Toots Thielemans retrospective

02:18 - Hermine was interviewed on the podcast in July 2021, is from the Netherlands and has performed with Toots

02:42 - Laurent appeared on the podcast in December 2022, is from France and Toots provided some feedback on a demo album of his

03:09 - Alexandre Piret is from Belgium, works as a musicologist and researcher at the Universities of Liege and Brussels, and is writing a PhD on Toots

03:57 - Alexandre never had the chance to meet Toots but has been in contact with lots of his family members and associates

04:31 - Hopes that the research he is conducting as part of his PhD could become a biography on Toots

05:49 - Alexandre has already published two academic papers about Toots: Little Things Mean a Lot’: Understanding the ‘Genius’ of Toots Thielemans through an Organological Examination of the Chromatic Harmonica Playing and Toots Thielemans’ Notebooks as a Place o

06:14 - More on Toots’s study notebooks that Alexandre has been able to study after Toots donated them to the national library of Belgium

07:56 - The documents are from the 1940s and show how a young Toots studied jazz in an era before mass jazz education was available

09:22 - Alexandre is from Belgium and explains how Toots was a national icon in the country

11:18 - Toots was made a Baron by the king of Belgium

12:06 - There is a new metro line being built in Brussels and one of the stations might be called ‘Toots Thielemans’

12:42 - Hermine tells us how Toots was a very well known figure in the Netherlands, particularly in the older generation, who heard him a lot on tv, radio and films

13:08 - A film from the Netherlands which Toots was well known for playing on was Turks Fruit

13:32 - In France the older generation knew him, but many would not know he was the person behind all the recordings and sessions

14:10 - Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor Thielemans was his full name and he was born on April 29th 1922 in Brussels where his parents owned a cafe

14:59 - Descendants may have worked as carpenters, which is what the name Thielemans means

15:09 - Toots first instrument was the accordion, which he began playing aged three, and he was a gifted player, winning an award at age seven

16:17 - Hermine says Toots was known as Little Mozart from his accordion playing and the influence of his accordion playing on his harmonica playing

16:56 - Started playing the chromatic aged 15 or 16 after seeing Larry Adler playing in a film (not known which film)

17:37 - Playing harmonica was a common hobby in the late 1930s, with many of the friends of Toots also playing

18:13 - Toots started playing guitar around 1941-2 after he won it from a bet with his friend

20:24 - His first professional gig was as a guitar player, with George Shearing, and the harmonica was only used sparingly

21:41 - The chromatic harmonica was still quite a new (1910) instrument when Toots was playing it in the late 1940s / early 1950s, and he found his own way to play jazz on it

22:32 - Max Geldray was a good Dutch jazz chromatic player who pre-dated Toots, and ‘novelty’ players like Borrah Minnevitch

23:21 - Toots was certainly one of the first, if not the first, to pioneer modern jazz harmonica

23:50 - His first amateur band was Le Jazz Hot around 1946

24:47 - American jazz musicians were touring Europe at that time, which likely influenced Toots

25:35 - An excellent compilation album covering the span of Toot’s career is ‘Yesterday & Today’ which includes the song Jazz Band Ball from 1946, which could be his first recording

26:38 - Alexandre discusses Toots first recording being perhaps from 1949 following a Paris jazz festival, where Toots possibly played with Charlie Parker

27:42 - Toots definitely did meet Charlie Parker in Sweden in 1950

28:32 - First recording on harmonica is possibly Red Devils Boogie, recorded in 1949, when he was 27 years old

29:50 - First played with Benny Goodman in Europe in 1950, after not being able to play with him in the US as Toots couldn’t obtain a Green Card at that time

31:53 - When first playing with Benny Goodman in London the agreement with the UK authorities was that he could only play harmonica (not guitar) as an ‘entertainer’

32:41 - His big break was the gig with George Shearing, which lasted for six years

33:34 - Toots spent a year in New York before landing the gig with George Shearing

34:51 - Made first recording in the US in 1952, a song called Dynamite, with Dick Hyman on organ and Harry Reser on banjo

35:15 - Made his first solo album in 1955: The Sound

36:07 - Became a US citizen in 1957 and travelled between his homes in Brussels and Long Island

36:44 - Released the iconic album, Man Bites Harmonica in 1958, and discussion on the old harmonica on the album cover

37:56 - The Man Bites Harmonica album was released around the end of the time he spent playing with George Shearing, deciding to become a studio musician after six years of heavy touring with George Shearing

39:28 - Made an advertisement for Old Spice aftershave on which he whistled, so was paid as an actor rather than as a musician

40:04 - The original version of Bluesette (1962) had Toots whistling, not playing the harmonica, with Toots encouraged to record the track by Stephane Grappelli

41:00 - Bluesette was a great success for Toots, with many other jazz musicians recording versions

42:34 - Recorded numerous times with an orchestra, including Cherokee in 1966, and with pianist Oscar Peterson

43:00 - Recorded the landmark album Affinity in 1978 with jazz legend Bill Evans

44:47 - Bill Evans plays on a Fender Rhodes on the Affinity album, which Hermine thinks is a good combination with chromatic harmonica

45:13 - Hermine really likes the album Toots recorded with Fred Hersch, the Brazil Project albums and some live albums recorded in the Netherlands

46:34 - Collaboration with Jaco Pastorius and the song Three Views Of A Secret, which Toots plays much of in the top octave

48:38 - In 1981 Toots suffered from a stroke at age 58 or 59, which was only the half-way point of his career, and the impact that had on his guitar playing especially (although he did continue with guitar)

50:59 - The two Brazil Project albums influenced Hermine to buy her first chromatic harmonica after she had previously played saxophone

52:18 - Toots made his first recording of Brazilian music in the late 1960s, with Elis Regina, and played some South American music with George Shearing

53:19 - Musical partnership with Quincy Jones was the springboard for Toots recording for numerous films

54:32 - One of Toots’ first major film soundtracks was Walk, Don’t Run from 1966

55:26 - Recorded harmonica for Sesame Street

56:05 - Made appearances with some big names in popular music, including Paul Simon and Billy Joel

56:52 - Toots probably made a good living from his music income

57:36 - Was based in the US for much the 1950s/60s/70s with his house in the US and Belgium with a harmonica in every room

57:59 - In 2006 recorded the album One More For The Road, age 84, which was his last studio album under his own name (although there were later live albums and he continued to record as a session musician)

59:01 - Toots continued playing until the age of 92

59:18 - Two big concerts later in his life which honoured him: 2006 at Carnegie Hall: ‘The Magic of Toots’ and 2012 at The Lincoln Centre: ‘Toots 90th Birthday’, both set-up by Herbie Hancock

59:53 - Was nominated to the NMA Jazz Award, which he was very proud of

01:00:47 - Died 22/08/2016, aged 94, with the the Prime Minister and Prince of Belgium attending the service, and Kenny Werner read out a personal message from President Obama during the service

01:01:07 - Hermine was contacted by numerous media outlets on the day of his death to gain her thoughts on his passing

01:01:56 - The impact in Belgium of the passing of Toots

01:02:29 - Hermine talks of Toots being a warm person and that came through his music

01:03:08 - Laurent talks of Toots having the ability to combine his technical virtuosity with warmth in his playing

01:03:54 - In 2022 there was the 100th Birthday celebration in Brussels, with a series of concerts performed, including Hermine playing with the Brussels orchestra

01:05:32 - Toots got his name when in his first band (Le Jazz Hot), with Toots being the nickname of two American jazz musicians who Toots later recorded with

01:06:37 - Books written about Toots include a Biografie by Marc Danval, and Alexandre is planning to write one

01:07:12 - Toots did a little teaching of harmonica but more offered advice, including to Hermine and Laurent, being very supportive of other chromatic players and always trying to reply to requests

01:09:47 - Toots played some diatonic harmonica, probably as a result of being requested to play in recording sessions

01:12:27 - The two chromatic models developed by Hohner: the Hard Bopper and Mellow Tone, and some of the models he played before those

01:13:36 - Involvement in the Hohner models and his manager maintained them for him

01:15:36 - Toots mainly played 12 hole chromatics but did play some 16 hole in the 1970s

01:16:58 - Didn’t play a lot of octaves on chromatic, but some of the early recordings

01:17:13 - Embouchre was mainly pucker

01:17:54 - Microphone of choice when playing live was mainly the Shure SM58, and a Sennheiser mic before that

01:18:15 - In the early days of his career he used large mics, before progressing with the development of dynamic mics, like the SM58, and holding the mic

01:20:06 - Used a SM58 with a volume control, for the last ten years of his life, from Blows Me Away Productions

01:20:47 - Effects liked to use reverb

01:21:26 - Played through a PA, but in earlier years played through the same tube amp as his guitar in the 1960s and 70s

01:23:08 - Favourite songs, starting with Neil: Diga Diga Doo

01:23:49 - Laurent’s favourite is Blackbird with Jaco Pastorius

01:24:18 - Hermine’s favourite is the live version of Misty Red Beast

01:24:47 - Alexandre’s favourite song

01:25:32 - Toots legacy and Alexandre’s research paper on Toots: ‘Little Things Mean a Lot’: Understanding the ‘Genius’ of Toots Thielemans through an Organological Examination of the Chromatic Harmonica Playing

01:27:36 - Laurent’s view on Toots’ legacy

01:28:17 - Hermine’s view on Toots’ legacy