Toots Centenary

The 100th anniversary of the birth of Toots Thielemans - 29th April 1922 - was celebrated earlier this year with a string of high profile events organised throughout Belgium. I was delighted to participate in two of these events - a treat to go to Brussels twice in one month after so much lockdown confinement! The first trip was in early May to participate in the international conference: Toots Thielemans (1922-2016). A Century of Music across Europe and America, organised by Dr Hélène Sechehaye (Brussels Conservatory) and Dr Hugo Rodriguez of The Royal TOOTS CENTENARY Library of Belgium (KBR). The conference took place from 9th - 11th Adam Glasser, May on the 4th floor of the majestic Royal Library in the centre of the town, bringing together a selection HarmonicaUK of specialist academics and professional players from around the Patron, reports on world. two trips to Brussels There were many great talks but highlights for me were Sweden’s Mikael Bäckmans on Toots diatonic 10 hole playing. (How many of us knew he played a diatonic?) and a very engaging talk by Thielemans family relative - Véronique Heene - on the topic of Toots' childhood years. The talk was attended by a delegation of other Thielemans family members with whom we later had lunch including Toots’ sister Marie Françoise Thielemans aged 93. My lecture entitled Toots: A Personal Perspective covered the interview I did with Toots in Leiden in 1996 ( first published in .. this very magazine!) and my experience recording harmonica cues a year later on the soundtrack to the film Hard Rain after Toots had done most of them but had to leave at the end of the weeks recording back in April 1997 - a week during he celebrated his 75th birthday in the

studio and the whole orchestra played him spontaneously Happy Birthday when he came into the studio that morning. Toots’s personal archives - containing more than 5000 objects of various types: manuscript and printed scores, recordings, and historic documents, are now held in the Music Division of KBR (The Royal Library of Belgium, www.kbr.be/en/), a selection of which was curated over many months under the direction of Dr Rodriguez into a spectacular exhibition with multiple creative audio visual and sound installations as well as some of Toots’ own guitars and harmonicas. The exhibition entitled Toots 100 The Sound of a Belgian Legend continues until the 31st August 2022 and is well worth a visit. It’s only 2 hours by Eurostar from London.

Other guests and speakers included professional harmonica players Neil Adler (US) Grégoire Maret (Switzerland) and Steve

De Bruyn (Belgium) as well as two of Toots most cherished piano accompanists Kenny Werner (who gave a brilliant lecture) and Mike Del Ferro - world class pianist, composer and arranger from the Netherlands. Earlier in the year, Mike had invited me to perform with his Quartet at the end of May at Brussels Jazz Weekend so it was a great pleasure to meet him there again and hang out. Mike has made many trips to South Africa and recorded on album in 2015 with local artists entitled ‘The Johannesburg Sessions’. We first met at the Grahamstown Jazz Festival back in 2014. Some of HarmonicaUK members may remember that

Mike featured in one of my 2021 Harmonica Stories Zoom lectures about his arrangement of Make Someone Happy on which Toots plays a sublime harmonica solo and which encounter in a Brussels studio led to Mike doing over 150 gigs with the Belgian harmonica genius.

I returned to Brussels at the end of May to play with Mike and a dream team of Andrea Caruso ( double bass) and Roy

Dackus (drums). Our set list included well known items from

Toots repertoire - Velas (Ivan Lins) and Three Views of a Secret (Jaco Pastorius) as well as tracks from Mike’s critically acclaimed album Opera Meets Jazz recorded with the Metropole Orchestra. A hugely enjoyable gig which took place in the grandiose setting of Brussel’s cobbled square Grand-Place surrounded by classic architecture of ancient guildhalls. After our gig came a wonderful set by legendary guitarist Philip Catherine and then a tribute to Toots by the Brussels Jazz Orchestra fronted by the faultless accomplished harmonica playing of Hermine Deurloo. All in all a month to remember!