Nothing more heartbreaking and sensuous than Toots playing mouth harp. I saw him perform many times, talked with him and thanked him for his musical contributions over the years. Movie scores, commercials, concerts, recordings...Toots did it all, and he was a "One of a Kind" in the whole world. The Best ! After he retired and was near the the end of his long road, I wrote his manager to tell Toots how much the world loves him and we always will.

@Transition333

2 жыл бұрын

@jennifer86010. How lucky you were to have experienced Toots’ live music so many times!

@dbmbrian2166

2 жыл бұрын

Agree Jennifer. You have superlative taste in music. For Toots, I would like to add to your description of his playing the following: charm, super talent, total feeling for the melody line, humor, "cool dudeness" and continual suprising notes, unexpected licks that even bring smiles to Quincy Jones who's heard it all. Lastly, a humble soul look and listen to 5:00 to 5:03. He's saying "look at what music can happen" not "look what I can do." I always appreciated his talent for that.

@jennifer86010

2 жыл бұрын

@@dbmbrian2166 Thank you for your comment !! Yes, from 5:00 until the end of the piece, Toots was freely improvising, but his soulful blues statement was how he played off of Quincy. It was fitting and spontaneous, but also a universal statement that expressive soul is not exclusively owned by any particular race. I've recently seen some amazing KZread videos titled "Young black girls listen to Tom Jones" or "Young black men listening to the Righteous Brothers" or titles to that effect. Since these listeners are young, they have never heard of or seen these artists, so their reactions are hilarious, when they discover these singers are not black. Another video is a young black man listening to the "Bee Gees" , seeing them for the first time, thinking they were black singers all along. It's worth watching these fun videos to see their reactions, and the empathy they end up giving to the much older white singers. As a jazz pianist, I have played in many parts of the world, and I learned years ago that soul, expressiveness, depth, passion and musical skill, belong to all people, regardless of race, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, and even age !! One of my best moments came when I had been the middle aged driver for my niece and her friends for their drinking and music club night. After the last band played, one of its members saw me sitting in the car waiting for the twenty something kids to pile into the car. "Hi ma'm , I guess you are waiting to pick up your niece and friends....'hope we are not keeping you up too late." After the kids got into the car, they asked me to drop them off at the band's apartment which I did for an after-gig get-together. I waited outside for about an hour and then slowly came up the stairs to collect my niece and her friends. When I entered, the room got quiet, and the pot smoke started to clear. "Ma'm, I hear you play a bit of piano yourself, the smug polite youngster said. I replied, "Well, yes, I do." "Would you like to play a little ditty for us on our electric piano?" I sat down, cranked up the volume, and let loose with a fast swinging 12 bar blues, in ascending keys, then I added a walking bass line, which morphed into a fast stride piano Fats Waller presentation using all ten fingers. I could see their eyes bug out and their jaws drop. They had never heard anything like that before. The band members forgot all about the girls, picked up their instruments and started to jam with me. When we finished, they asked me to come to the club the next night and play with them, and offered me the keyboard gig if I wanted to be in their pop band. I told them "no, the Partridge Family should remain the only band where a mom plays with the youngsters." It's funny how sex and age discrimination immediately goes out the window once someone knows who you are inside. I never thought of Toots as being old, or white or European, or anything other than the wonderful musician he was, and the marvelous music he gave us.

@carolineward5153

Жыл бұрын

I'm glad you told him how he was appreciated. I can apon him late. He's wonderful. I've lived a sheltered life and by way of spotify it's opened up a world of music i could'nt have known. How lucky you are to have seen him let alone talk to him 🌹

@kmc7239

3 ай бұрын

he did not play; he did art... a complete artist...!

Toots could evoke the same emotions from his instrument as Miles Davis did with the trumpet. Those beautiful melody lines. As a musician, I think this is the pinnacle of improvisation. The ability to create beautiful melodies without sounding like they are being dictated by the underlying harmony.

he was he still is the best mouth harmonica player.

A tear for Toots...what a great en gentle man..absolute genius. Thank you Toots.

These TWO MUSICAL GIANTS were the GREATEST of LIFELONG FRIENDS!! Continue to RIHP " Toots", Harmonica Maestro!! 💘 👼 🎶 🙏🎼

For those of who did, aren't we glad that we lived in the era of the Great Toots? Never another will come along, I promise.

If toots don't make you cry, then you ain't alive and you don't know the exquisite beauty and pain of living

@KalmBliem

8 жыл бұрын

Well said! RIP Toots.

@MrJazzologist1

7 жыл бұрын

Michael, you are a soulmate with a lovely mind.

@waskyper8

7 жыл бұрын

well said

@tayodada

6 жыл бұрын

gets me every time. too much greatness

@dianematlock879

6 жыл бұрын

michael iacovino I thought you knew! ! !

El Sr Toots con su música acaricia el alma,maravilloso Descanse en paz❤

My father loved both of these artists and introduced me to jazz which I learned to love and appreciate. Every time I hear Toots play I think of my dad, now passed and it brings tears to my eyes. Isn't that would good music is supposed to do? move us, and this union surely does.

Toots is one of the absolute greatest soloists ever. How he plays chromo harp is just out of this world and you immediately recognise him.

Quincy Jone's Variety interview led me here. He spoke so highly of Toot, I had to see what he was talking about. I just love his music!

Soy de Argentina. En 1980 yo tenia 20 años y escuché un long play de quincy jones (the dude) que incluia un maravilloso tema en armonica (velas). Quedé maravillado por esa interpretación. No supe quien era el intérprete. Pasaron muchos años hasta que vi en un dvd una reunión en Montreaux de grandes jazzingers junto a quincy jones y veo aparecer a un anciano que interpreta de manera inigualable un tema en armónica. Es él, grité ! A partir de allí recopilé todos sus temas. Le tendré admiración y respeto por siempre. Es, para mi y para muchos el mayor intérprete de armónica del siglo xx. Y no solo es el mejor, artisticamente, es tambien el mas querido. Hasta siempre Toots !

RIP, there is no one like Toots, he will be remembered forever!

And the love between Toots and Quincy is as moving as the music. Sooooo beautiful.

Both of these legends are a huge part of my musical upbringing. At the very respectable age of 94, you've earned the right to rest in peace, Mr. Thielemans.

@masterofpuppets3779

7 жыл бұрын

agree and respect

speechless for this genius performance

Toots takes me to Paradise when he plays!

I'm crying listening to this RIP Toots. No other musician ever touched me like you did. Very very sad day 22 august 2016

@scooterbobby

7 жыл бұрын

Me too

@ericwilhelm2941

7 жыл бұрын

Same here.......Same here

@Louie914

5 жыл бұрын

Me too...velas really makes it pour.

For me to listen to Toots playing his ass off for 6 minutes and not believe my eyes or ears is one thing, and of no consequence to anyone but me, but for Quincy Jones to respond in the same way to Toots's magical playing is quite another - and Quincy's sincere reaction says everything we need to know about this master! One of the greatest musicians I have ever seen or heard.

@twangbarfly

8 жыл бұрын

I feel incredibly sad today at the passing of the great Toots Thielemans. Perhaps the most soulful melodicist I have heard - that's how i feel anyway. RIP Toots.

This is human perfection ❤️

I've travelled this world, met businessmen, bankers, lawyers, politicians, film 'stars'- but the finest people i've ever known in my life are jazz musicians.

@stephenmohrbacher7503

8 жыл бұрын

+John Perks Me too. I agree!

@MrJazzologist1

8 жыл бұрын

+Stephen Mohrbacher Good for you, my friend.

@sittig904

8 жыл бұрын

All I can say is yep.

@MrJazzologist1

8 жыл бұрын

You're also a perceptive man, Michael.

@varkony60

8 жыл бұрын

I tend to agree. And among them one of the most nice is Mike Stern jazz-guitarist. Have you ever met him?

What a wonderful sound, I’ll never get enough of it. Thank you Toots & Quincy, just a dream combination !

I almost NEVER hear this touching song. It holds a VERY special meaning to me, as it was playing on the television in the background as I was excitedly making my memorable Homecoming date with the divine Ms. Owens of Nova High School, November of 1968, fresh as ever in my mind 55 years on. "If you could only see me through the eyes of love"--that quintessential yearning that lays within us, waiting to be awoken by a look, a smile, a word, a way of walking, a voice, a quality of life we admire and recognize in a simpatico person . . .My childhood friend Jaco Pastorius loved working with Toots, and it doesn't take long to realize just WHY!

Luckily he died very old...For more than 40 years I enjoyed of his huge musical deep feeling, and his capacity to use the harmonica in a fantastic way. But he was even a great whistler, one of the best I've heard . He started at the beginning of the '50 as a guitarist, improvising with the guitar and whistling any single note of his improvisation. I think that George Benson, maybe, has been inspired in some way by him... A great and peaceful man, always smiling and always playing beautifully. My life has been- until now- a good life even because of all these guys,like Toots and Quincy, that brought constantly big sunshines in my heart and in my soul. God bless all of them!

Not many musicians to whom Quincy Jones would get down on his knees too. Tough to see in the long shot at the end. But he kneels before Toots right at the end and why not. He is in the presence of a master of which there will never be another. How on earth does such a soulful beautiful sound come out of such a simple thing.

@conniebryson7854

5 жыл бұрын

And he played guitar, and he whistled, and he wrote jazz standards like Bluesette. Toots was sui generis -- a towering genius.

The greatest Belgian !

Toots and Stevie Wonder made me enjoy the harmonica. I had only heard him in Quincy's albums. RIP Toots Thielemans. Thank God for YOU TUBE and those that upload the music from yesterdays. We truly need you.

You can see the great love and affection these two men have for each other. I know that one of Toots first jobs in Hollywood was playing Harmonic for Quincy Jones on a film.

My Father was a huge jazz lover & I listened to Quincy's Album You've Got it Bad Girl, over & over as a little girl. I know that distinctive Toots style anywhere!!! Remember watching a Meg Ryan movie " French Kiss " & recognized that Toots sound right away!

@ryan61384

2 жыл бұрын

If you like Toots and Quincy then you should listen to the album Q's Jook Joint.

With Toots playing the harmonica along with Quincy's musical arrangement, what a beautiful combination!

Damn! can that cat blow. And the Q Man has no equal. I just LOVE the affectionate interplay.

Très émouvant, repose en paix Toots, un monument de la musique belge et mondiale nous a quitté.

@winstonscott4195

2 жыл бұрын

Absolutely wonderful 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾

@lucileramio7624

Жыл бұрын

C'est une émotion de dingue pour les hypersensibles ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️un son inégalé et une interprétation magistrale

@Chris-cb4ig

10 ай бұрын

Un monument 😢. Il aura joué avec tout le monde ou presque dans sa carrière phénoménale

@dianaderosa2989

6 ай бұрын

Nobody plays a better harmonica than Toots. I miss him so much!

When you finally realize that God MADE you to be a musician, that is a lovely day -- from then on, the chance to make someone smile through your music is such a gift -- never devalue it, always honor it -- if's such a gift from God!!! Man, I LOVE Toots Thielemans, and Quincy is such a beautiful human being!!! What a pleasure -- thanks for posting this!!!

aucun péché d'orgueil n'a traversé ton harmonica, ce qui nous a rendu libre en t'écoutant

@benjaws

8 жыл бұрын

assurément un bel hommage. bravo

Between him and Stevie, I don't know who I'd rather listen to. Fantastic

Oh Toots and Quincy, thank you so much for th simplistic beauty of your music. I get chills every time this slips and slides through my brain.

Two towering Greats right there! Their Love song from THE GETAWAY is one of my all time favorites.

@danielvanness6936

4 ай бұрын

Mine too!

OMG! what a beautiful music of Toots and Quincy! AMAZING!

This is clearly a union of two masters of music and performance. Toots is absolutely into his patented 'tear with a smile" mode and Quincy has arranged a superb cushion of strings that supports the entire composition. I can not stop listening to this. Thank you for the posting. I have seen this before on KZread.

@amtrakatsfnyc

Жыл бұрын

Yes, it is now 2023 and I am still listening to this classic performance and enjoying it more with each passing day,

I can't help but cry. i hear his sound and tears just roll down my face.....Lord, I am in love !

Toots... You touch me. In my free moments I will be watching and listening every time I hear your sweet call. Thank God there are so many videos and CDs with your magic touch.

Its just a beautiful thing to hear and watch.

Rare....I can't stop smiling and clapping......GO TOOTS GO!!

Un toffe peï des Marolles. En toute simplicité.

Just great, what a feeling in Toots own way of improvisations, no Words can tell, sorry we lost him ! Sven G-son

All you can say is absolutley awesome 👌

I always seem to shed a tear when I hear Toots. My emotions just come forth from both Quincy and Toots. RIP Toots.

Wonderful soul, lovely blending of harmonics, one of Toots' finest improvisations with a musician who obviously appreciated just what was coming from that elderly man;s heart.

Toots’ command of the language of music was something to behold, to marvel at. I am so fortunate to have made records with his amazing artistry. No matter how many times I hit play, there was something new, something special in that same performance. His playing took me to places I’d never been.

I

What soul! What heart! RIP Toots!

This is so AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Maximum level of talent, feeling and groove... Quincy and Toots, 2 genius and magicians of first class music. Thanx for your music, your music touch direct to our souls. Always in our hearts.

Magnifique, Mr Toots, for Ever

What a performance! Absolutely beautiful! Thanks Toots. RIP.

Absolutely gorgeous. Words cannot express the soul, beautiful chords and his musical collaboration with Q is fantastic.

only love from we in Sweden to both Quincy and Toots

Knew a Harmonica Player when I was lived in Nashville, Tenn...His name was Terry McMillan....He was a great father and friend to all....When I hear Toots I instinctively think of Terry....No doubt people that knew him(and there were ALOT) can appreciate what a great Talent he had...I remember when I was around 19 years old Playing with The Divots Band Roanoke Va.....I would drive to the Blue Ridge Parkway Put on the Album Qunicy Jones "You've got it Bad Girl" and just drive...alot of Toots!!!!....This song Personifies my experience with Both Players....Love & miss you Both...Kenny Walrond

How Lucky I Was to See Him Playing in Taipei, Taiwan, It Was My Most Exordinary, One n Only Once in A Lifetime Experience I Ever Had, Now All I Can Listen Beside This Great Track, Are Billy Joel's 'Leave A Tender Moment Alone' n Lionel Richie's Nothing Else Matters, Thank U for Everything!

Quand l'harmonica devient voile sublime caressant les oreilles attentifs .. Un grand artiste... Bravo ❤️ Merci ❤️

Het is niet te beschrijven, de bewondering die ik heb voor die twee. Zij voelen elkaar aan, ongelooflijk. Dat is de top.. Niemand kan dat evenaren.

I will always, always miss you. God Bless you for sharing your music which I know was how you felt and a part of you. Qw shall meet again in heaven.

@dianematlock879

6 жыл бұрын

Gulu Watumull ,you meet every time his music touches your soul. .helps you ponder..deeply..music imparting deeply.

so beautiful....

I keep coming back again and again to listen to these two musical geniuses create this special clip...having fun, interacting and music off the richter for this jazz lover of GREAT MUSIC!! Thank you!!!!! So miss Toots!! Love you Quincy!!

C est la vraie pensée de la vie . Trop beau

R.I.P 👌🎼🎼THX FOR THE JAZZY SOUND

I was a child when I 1st heard this man on CBC blues night radio 45 years ago.

On peut difficilement faire mieux musicalement, ce morceau me fait rêver et me ramène loin en arrière, c’est tellement harmonieux. Toots repose en paix. ceux qui aiment ta musique ne n’oublieront pas. Et quel Orchestration Mister Quincy 👌🏻

brings a tear of joy to your eye

Nobody can play the harp better that Toots. He is phenomenal!

No one has ever equaled the nuanced beauty & expressiveness that Toots did on the harmonica. Quincy conducting and Toots playing his harp -- outstanding!

What a wonderful piece! There are too many adjectives that come to mind to express here but, rather than an appraisal, here's what comes to mind: elegant, playful, and truly joyful. Actually brought some happy tears.

Rest In Music ♥

TOOTS what in incredible musical angel!

The Grand Grand Master 'TOOTS,' we thank you and 'Q' for making our lives a little better.

two Monsters of good music.

I have been playing Jazz chromatic harmonica for a lifetime and once met Toots backstage in London at the Barbican Centre. What a terrific talent. Good luck Toots. UK Barry

@vinceman

10 жыл бұрын

excellent Baz. I did not know that

AL minuto 5.10 o giù di lì Quincy fa un gesto che 'spiega' ogni cosa PRODIGIO!!!!!♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

❤😊 I've long been a fan!!

"Where did that Belgian guy get so much soul"? What a fatuous remark. I'm English, and got a couple of tears listening to this. Stereotyping is for mugs.

I love harmonica. Especially blues harmonica although I appreciate great playing in any genre. Yet when I listen to Toots everything else disappears. At times all the other stuff I love seems trite compared to him. Not only was he one of the true harmonica greats but he was one of the all time jazz greats. Just happened to be harp was his ax. Thankful I got to see him live at the blue note in NYC. RIP.

I just love the passion of Toots playing. Thank you for the video.

goosebumps.. what a talent

Music of this calibre is all about soul, of tears and buried hurts; of lost loves and joy for the undying present. Of fulfillment and glorious self-expression. If only all human could feel this way and learn to respect fellow man and all the hardships we all face, we would all be more happy and content.

There'll never be another Toots. There isn't even a close second. There is no need for anyone to aspire to be like him. It is a quest beyond attaining. I am grateful it has been deemed he live a long and fruitful life. It is what I would have wanted for him, in return for his legacy gift to music. Who knew a harmonica, for crying out loud, was capable of symphonic accompaniment?

And a nod to "Bye, Bye Blackbird" at 4:01. Absolutely brilliant!

Quelle était belle notre Belgique lorsque ce sont ces personnages attachants qui nous faisaient rayonner internationalement sur des notes positives, et avec toute la modestie qui le caractérise, même en silence tu feras encore longtemps vibrer nos tympans, merci l'artiste.

I heard this at such a young age and it still hits me the same! Forever Toots and Forever Quincy!

Is this kind of music...that makes you regret any wrong doing.....cause you to love and truly love.....take it from me...it brings you back down to earth ..and you start to focus on things that are of that are importance and true meaning...and you come to realize that there's a lot things in life that are nonsense and doesn't deserve one ounce of your attention...i want to thank you for this post...listening to this kind of music...allows room for thought putting all things in perspective...Quincy jones and toots...always my favorite...

I Love this song! I miss you Toots and I hope you are playing in Heaven when I get there ❤️🎶💯

El mejor de los mejores---unico--- demos gracias por escucharlo

Can't beat this with a stick...it's superb!!! (and happy birthday Toots 4/29 !!

Gee s, You took the words out of my mouth.... R.I.P Toots !!!

My dogs AND i enjoy this🤙🦋

simply AMAZING. R.I.P MR. Toots Thielman.

How lovely. Just played it ten times. Gets better and better.

Love him, love this performance!

Comment dire les choses en musique. Talent.. et sensibilité.. nelly

I thought I wasn't gonna cry. --- --- --- I was wrong.

Toots Thielemans. 'Nuff said (1922-2016) Thanks for the upload, bailey6757. RIP Musician. Blessings