This pdf was last updated: Jan/31/2011. Toots Thielemans
He virtually knows to play the harmonica with the dexterity of a saxophonist. After recent concerts in Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro he is now back for Europe - playing better than ever!
Line-up Toots Thielemans - harmonica Clemens van der Feen - double bass Hans Van Oosterhout - drums Karel Boehlee - keyboards Chris Weeda - soundengineer Dirk Godts - manager
On Stage: 4 Travel Party: 6
Website www.tootsthielemans.com
Biography Born in Brussels, Belgium in 1922, Jean 'Toots' Thielemans was raised on the Swing-Era stylings of gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt and the father of modern amplified jazz guitar, Charlie Christian. At age three, he played accordion in his parents' sidewalk cafe. Not pushed towards music as a career, Toots planned to study mathematics at Brussels University. During the German occupation of Belgium during World War II, Thielemans buys a harmonica and discovers jazz. He soon receives a guitar from a friend and learns to play from listening to Django Reinhardt's discs. During the late 1940s, he gravitated to American bebop. In 1949, Benny Goodman heard a recording by him and it was his first international break. Arriving in America in 1951, Toots had one memorable week-long gig with Charlie Parker's All-Star band playing alongside Miles Davis and Milt Jackson. From late 1952, until the middle of 1959, Thielemans played steadily with pianist, George Shearing. He broke through to an appreciative worldwide audience in 1963, with his composition, 'Bluesette,' an engaging jazz waltz that popularized his signature technique of whistling the melody simultaneously with his single-stringed guitar lines. The tune has since become a jazz classic, recorded innumerable times by musicians all over the world. By now, Toots's harmonica is familiar to moviegoers, jazz and pop fans and mainstream audiences. His haunting sound can be heard on the film scores of 'Midnight Cowboy,' 'The Sugarland Express' and 'The Getaway.' In addition to 'Q,' he's recorded with the late Bill Evans and Ella Fitzgerald, Paul Simon, Shirley Horn, Pat Metheny and Billy Joel. His credits even include an endearing harmonica solo on the opening theme from Sesame Street. A perennial poll winner, Toots has also experimented with the sounds of Brazil via his critically-acclaimed Brasil Project; pairing him with some of the most accomplished composers and singers in Brazilian music. The band provides a warm, improvisational backdrop for his beautiful harmonica melodies. When once asked by a journalist to describe where he was musically, Toots responded with the classic line, 'somewhere between a smile and a tear!' Let Toots's romantic playing take you there, too.
Discography 1995 Concerto For Harmonica [live] - TCB 1996 Two Generations - Limetree 1998 Chez Toots - Private Music 1999 The live takes, vol.1 - Private Music 2000 The very best of Toots Thielemans - Universal 2001 Toots Thielemans & Kenny Werner - Emarcy/Universal 2006 One more for the road - Universal 2008 Jazz Olympics - AMG Records 2010 European Quartet Live - Challenge Jazz
Nova Concerts International - Booking Agency for Jazz, Worldmusic & Pop Tel: +33 553585256 - [email protected] - www.novaconcerts.com