"‘Jette ce jouet’ — ‘throw that toy away’, get a real instrument"
August 23, 2016 7:56 AM   Subscribe

"Toots" Thielemans died in his sleep in Brussels on Monday, August 22, 2016. He was 94.
"I can say without hesitation that Toots is one of the greatest musicians of our time ... 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...” -- Quincy Jones, from the liner notes to Q's Juke Joint
Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor "Toots" Thielemans, also known as Baron Thielemans of Belgium, survived the Nazi occupation of his native country to launch a career as a jazz guitarist and harmonicist in the 1940s.
"Thielemans bought his first harmonica while he was a teenager in Brussels after watching an American movie in which a prisoner was playing the harmonica while awaiting the electric chair. 'That’s nice,' he remembered thinking, according to a 2011 interview with a Smithsonian jazz project. 'I’m going to buy one.'
Thielemans played with the Shearing Quintet, and went on to perform with a murderer's row of musicians including Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker &c., Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Stevie Wonder, Bill Evans, Quincy Jones, Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Diana Krall, and Paul Simon. He wrote and performed the jazz standard "Bluesette."

He recorded jingles for a number of commercials including the whistled Old Spice jingle, and played on the soundtracks to many movies including Midnight Cowboy and The Sugarland Express, as well as on the theme song to Sesame Street.

For extra credit: a 2011 interview with Thielemans (pt. 2)
posted by gauche (29 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
Great post. Thank you.
posted by Mr.Me at 8:08 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]



posted by Gelatin at 8:16 AM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]


In 2005, Thielemans was on an episode of NPR's Piano Jazz, hosted by pianist Marian McPartland. At the time of the interview/performance session, McPartland and Thielemans had a combined age of 170. Highly, highly recommended listening.
posted by grounded at 8:18 AM on August 23, 2016 [4 favorites]


Oh damn.

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posted by eclectist at 8:20 AM on August 23, 2016



posted by Pendragon at 8:26 AM on August 23, 2016


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posted by tommasz at 8:34 AM on August 23, 2016


. for the only Baron Harmonica.

(and to think the harmonica avoided the recording ban only because Petrillo didn't consider it a musical instrument …)
posted by scruss at 8:38 AM on August 23, 2016


|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|
posted by ubiquity at 8:49 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


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posted by Bob Regular at 9:00 AM on August 23, 2016


When I think of Thielemans and Quincy Jones together, I think of Gula Matari, an album that should be heard more in any case.

Thielemans plays guitar (alongside Eric Gale), harmonica (starting around 12:30), and does a double guitar / whistling a solo (at about 29:00).

= = =

Here is Thielemans' original recording of his near-standard, Bluesette (1962) on guitar and whistling.

Here he is later in life, playing Bluesette on the harmonica.


*
 
posted by Herodios at 9:25 AM on August 23, 2016 [5 favorites]



posted by Smart Dalek at 9:42 AM on August 23, 2016


We need a bass harmonica revival in this country and we need it now.

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posted by JoeZydeco at 9:44 AM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]


I knew of Thielemans, having lived in Belgium for a bit. I also remember that John Popper (of Blues Traveler) said that when he was a student at the School of Jazz at the New School, he was the only student doing harmonica. They brought Thielemans in once for a seminar, but as Thielemans played the chromatic harmonica and Popper plays the diatonic harmonica (blues harp), Thielemans wasn't sure if he had much to offer Popper besides "keep on puffing." Popper had another chance to study with Thielemans later, but slept in, missed it, and ended up regretting it. (source)

When I listened to some of Thielemans's work over the past two days, I could definitely hear where people like Howard Levy (of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) got a lot of his inspiration.
posted by dhens at 9:44 AM on August 23, 2016


"Manneken Pis also honors Toots Thielemans."
posted by dhens at 10:43 AM on August 23, 2016




With Peggy Lee: Makin' Whoopee.
posted by languagehat at 11:10 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


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posted by Coda Tronca at 11:34 AM on August 23, 2016


I can still hear the Midnight Cowboy theme's harmonica part AND the Sesame Street theme harmonica part in my head and when I learned the same person played both, I thought OF COURSE!

Rest in Harmony, "Toots".
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:54 AM on August 23, 2016


I played "Three Views Of A Secret" for someone once and they said, that sounds like Sesame Street. So that was the end of that.
posted by thelonius at 12:47 PM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]



posted by trip and a half at 1:47 PM on August 23, 2016


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posted by mumimor at 2:07 PM on August 23, 2016


..........
posted by tspae at 2:09 PM on August 23, 2016


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posted by Thorzdad at 3:00 PM on August 23, 2016


His Sesame Street closing theme is the first harmonica music I can remember. As a kid who tended to focus on TV theme songs, I didn't quite know how that music was happening (I might have thought it was some Mahna-Mahna-type singing at first), but I loved the texture of it and I always wanted to watch/listen until the last note. When young me first heard that the Sesame Street music was performed by "Toots Thielmans" I thought it was plural and there was a whole band of harmonica players behind it. Nope, just a single guy with a plural amount of talent.
posted by NumberSix at 8:20 PM on August 23, 2016 [3 favorites]


Honestly had no idea that he did the Sesame Street music. Indelibly burned into my brain, but no idea who it was. So yeah, the first harmonica music I can remember, too.

Thanks for this nice post about him and his music, and the great comments in here with further listening.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:13 PM on August 23, 2016


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posted by Lesser Spotted Potoroo at 2:48 AM on August 24, 2016


My hat's off to anyone who woke up every morning and plays "Giant Steps." I've been playing it for decades and rare is the day I can run a decent melody line through all those changes. The guy's music showed a big heart and a sense of humor, uncommon in jazz, I think. And "Bluesette" is one of my favorite 3/4 tunes ever.
posted by kozad at 4:33 AM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


a sense of humor, uncommon in jazz . . .

Come now, sir. I cannot let that stand!

Louis Armstrong? Slim n' Slam? Mose Allison? Dave Frishberg? Bob Dorough? Lambert Hendricks & Ross?
Clark Terry?
    Mumbles
    Never
Oscar Brown?
    But I Was Cool
    Signifyin' Monkey
    Forty Acres And A Mule
The Dave "Jazz Goes To College" Brubeck Quartet?
    "I was unfashionable before anyone knew who I was."
    "I tried practicing for a few weeks and ended up playing too fast."
    Sometimes they go around with guys who are scuffling -- for a while.
    But usually they end up marrying some cat [who owns] a factory.
    This is the way the world ends, not with a whim but with a banker
.
      -- Paul Desmond
Even a sourpuss like Charles Mingus has a tune based on the threadbare standard "All The Things You Are" entitled "All the Things You Could Be by Now If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother".
Horace Silver's final vinyl was entitled Jazz Has a Sense of Humor . . .
 
posted by Herodios at 8:17 AM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


'

Mr Thielemans also very much played the guitar, as can be heard on Digital at Montreux, 1980, recorded live in a trio with Dizzy Gillespie & Bernard Purdie.
posted by On the Corner at 3:32 AM on August 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


Just heard about this today. He was the best whistler, but I had no idea he played harmonica in the end theme to Sesame Street. That's one of the most classic harmonica pieces ever. I'll have to be raiding my library soon, it seems.
posted by not_on_display at 11:41 PM on August 26, 2016


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