Toots Thielemans died, legendary jazz musician Belgian – Clarín.com

He died yesterday in Belgium, at age 94, one of the great musicians of the twentieth century, the harmonica player Toots Thielemans, an artist who gave his instrument a lyricism and masterful refinement.

medical report indicated that died naturally while sleeping; He had entered the hospital a month earlier due to a weakening process by age. In 2014 he ended his career to retire from stage and studio recording. In the beginning was guitarist and during the German occupation discovered jazz, musical form taken by the resistance against the Nazis, music whose main flag was freedom and was gradually introduced into that world strongly influenced by other Belgian and guitarist Django Reinhardt. In 1948 he began to take the stage of a club of Saint Germain des Prés in Paris to participate in “endless jams” with Sidney Bechet “of those who never came back down” as stated smiling. “One night I arrived in Brussels (where he was born in 1922) and went straight to the club and there were Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Max Roach; left the club during the day and I had a feeling of glow inside me, “he confessed years later this musician who had not yet been defined by the harmonica, an instrument that revolutionized with his melodic creativity and placed him in a place of prominence.

Thielemans also featured “in the early fifties he shared a world with a lot of creative energy; that idea whistling the tune my guitar was inspired by Parker’s sax, Davis on trumpet and clarinet Goodman; I felt that everything was music in those years “.

Indeed, in 1950, Benny Goodman adds to his orchestra and tours, even as a guitarist. In 1952 he settled in New York and is part of the Charlie Parker All Stars and acts as a guest at Birdland Davis. In 1962 composes a standard that had an immediate success Blusette , where plays guitar and whistling the melody, a song that has a popular air and is easily remembered melody. Meanwhile, it was with harmonica most authoritative voice in jazz. He recorded more than 20 albums bit in your instrument merges with the sound of the blues harmonica, but without losing the sound of the Parisian streets. An artist of a sentimental romanticism musicality wasted no time. He participated in recordings and performances with Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Joe Pass and Shirley Horn, among others; in his discography are two must-see works. One, with pianist Bill Evans and the other with the wonderful singer Elis Regina

Thielemans was in every sense a gentle man of simple and profound opinions. They celebrated his eighty years in advance Jazz Festival in Punta del Este, in 2002 and made it clear that it was not only an artist grateful for a life of appreciation and affection but kept intact its inspiring elf. A gentle man with an easy smile, a musician who gave him joy to jazz. In 2001 King Albert II of Belgium named Baron in recognition for everything done for his country since the arts.