TOOTS THIELEMANS

Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans (born Brussels, 29 April 1922), known as Toots Thielemans, is a Belgian jazz musician well known for his guitar and harmonica playing as well as his highly accomplished professional whistling.

Perhaps best known for his 1962 hit single "Bluesette," he is often cited by jazz aficionados and critics as the greatest jazz harmonica player.

Career

Thielemans started his career as a guitar player. In 1949 he joined a jam session in Paris with Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Max Roach and others. In 1951 he went on tour with Bobbejaan Schoepen.

He moved to the US in 1952 where he was a member of Charlie Parker's All-Stars. He played and recorded with names like Ella Fitzgerald, The George Shearing Quintet, Quincy Jones, Bill Evans, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Astrud Gilberto, Shirley Horn, Elis Regina and others.

A jazz standard by Toots Thielemans is "Bluesette" where he used whistling and guitar in unison. Bluesette became a major 1962 worldwide hit for him and this still much beloved and requested piece has been re-recorded by him and commercially released on records/CDs many times over both in various studio versions and live on-stage performances performed in several different countries. His trademark harmonica playing can also be heard in movie scores such as Breakfast at Tiffany's (where his plaintive "Moon River" solo in the opening scene brilliantly establishes the film's mood of romance noir), Midnight Cowboy, Bagdad Café, The Getaway, French Kiss, and in various TV programs like Sesame Street, the Belgian TV series Witse and the Dutch TV series Baantjer. His professional whistling and harmonica playing can be heard on Old Spice radio and TV commercials that have been made over the years. In 1983 he contributed to Billy Joel's album An Innocent Man, and his trademark harmonica can be heard on "Leave a Tender Moment Alone." A year later, he appeared on the Julian Lennon song "Too Late For Goodbyes" from the album Valotte. Both Valotte and An Innocent Man were produced by Phil Ramone.

In the 90s Thielemans embarked on theme projects that included world music. In 1998 he released a French flavoured album titled "Chez Toots" that included the Les Moulins De Mon Coeur (The Windmills of My Heart) featuring guest singer Johnny Mathis. This CD continues to sell well.

Apart from his popularity as an accomplished musician, he is well liked for his modesty and kind demeanor. In his native Belgium, he is also popular for describing himself as a Brussels "ket", which means "street kid" in old Brussels slang. He received a joint honorary doctorate from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and in 2001 Thielemans was ennobled a baron by King Albert II of Belgium.

In 2005 he was nominated for the title of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian). In the Flemish version he ended 20th place, in the Walloon version he ended 44th place.

in October 2008, he was honored with the 2009 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship.

Influence

Thielemans may have had a significant impact on The Beatles, (John Lennon in particular), during the group's pre-fame formative years [1] [2] [3]. When performing in a 1959 Hamburg Germany with the pre-fame Beatles, John Lennon (sometimes with fellow Beatle George Harrison in tow) would often go over to the club where Toots was performing (at a noontime venue) as a member of The George Shearing Quintet. Lennon evidently was taken with Toot's harmonica playing and also for the guitar Toots was playing, an electric American made Rickenbacker with a short scale neck. Based on the sound Lennon heard, he decided to purchase a natural alder wood "alderglo" colored three pickup Rickenbacker 1958 model 325 Capri guitar with a short scale as former Beatle and friend, George Harrison would recall to various interviewers many years later. (This iconic famous guitar often fondly referred to as the "Holy Grail" of all guitars, which was customized and tinkered with many times over the years by Lennon including being re-painted to jetglo black in September 1962, is the very same guitar that he played on The Beatles first and third appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show during February 1964).

---------------

Toots' bio

Born : Brussels, Belgium 1922 Immigrated : USA 1952
Played accordion at age 3
Started playing harmonica as a hobby
First guitar won on a bet
"Hooked" on Jazz during German occupation
First idol : Django Reinhardt
Early influence : Charlie Parker
Nicknamed "Toots" after musicians Toots Mondello and Toots Camarata
First international break through : Joining Benny Goodman on European concert tour in 1950
Early US jobs : member of Charlie Parker's All Stars in Philadelphia; George Shearing Quintet; ...
Composed "Bluesette", 1962
Originated new sound : Whistling and guitar in unison
Whistler for commercials : Best known "Old Spice"
Harmonica soloist for film scores: Midnight Cowboy, The Getaway, Sugarland Express, Cinderella Liberty, Turks Fruit, Jean de Florette , ...
Concerts and recordings with names like George Shearing, Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, Bill Evans, Jaco Pastorius, Natalie Cole, Pat Metheny, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, ...
Harmonica Soloist - TV : Sesame Street
Perennial winner of Down Beat readers and critics poll "miscellaneous instruments"
Favorite compliment (from the late Clifford Brown) : "Toots, the way you play the harmonica they should not call it a miscellaneous instrument"
"I can say without hesitation that Toots is one of the greatest musicians of our time. On his instrument he ranks with the best that jazz has ever produced. he goes for the heart and makes you cry. We have worked together more times than I can count and he always keeps me coming back for more ..."
from Quincy Jones' liner notes
Q's Jook Joint, 1995

Source: http://www.tootsthielemans.com/biography/biography.html

---------------

Although preceded by Larry Adler (who has actually spent much of his career playing popular and classical music), Toots Thielemans virtually introduced the chromatic harmonica as a jazz instrument. In fact, ever since the mid-'50s, he has had no close competitors. Toots simply plays the harmonica with the dexterity of a saxophonist and has even successfully traded off with the likes of Oscar Peterson.

Toots Thielemans' first instrument was the accordion, which he started when he was three. Although he started playing the harmonica when he was 17, Thielemans' original reputation was made as a guitarist who was influenced by Django Reinhardt. Very much open to bop, Thielemans played in American GI clubs in Europe, visited the U.S. for the first time in 1947, and shared the bandstand with Charlie Parker at the Paris Jazz Festival of 1949. He toured Europe as a guitarist with the Benny Goodman Sextet in 1950, and the following year moved to the U.S. During 1953-1959, Toots was a member of the George Shearing quintet (mostly as a guitarist) and has freelanced ever since. He first recorded his big hit "Bluesette" (which featured his expert whistling and guitar) in 1961, and ever since has been greatly in demand (particularly for his harmonica and his whistling) on pop records (including many dates with Quincy Jones) and as a jazz soloist. Toots' two-volume Brasil Project was popular in the 1990s and found him smoothly interacting on harmonica with top Brazilian musicians. 

Source: Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

---------------

Belgium's most renowned musical artist. Although more important for the jazz-world (a topic which isn't covered in the pop-archives), he has made an impact on pop & rock music as well.

Toots Thielemans was born in Brussels in 1922. As a child he listened to the music of Django Reinhardt & His Hot Club De France & Charlie Parker. He learned to play accordion, harmonica and electrical guitar (but never has learned to read musical notation).

As he tells himself in an interview with Studio Brussel (you can listen to it here. Note : this was the very first interview broadcasted on this radio station, back in 1983.) he recalls his youth in Brussels:

"I was born in 1922, on the 29th of April, on the Hoogstraat in Brussels. My mother was born in Antwerp, and the Thielemans-family lived at the Zavel (Sablon), the old part of Brussels. At that time I wasn't Toots, I was "Jeanke".

My parents had a pub, a staminee, and each Sunday there was an accordionist. They have told me that when I was in my cradle, I already was imitating the gestures of the musician. One of the clients said "that kid wants to play accordion". My father has bought me a little cardboard accordion, and when I was three I got this little machine. (plays a little bit, accompanied by the barking of his little dog called Duke Yorkshire Ellington Thielemans).

I'm a self-made man : I don't went to an academy or a school. I didn't have the strongest of health, and musician "that isn't a real job", as it was said then. I once was told that a professor of the academy had heard there was perhaps a new Mozart living on the Hoogstraat. He also came listening, but my parent have told him "no, no, let Jeanke play, he's alright here".  

In the early '50s Thielemans toured Europe with an all-star band under the leadership of Benny Goodman and shortly thereafter he decided to leave Belgium and try his luck in America (he acquired the American Nationality in 1952). Once in the 'promised land' he was discovered by the pianist George Shearing, who invited him to join his quintet in 1953. After six successful years with Shearing, Thielemans went on to found a couple of swing and bebop quartets under his own name and in 1961 he first recorded his well-known composition 'Bluesette', now a musical "evergreen". He always jokingly refers to this song as "his pension fund".

In addition he set out on a busy career as a freelance musician, working with major stars of jazz like Quincy Jones, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson. Thielemans's harmonica sounds are also featured on the soundtracks of famous movies like 'Midnight Cowboy' (1969), 'The Getaway' (1972), 'Sugarland Express' (1974) and ... the theme tune to the children's show Sesame Street (as well as less famous movies, eg. Zware Jongens with Gaston & Leo). He also ventured out into the pop-world with sessions for the numerous musicians like Billy Joel, Paul Simon ....

In 1981, Toots suffered from a major stroke that left part of his body with little feeling. Today he has pretty much recovered from the stroke and admits that while he may not be able to play as many notes as he used to, he can still "play the good ones". 

For several decades now Thielemans's melancholic sounds have made an emotional impact on audiences the world over. 

In 1998, Toots releases a new CD called "Chez Toots", recorded in the French capital Paris, "a jazztronomical menu of Toots' recollections of French classical songs from Edith Piaf to Eric Satie". With his friends, like the Belgian guitarist Philip Cathérine, the French accordionist Marcel Azzola, and guest-vocalists like Diana Krall, Chip, Dianne Reeves, Johnny Mathis and Shirley Horn.

In a review of the album by Het Nieuwsblad, it goes "76 he has become, and as a musician he's still going strong. Going for the one sensitive note instead of the former 2 or 3, but the expression, the way that that note is played, is still gaining in intensity. His eyes smile when he swings "La vie en rose", tears flow when he plays "Ne me quittes pas" (of Jacques Brel). "Chez Toots" is an honest, emotional album that will please the wide audience he has gained over the years. This is world music from Belgium, a fusion of jazz, chanson, musette and even classical music. In short, the Ket feels good".

As a reviewer said at the time of "Live Takes volume 1", everybody thinks about Toots : "We have heard many of Thielemans' licks and phrases before. We eagerly approach each of his recordings with a sense of knowing. And yet, his mastery of the instrument and his instinctive knowledge of a tune's depth of meaning continue infinitely to please the listener in much the same way that Lester Young did. Such familiarity breed contentment. In other words, it seems impossible to tire of Thielemans' playing."

In 2001, Toots was again honoured on a number of occasions, after his "bluesette" already had been introduced in the "eregallerij van het Vlaamse lied" by Radio 2, aside Will Tura, Rocco Granata, La Esterella en Bobbejaan Schoepen. Thus, he could open the Belgian presidency of the E.U. during the Chapeau Europe party on the Grand Place in Brussels. And a bit later, as the first Belgian artist in the "popular" genre, he received the title of Baron (together with Will Tura and Salvatore Adamo, who were both knighted). In Holland, he receive a unique Edison for his entire career at the North Sea jazzfestival in The Hague. On the release-front, he came up with CD "Toots Thielemans & Kenny Werner", his first songs on disc with this pianist although they had been cooperating and performign for years. On the live-front, a high point was certainly the live-show at Jazz-Middelheim with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra.

---------------

Even if you do not know him, you already heard him and most probably liked his music...

This highly talented Belgian Jazz harmonica player is the best present musician for this instrument. He of course have a top reputation as a Jazzman, but he is ready for all kind of good musics... that he will bettered. The haunting theme in the film Midnight Cowboy: Toots... Backgrounds in Sugerland Express: Toots. He backed up very popular pop stars in some sessions: Billy Joel, Paul Simon and many others.

So definitively: you already heard him play! Credits to his name was not always present, due to contracts exclusively. But Toots does not care: he likes good music, Jazz or not.

A Great Jazzman...

After WWII the young Jean Thielemans, born in 1922 and living in Brussels, was very quickly interested by Jazz music. As a boy he learned accordion, but was attracted by the guitar after hearing some Jazz of the period, mainly from Django Reinhardt. He also started fiddling with a harmonica...

In the early fifties, after a few years of practicing jazz in Belgium he left for the USA where the whole action was. His talent and his willingness to improve made him selected by George Shearing (a huge Jazz star in these days) as the guitarist for his famous quintet. 

At the same time, Toots developped his original harmonica style and techniques. The style of Thielemans had evolved and was under bop and post bop influences, making him fit for a lot of small studio orchestras ot these days, in New York or elsewhere the Modern Jazz musicians were calling for him.

It was with his harmonica that he built his real personal style, rich in harmonic inventions and daring improvisations. His technique as a harmonica player is unrivaled and he was able to develop the be-bop style for the instrument and even making it evolve to the limits reached by the Modern Jazz inventions of the sixties.

"Man Bites Harmonica" - 1958- with top players like Pepper Adams and Kenny Drew - Riverside- CD Re-issue ...>>>>

He had also a very particular talent: whistling Jazz! He used it discretely but with a real impact in melodies or rythmic improvisations... When Jazz was forgotten by the producers (mid sixties, seventies) Toots used his huge talent to make a lot of film musics, commercials or studio work for pop stars in the USA. He was out of his natural league: Jazz, but he was always an honest musician refusing to go to musical vulgarities or easy make-believe... In parallel he came back more often in Europe were he could, as many other Jazzmen, continue to play his original Jazz music.

An Honest Musician...

He composed in 1961 a very simple tune with a waltz tempo, that he played in a Jazzy interpretation: Bluesette- this piece was more directed to the general public. It became a hit and he revisits this theme often now with a more straight Jazz treatment. However it certainly allowed him to survive in these difficult periods for Jazz; as Toots presents this tune now: "...my Social Security number!"

(Remember Bluesette? You can check out a new version of for this tune in one of his latest albums on Timeless label, with the guitarist Philip Catherine)
Toots Thielemans succeeded something difficult for Jazz musicians: being known by the general public and still practicing high-class Jazz receiving the high appreciation of his peers and connoisseurs. Toots is regularly nominated first of his category in the referendums of the famous Down Beat Jazz Magazine in the USA by critics and public. 

A Great Performer...

As many good Jazz players, Toots shines on stage. He likes his public and the public likes him! This relationship can be often felt in concerts he gives in Belgium or elswhere in Europe, where he appears more often since the mid of the seventies.

I remember his undisguised emotion when he played in the historical center of Brussels, his hometown, that was celebrating its thousand years of existence in 1979. The city was organizing a string of free public Jazz concerts in the open places of downtown. Toots was one of the invited stars, as Ella Fitzgerald and other great names. He briefly recalled what made him tick for Jazz when he was young in Brussels and all the love he always had for his country of origin. This day his music, always sensitive, was particularly loaded with intense feelings and the public responded accordingly!! A great reunion Concert between Toots and his hometown...

Or in more casual concerts in smaller places where he keeps the public breathless to the end, improvising on any small phrase he picked from a tune ... or like in this live recording made in Belgium in 1986 with his American combo: Do Not Leave Me (Milan records-CD): on one of his rendition of Bluesette the public is whistling the tune for him!!! An amazing moment, available on disc...

Source: http://www.geocities.com/Paris/cafe/2877/jazz/thielem/thielem.html

---------------

Partial discography

Major works include:

Only Trust Your Heart (1988)
Footprints (1991, Universal)
The Brasil Project (1992, BMG)
The Brasil Project vol 2. (1993, BMG)
Compact Jazz (1993, Verve)
East Coast, West Coast (1994, Private Music)
Aquarela do Brasil (1995, Universal)
Chez Toots (1998, Windham Hill)
The Live Takes, volume 1 (2000, Quetzal records)
Hard to Say Goodbye, the very best of Toots Thielemans (2000, Universal)
Toots Thielemans & Kenny Werner (2001, Universal)
One More For The Road (2006, Verve)

He also composed the music for the Swedish film Dunderklumpen in which he also voiced the animated character Pellegnillot.