DISQUS

harlow · 3 years ago

<img class="alignright" height="120" src="http://realnewyorkersknow.com/images/toots.jpg" width="120" alt="Toots Thielemans" style="border: 1px solid #ccc">
It was Toot's show, sitting on a high stool, the jazz harmonia great masterfully bending and honking notes within his adventurous improvisation on jazz standards, such as "How High The Moon". He had a great time playing. Toots joked, "I'm from the Lower East Side of Brussels". Oscar is from Brazil and Kenny Werner, on piano, was representing Brooklyn -- they're quite the international trio, playing like brothers. Jazz without borders. The wonderful, playful music was enjoyed by a happy lunch-time crowd and the WBGO radio audience. It was a real Downtown treat.</img>

bill lehman · 3 years ago

So refreshing to see the joy of interplay between these three greats. Toots, the vocal focal point, had a ball, especially when Kenny and Oscar were synched up on some musical line. Toots kept looking back and forth at them as the guitar and piano became one instrument. Toots' harmonica, of course, with its distinctive sound, can float above a bandstand of fifty musicians.
Toots was especially voluble this day, relating a story about leaving a musical birthday card on Quincy Jones' machine. I had always wondered what Toots looked like and now I know-- Charlie Weaver (does anyone else remember Charlie Weaver?).