Toots Thielemans – Captured Alive (Remastered) (1974/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:02:20 minutes | 699 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Candid
NEA Jazz Master, Toots Thielemans, is widely considered to be the preeminent jazz harmonica player – It is safe to say that before him, the harmonica in jazz was simply not done, and Thielemans can be credited with legitimizing the instrument in the genre. Born in Brussels, Belgium in 1922. Theileman’s excelled on accordion as a small child, before picking up the guitar as a teenager after hearing Django Reinhart. Along the way, he taught himself to play harmonica as a hobby. In 1948, during a visit to the US, he sat in on guitar with a jazz group at small club in New York and was “discovered.” Engagements soon followed with the likes of Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones and more. As the story goes, in response to a musicians’ union restriction, Thielemans was forbidden to play guitar at a gig. So, he pulled out his harmonica. The rest, as they say, is history. He went on to have a long and prolific career on the instrument, as both a band leader and session musician. With his unique sound, he became a go-to for film scores in the 1970s (The Pawn Broker, Midnight Cowboy). Perhaps most notably, Thielemans is unconsciously known to generations for having played the melody on Sesame Street’s famous closing theme. Organized as a purely jazz session, the date here prominently features a young Joanne Brackeen on piano. It is perhaps Brackeen’s presence that makes this set so interesting. As an avant-garde player she provides the vehicle for Thielemas to explore more advanced ideas. The album covers a wide range of material, including two originals by Brackeen, alongside standards by Coltrane, Ellington, Mercer and Mancini.
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Toots Thielemans, Kurt Edelhagen And His Orchestra – Harmonica Harmonies (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:02:57 minutes | 389 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jube Legends
Harmonica player, guitarist, and whistler Jean Baptiste “Toots” Thielemans was credited by jazz aficionados as being among the greatest jazz harmonica players of the 20th century, improvising on an instrument more known in folk and blues music. Thielemans was known to audiences young and old, his harmonica heard on the Sesame Street theme and his whistling heard in an “Old Spice” commercial.
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