Toots Thielemans

Jean Baptiste Frédéric Isidor Thielemans or better known as Toots Thielemans was a Belgian jazz musician and composer who, apart from being a guitarist and harmonica player, also achieved fame as a virtuoso flautist. He was born on 29 April 1922 in Brussels and was active from 1949 to 2014. His nickname Toots is derived from the musicians Toots Mondello and Toots Camarata.

Toots played the accordion from the age of three. At 17, he discovered the harmonica and also played guitar. During the German occupation, he fell under the spell of jazz. In 1951, Thielemans was a guitarist in the backing band of Belgian singer Bobbejaan Schoepen. In 1952, he emigrated to the United States, where he worked with several well-known artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Paul Simon and John Denver. He is widely recognised as one of the greatest jazz musicians.

In 1981, Toots suffered a stroke that put him out of action for over six months. His left hand functioned much worse and, as a result, he played harmonica even more often. He continued to work with various artists in Belgium and the Netherlands and was one of the main artists at Night of the Proms in 2009. That same year, he received a Jazz Masters Fellowship in the United States, one of the highest awards in the jazz world. In 2014, his career ended at the age of 91 and he died a few years later at the age of 94. His best-known composition he ever created was the 1962 jazz waltz Bluesette.