Jazz harmonica master Toots Thielemans dies at 94
Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times
on
Aug 22, 2016
Published in
Entertainment News
Toots Thielemans, a jazz harmonica player, guitarist and whistler whose 1961
composition
"Bluesette" became a jazz standard, has died, the Associated Press reported
Monday.
He was 94.
Belgian broadcaster RTL reported that his manager, Veerle Van de Poel, said that
"there were no complications. He died of old age, his body was simply worn out."
Van de Poel could not be reached immediately for confirmation.
Thielemans was hospitalized last month after a fall, and reportedly died in his
sleep.
Considered the jazz world's only true harmonica master, Thielemans was also
acknowledged
for his fine guitar playing and his unusual technique of whistling in sync with
his
jazz guitar improvisations.
Thielemans' improvisational style, on harmonica or guitar, was melodically
oriented,
avoiding technique for its own sake, always in search of a place he often
described
as somewhere "between a smile and a tear."
"Sometimes I play a pretty ballad, and I almost cry myself," he told The Times
in
1992. "That's my nature. Where do you think the blues, or ballads, the good
songs,
come from? They didn't come out of a belly laugh ... or a military salute."
Guitarist Pat Metheny, who featured Thielemans on his 1992 album, "Secret
Story,"
agreed, describing him as "a true poet of melody."
It was a quality that served him well over the years. In addition to his
numerous
jazz affiliations, Thielemans can be heard on the film soundtracks to "Midnight
Cowboy,"
"Sugarland Express," "French Kiss," the 1972 version of "The Getaway" and
others,
as well as commercials for Firestone, Singer, Old Spice and almost any musical
environment
calling for an atmospheric harmonica.
Unknown to most of the children watching, it is Thielemans' warm sound that is
heard
playing the melody in the "Sesame Street" theme song.
His composition "Bluesette," recorded in Stockholm, has become a jazz classic
despite
its unusual sound and its waltz rhythm.
"If there's a piece of music that describes me, it's that song," Thielemans told
the Associated Press in 1992. "It contains the roots where I was born -- the
musette,
a sort of waltz. There's not a blue note or syncopation in the melody, yet it's
a
blues."
In addition, the original recording features the 3/4 melody played by
Thielemans'
guitar blending in unison with his whistling, an octave higher. The decision to
do
so, he explained to The Times, was completely spontaneous.
"I went into a studio and started to rehearse it on harmonica, but the producer
said,
'Toots, that's a pretty song. Why don't you try to whistle it and play it on
guitar?'"
The record became an international hit, and the unique appeal of Thielemans'
guitar
and whistling sound became in demand on studio dates reaching from film,
television
and commercials to pop artists' recordings.
After lyrics were added by Norman Gimble, "Bluesette" was recorded in more than
100
cover versions -- vocal and instrumental.
Jean-Baptiste Thielemans was born in Brussels on April 29, 1922. By the time he
was
3, he was playing the accordion, eventually performing at his parents' cafe. As
a
teenager, he bought his first chromatic harmonica. The instrument, unlike the
more
familiar blues harmonica, plays all 12 intervals of the chromatic octave. A
self-taught,
natural talent, Thielemans was soon imitating the music he heard on the swing
music
recordings of the 1930s.
Impressed by his playing, his friends began to call him Toots, describing his
given
name as being "too square." The new nickname, which Thielemans eventually
legalized,
was inspired, he said, by Toots Mondello, a saxophonist with the Benny Goodman
Orchestra.
Later, when he was suffering from pneumonia, a friend brought him a get-well
gift
of a guitar. Within months he had begun to master that instrument as well,
strongly
influenced by the playing of the legendary jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.
By his early 20s, Thielemans was a professional working musician, at the
starting
edge of a career that included collaborations with artists from virtually every
musical
genre.
After World War II, he performed with Edith Piaf and Stephane Grappelli in
Brussels,
and he toured Europe in 1950 with an all-star group led by Goodman. Emigrating
to
the U.S. in 1951, he arrived in New York City in the heart of the bebop years. A
year later, he was playing with the Charlie Parker All-Stars, a band that also
included
trumpeter Miles Davis.
Thielemans took American citizenship in 1958, settling in New York while
maintaining
a home in Brussels. For decades, starting in the '60s, his harmonica and his
blend
of guitar and whistling sounds kept him busy in the studios. But he also
maintained
an active recording career, releasing albums from the late '50s well into the
new
century, including such memorable efforts as "Affinity," with the Bill Evans
Trio,
and "The Brasil Project," a two-CD project featuring such Brazilian stars as
Ivan
Lins, Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimento and Gilberto Gil. In more recent years,
he
recorded and performed frequently with pianist Kenny Werner. His remarkable
resume
also includes appearances on albums with Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Quincy Jones,
Ella
Fitzgerald, Jaco Pastorius, Johnny Mathis and others.
"It's fate that I became a musician," Thielemans told Down Beat magazine. "I
studied
math. I was supposed to become an engineer or professor. If it hadn't been for
jazz,
I'd still be in Belgium."
Among his many honors, Thielemans received a National Endowment of the Arts Jazz
Masters Fellowship in 2009. He was appointed a baron by King Albert II of
Belgium
in 2001. And in 2005 he was nominated for the title "The Greatest Belgian," on
the
Belgian television show of the same name.
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