Toots Thielemans - The Guitar Player

**Stackabones** · 01-16-2011, 01:57 PM

Lots of harmonica vids out there, but guitars are a bit tougher to come across.

**robertm2000** · 01-16-2011, 06:03 PM

Thank you! I've always enjoyed Toot's harmonica work but to find he's a skilled guitarist is...better than frosting on the cake. It's a whole new cake!

**Stackabones** · 01-16-2011, 07:44 PM

I saw in one of the youtube comments that he stopped playing guitar due to physical problems. Not sure what they were or anything else beyond that.

**M-ster** · 01-16-2011, 07:45 PM

Yep, great musician.

**mr. beaumont** · 01-16-2011, 08:27 PM

Cool that toots should come up, as I recently came into a hohner chromatic harmonica (my dad, a piano player and stevie wonder fanatic had bought one a few years ago--I asked him offhand how the harmonica was coming at which point he left the room, returned with a box which he tossed on the table and said "please take it and see if you can do anything with it, I don't want to look at it anymore!")

Anyway, obviously there's been a lot of toots listening going on at my house recently, and while I knew he played guitar I hadn't heard him do so till these vids...

Oh, as for my harmonica prowess, let's just say it's gonna be a good long while before you hear me putting any recordings up...I'm definitely getting my dad'' frustration!

**Dark Star** · 01-16-2011, 08:53 PM

Talk about serendipity- I just heard a live version of Bluesette from Toots on the radio. It sounded like it was 4/4, though. Very cool.

**patskywriter** · 01-16-2011, 09:00 PM

i remember back when i was a kid, one of the first times i heard toots' unique whistling/guitar-playing style was on astrud gilberto's "beach samba" album. nice!

**Markyboy** · 01-17-2011, 03:49 PM

I saw in one of the youtube comments that he stopped playing guitar due to physical problems. Not sure what they were or anything else beyond that.

muziekcentrum.be | Toots Thielemans

a website in dutch where Toots explains in the typical slang of Brussels that he is a self-made musician. He says he stopped playing the guitar in 1981 due to the consequences of a heart attack. He has lost part of the feeling in his right side which makes it hard for him to play the guitar.

**Stackabones** · 01-17-2011, 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by Markyboy

[muziekcentrum.be | Toots Thielemans
a website in dutch where Toots explains in the typical slang of Brussels that he is a self-made musician. He says he stopped playing the guitar in 1981 due to the consequences of a hartattack. He has lost part of the feeling in his rightside which makes it hard for him to play the guitar.

Ah, ok. Too bad. Obviously the man just oozes music. Harmonica, whistling, guitar, songwriting. Thanks for the info!

**paynow** · 01-18-2011, 12:17 PM

Thanks for posting those. Such a wonderful musician. The fact that Toots is like the Charlie Parker of harmonica has a tendency to obsfucate the guitar playing which is outstanding and lyrical. Along with Rene Thomas he was always considered one of the top jazz guitar players in Europe.

Toots worked with so many names, one prime example being as the guitarist for George Shearing, I believe after Chuck Wayne. He started out as a kid on harmonica, had to put it away because of a lung infection and a hospital stay, where he started to teach himself guitar.

Something I've always found fascinating is that Toots supposedly influenced John Lennon's purchase of a Rickenbacker:

The Beatles and their Rickenbacker guitars

"Bluesette" is a tune everyone should learn; so great. I have a record from the early 60s which features it played on the guitar as he whistles the melody in unison. The tune was written in 1962 so it must be from around then.

**Stackabones** · 01-18-2011, 12:52 PM

That's so cool! Toots influenced the gear of the Beatles!!!

**Stackabones** · 01-18-2011, 01:00 PM

Just requested this from my library. Toots on guitar.

**paynow** · 01-18-2011, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by Stackabones

Just requested this from my library. Toots on guitar.

Yeah, I love the Beatles thing too since they were the reason I started playing guitar. A jazz musician father got me into that aspect.

Here is a great CD I have that has "You've Come A Long Way From St. Louis" from that record:

Amazon.com: Definitive George Shearing: George Shearing: Music

It also features Toots on "Jordu" with Toots on guitar and there is a cut of "Caravan" where Shearing says something along the lines of "This next song will be played by our guitarist; we call him our guitarist because on this song, he plays the harmonica". Apparently the jazzers also influenced the Fab Four's sense of on-stage humor.

Early Toots, sort of corny arrangements but I like it, harmonica with some multi-tracking to get the axe in there:

Amazon.com: Amazing Sound of Toots Thielemans: Toots Thielemans: Music

I don't have this CD but I have some tracks from it, "Skylark" and "So Rare" which I got on some other compilation thing.

I'm having a hard time finding the record with the cut of "Bluesette" from the 60s featuring the guitar with the whistling. I have it on vinyl in a storage unit but man, I wish I could get it on CD!

**Stackabones** · 01-18-2011, 02:35 PM

Cool selections, paynow. Perhaps someone will chime in with that version of Bluesette? Gotta be out there somewhere!

**Markyboy** · 01-21-2011, 04:14 AM

I found some more info on Bluesette in an article.
The article (in Dutch): http://www.concertnews.be/recensietonen.php?id=883&kop=%20Toots%20Thielemans %20Quartet&waar=%20De%20Roma%20Borgerhout
Thielemans wrote Bluesette in ’62 while sitting backstage with Stephane Grappelli. He was playing and whistling it while tuning his guitar. Grappelli asked him which tune it was. Thielemans replied it was just an improvisation. Grappelli advised him to write it down immediately. At first, he named it Bluette, which is a flower. But later he changed it in Bluesette. During his gigs, Toots always played Bluesette immediately followed by Waltz for Sonny (see Stackabones first post for the You tube video)
In the same article the story of Toots meeting John Lennon and convincing him to use an electric Rickenbacker guitar. Lennon at first is afraid that the specific sound of this guitar would change the colour of the Beatles-sound . When telling this story Thielemans laughs and says that he there missed the opportunity to become a member of the Beatles.
There’s also a sound-file of an interview with Toots on the website. In the interview he says Bluesette is his ‘Social Security-number’. But it didn’t make him rich (I couldn’t buy a Cadillac, but it made me pay the gas for the Cadillac). During the interview, he also plays the tune of Sesame Street on Harmonica (8:05 of the audio-file).

**virtuoso** · 01-21-2011, 05:09 AM

Wow,this is great.

Wonder why he didn't try something like this,of course in jazz way!

**Stackabones** · 01-21-2011, 12:28 PM

Originally Posted by Markyboy

I found some more info on Bluesette in an article.
The article (in Dutch): http://www.concertnews.be/recensietonen.php?id=883&kop=%20Toots%20Thielemans %20Quartet&waar=%20De%20Roma%20Borgerhout
Thielemans wrote Bluesette in ’62 while sitting backstage with Stephane Grappelli. He was playing and whistling it while tuning his guitar. Grappelli asked him which tune it was. Thielemans replied it was just an improvisation. Grappelli advised him to write it down immediately. At first, he named it Bluette, which is a flower. But later he changed it in Bluesette. During his gigs, Toots always played Bluesette immediately followed by Waltz for Sonny (see Stackabones first post for the You tube video)
In the same article the story of Toots meeting John Lennon and convincing him to use an electric Rickenbacker guitar. Lennon at first is afraid that the specific sound of this guitar would change the colour of the Beatles-sound . When telling this story Thielemans laughs and says that he there missed the opportunity to become a member of the Beatles.
There’s also a sound-file of an interview with Toots on the website. In the interview he says Bluesette is his ‘Social Security-number’. But it didn’t make him rich (I couldn’t buy a Cadillac, but it made me pay the gas for the Cadillac). During the interview, he also plays the tune of Sesame Street on Harmonica (8:05 of the audio-file).

Great info, Markyboy!

**Markyboy** · 02-07-2011, 02:50 PM

I had last Saturday the opportunity to talk with one of Toots' sidemen. We were talking about Toots being still very active and so on and then the guy came out of the blue with that story of Toots introducing John Lennon to Rickenbacker guitars. John would indeed have asked Toots to join the Beatles for some gigs but Toots refused because he had his own carreer. He has this story from the master himself! So.... Toots, the fifth Beatle

**Stackabones** · 02-07-2011, 03:16 PM

Originally Posted by Markyboy

I had last Saturday the opportunity to talk with one of Toots' sidemen. We were talking about Toots being still very active and so on and then the guy came out of the blue with that story of Toots introducing John Lennon to Rickenbacker guitars. John would indeed have asked Toots to join the Beatles for some gigs but Toots refused because he had his own carreer. He has this story from the master himself! So.... Toots, the fifth Beatle

Wow! What a story! Cool to hear it from someone so close to the source.

*

btw, I've been listening to the Peggy Lee/George Shearing disc for the last couple of weeks. No solos from Toots (jazz git solos are over-rated anyway

), but some very fine ensemble work with intricate lines and subtle comping. Superb session.

**voxsss** · 04-26-2020, 05:06 PM

**Djang** · 04-27-2020, 02:06 AM

Such wonderful bebop phrasing. Toots started out as a Django guitarist, then got into Wes Montgomery, then played with George Shearing, playing fast bop. His guitar playing is underrated.

there is an album where he plays with Niels Henning Pedersen and Joe Pass. In one of the tunes he takes a guitar solo after Joe Pass (who does that?). Though his solo lacks the Parker-like virtuosity, he makes up for it with great harmonic finesse. As he does in this solo.

wonderful transcription!

what I most admire in Toots is that, while he was playing a lot of commercial stuff, he kept on studying music. In the seventies he went to Mick Goodrick to study modern harmony because he loved Wayne Shorter’s music, but didn’t know how to play it. He studied Hancock’s music with Rob Franken. He played Giant Steps on his harmonica and went on to play with the great Jaco Pastorius.

he recorded albums with Mulgrew Miller, Fred Hersch and Lyle Mays, Joanne Brackeen, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock...

I just keep going, cause Toots was born near where I live and he’s a national hero. I am critical enough to see his shortcomings, but he was just so sophisticated, musically.

I saw a Toots concert with all young Belgian musicians. So they start with Autumn Leaves, and they all stick to the changes, right? adapting, as they thought, to the old Toots, playing the well known bop licks. When it was Toots’ turn to solo, he started off with Coltrane changes in the first four bars, highly chromatic playing throughout, combined with his very special bebop style, side-slipping, whole-tone scale passages, diminished.... Blew these cats right off stage.

love this!