred artists.^[10]

He worked both as a bandleader and as a sideman, including many projects with composer/arranger Quincy Jones.^[20] In the 1960s he performed on television with Peggy Lee.^[21] In 1969 he recorded "Honeysuckle Rose Aquarela Do Brasil" with singer Elis Regina and performed with her on Swedish television special.^[22]

During his career he performed on many film soundtracks, such as The Pawnbroker (1964),^[7] Midnight Cowboy (1969),^[7][23] The Getaway (1972), Turkish Delight (1973), Cinderella Liberty (1973), The Sugarland Express (1974),^[7] The Yakuza (1974), Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977),^[24] The Wiz (1978), Jean de Florette (1986), and French Kiss (1995). His theme to the popular Sesame Street television show was heard for 40 years.^[7][25]

His music was heard on the Belgian television series Witse, and in the Netherlands, for the Baantjer program. He composed the music for the 1974 Swedish film Dunderklumpen!, in which he also provided the voice of the animated character Pellegnillot. His whistling and harmonica playing was heard on Old Spice commercials in the 1960s.^[7] He played harmonica on "Night Game" on Paul Simon's 1975 album Still Crazy After All These Years.

1980s and later

During the early 1980s he was a guest a number of times on Late Night with David Letterman.^[26] He has performed with the bassist Jaco Pastorius,^[27] and in 1983 he contributed to Billy Joel's album An Innocent Man, in the song, "Leave A Tender Moment Alone." (The two later collaborated on this selection in concert, and this was recorded on video.) A year later, he appeared on the Julian Lennon song "Too Late for Goodbyes" from the album Valotte.^[28]

In 1984, he recorded with Billy Eckstine on the singer's final album (I Am a Singer), featuring ballads and standards arranged and conducted by Angelo DiPippo. In the 1990s, Thielemans embarked on theme projects that included world music. In 1998 he released a French-flavoured album titled Chez Toots featuring guest singer Johnny Mathis.^[29]

During those years, he often recorded songs as personal tributes to those who were influential during his career. On Chez Toots, for example, he included "Dance For Victor," which he dedicated to his sometimes keyboard accompanist, Victor Feldman.^[30] Similarly, he recorded "Waltz for Sonny"^[31] as a tribute to saxophonist Sonny Rollins.^[32] In June 1998, at Germany's Jazzbaltica, he paid tribute to Frank Sinatra who died a month earlier.^[33] And during the first Caspian Jazz and Blues Festival in Azerbaijan in 2002, he performed his recorded version of "Imagine," his tribute to its writer, John Lennon.^[34]

Thielmans was well liked for his modesty and kind demeanor in his native Belgium, and was known for describing himself as a Brussels "ket," which means "street kid" in old Brussels slang.^[35]

Honors and awards

He received a joint honorary doctorate from the Université libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. In 2001, Thielmans was raised into the Belgian nobility by King Albert II and given the noble title Baron for life, this in recognition of his contribution to music.^[36]

In 2006 Thielemans was honored by an all-star tribute concert for him at Carnegie Hall. Pianist Herbie Hancock and clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera were among the performers.^[6] In 2009, he was given the highest U.S. honor that can be accorded to a jazz musician, the distinction of "Jazz Master," by The National Endowment for the Arts.^[6][37]

Later life

He was nominated for the title of the Greatest Belgian in 2005. In the Flemish version he finished in 20th place, and in the Walloon version he came 44th.^[38] On 23 January 2009, he joined guitarist Philip Catherine on stage at the Liberchies church (Belgium) in memory of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Django Reinhardt. In 2012, the Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts in New York celebrated Thielman's 90th birthday with, among others, Herbie Hancock, Eliane Elias, and Kenny Werner. He performed for the occasion and left the stage standing among his friends.^[39]

Because of health issues that led to show cancellations, Thielemans announced his retirement on 12 March 2014, cancelling all scheduled concerts.^[40] His manager stated that Thielemans "wants to enjoy the rest he deserves."^[41] However, he did make one more stage appearance, unannounced, in August 2014, at the Jazz Middelheim Festival in Antwerp.^[42]

Death

Thielemans died in Braine-l'Alleud (Eigenbrakel), Belgium, at the age of 94.^[6]

After the announcement, the Netherlands-based jazz and pop orchestra Metropole Orkest, along with American trumpet player Quincy Jones, performed at London's Royal Albert Hall in Thielemans' honor.^[43] Another concert was performed at the Brussels' Grand Place.^[43]

Thielemans was buried on the 27th of August in La Hulpe, just outside Brussels. Pianist Kenny Werner read a personal message by U.S. President Barack Obama for his widow, Huguette.^[44][45] It read: "Dear Huguette. I was deeply saddened when I heard about your husband's passing. I hope that shared memories will soften your suffering. Lift faith from the support of friends and family. Know that you will be in my thoughts for the next days. May Toots' music lead you and offer you consolation. I'm sure it will do this for all of us."^{[46][47][48][49]}

Discography

As leader

• The Sound (Columbia, 1955)^[50]
• Time Out for Toots (Decca, 1958)^[51]
• Man Bites Harmonica! (Riverside, 1958)^[52]
• The Soul of Toots Thielemans (1959)^[53]
• The Whistler and His Guitar (1964, ABC-Paramount)^[54]
• Guitar and Strings...and Things (1967, Command)^[55]
• Honeysuckle Rose Aquarela Do Brasil (with Elis Regina, 1969, Fontana, Philips)^[56]
• Only Trust Your Heart (1988, Concord)^[57]
• Footprints (1991, Universal)^[58]
• The Brasil Project (1992, BMG)^[59]
• The Brasil Project Vol. 2 (1993, BMG)^[60]
• Compact Jazz (1993, Verve)^[61]
• East Coast, West Coast (1994, Private Music)
• Apple Dimple (1994, Denon)^[62]
• Chez Toots (1998, Windham Hill)^[63]
• The Live Takes, Vol. 1 (2000, Quetzal)^[64]
• Hard to Say Goodbye: The Very Best of Toots Thielemans (2000, Universal)^[65]
• Toots Thielemans & Kenny Werner (2001, Universal)^[66]
• One More for the Road (2006, Verve)^[67]
• Yesterday and Today (2012, Disques Dreyfus)^[68]
• Live at Le Chapiteau (2013)^[69]

As sideman

With John Denver

• Aerie (1971, RCA)

With Eliane Elias

• Illusions (1986, Denon)
• Bossa Nova Stories (2008, Blue Note)

With Bill Evans

• Affinity (Warner Bros., 1979)

With Dizzy Gillespie

• Digital at Montreux, 1980 (Pablo, 1980)

With Urbie Green

• The Fox (CTI, 1976)

With Billy Joel

• "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" on An Innocent Man (Columbia, 1983)

With Quincy Jones

• "Velas" on The Dude (A&M, 1981)

With Fumio Karashima

• Rencontre (1999, Emarcy/Polydor Japan)

With James Last

• Theme from Der Landarzt (Polydor Germany, 1987)

With Joe Lovano

• Flights of Fancy: Trio Fascination Edition Two (Blue Note, 2001)

With Jaco Pastorius

• Word of Mouth (Warner Bros., 1981)

With Oscar Peterson

• Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival, 1980 (Pablo, 1980)

With Elis Regina

• Honeysuckle Rose Aquarela Do Brasil (1969, Philips)

With George Shearing and Dakota Staton

• In the Night (Capitol, 1958)

With Paul Simon

• "Night Game" on Still Crazy After All These Years (Columbia, 1975)

With Julian Lennon

• "Too Late for Goodbyes" on Valotte (Atlantic/Charisma, 1984)

With Pat Metheny

• Secret Story (Geffen, 1992)

References

External links

• Official website
• Toots Thielemans at AllMusic
• Toots Thielemans at the Internet Movie Database
• Official MySpace page
• NEA Jazz Masters
• Toots Thielemans Interview NAMM Oral History Library (2005)