Toots Thielemans

Brussels to New York

Jean-Baptiste Frederic Isidor Thielemans was born on April 29, 1922 in Brussels, to parents who owned a cafe, where he played accordion as a child. He studied mathematics before Louis Armstrong drew him to jazz. He took up the harmonica around 1935 or 1939, depending on the source, and after liberation in 1944 played for US Army bases. In 1949 and 1950 he toured Europe with Benny Goodman as a guitarist and played harmonica at the London Palladium, and took part in a 1949 Paris jam session with Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Max Roach. In 1952 he moved to the United States, played with Parker's All-Stars, Miles Davis and Dinah Washington, and from 1953 to 1959 was in the George Shearing Quintet on guitar, harmonica and whistling. He became a US citizen in 1957.

He made The Sound (Columbia, 1955) and Man Bites Harmonica! (Riverside, 1958) as a leader and left Shearing in 1959 to lead his own groups. In 1969 the harmonica on the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack made him widely heard, and he played on the Sesame Street closing theme for about 40 years and on Paul Simon's "Night Game" (1975). He recorded with Quincy Jones, Bill Evans (Affinity), Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, Billy Joel and Natalie Cole, and made The Brasil Project (1992), Chez Toots (1998, with Johnny Mathis) and One More for the Road (2006). He announced his retirement on March 12, 2014 and died on August 22, 2016, aged 94.

Honors

He was created a baron for life by King Albert II in 2001, an NEA Jazz Master in 2009, and won an Edison Jazz Career Award in 2001. The Royal Library of Belgium acquired the Toots Thielemans Collection in December 2016. A Google Doodle marked his birthday in 2022, an asteroid (13079 Toots) carries his name, and a Belgian 20 euro silver coin was issued in 2017. Ted Gioia credits him with championing the harmonica and making it a legitimate voice in jazz; Quincy Jones called him one of the greatest musicians of our time.