Toots
Yesterday was one of the most joyous days my life when I got a chance to see harmonica jazz legend Jean “Toots” Thielemans perform live on stage at the North Sea Jazz festival in Rotterdam. Toots is one of those rare living legends whose music is ubiquitous having played with all the other legends from Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Quincy Jones to Paul Simon. Oh, and he did the harmonica solo in the Sesamestreet tune. Toots, 87 years old, frail and missing a beat here and there but content none the less, performed for an hour and a half promising to come back next year, and the year after that.
I love the NSJ, especially since it moved from the cramped Congresgebouw in the Hague to the spacious Ahoy’ Halls in Rotterdam, for its atmosphere, its size, divers program of living legends, crowd pleasers and young talent. You can browse and sample 16 podiums from stadium sized halls to small piano rooms. In one night I enjoyed the talents of Christian Scott, a 24 year old trumpeteer from New Orleans, Han Benninks extravagant percussion skills and sales pitch techniques, blues master Joe Bonamassa, grand dame Greetje Kauffeld, Toots and an ass-kicking John Zorn (this year’s artist in residence) with his Masada Sextet. And that made me miss out on Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, BB King, Hank Jones, George Benson and countless other small bands I don’t know of yet but know I want to. Every year I go for the full monty, three days, each with a different friend, compadre or family member, making sure I get to see three different programs.
