Photos by Howard A. Gitelson
"Harmonica great Jean 'Toots' Thielemans and jazz pianist Kenny Werner are soul mates. Though three decades separate them ...they share a sensibility that makes their music both soothing and stimulating...master players who know that embers can be as exciting as fireworks."—Carlo Wolff (

When Toots Thielemans, Kenny Werner, and Oscar Castro-Neves come to Minneapolis this week for two nights at the Dakota, expect both embers and fireworks, along with some good humor, Brazilian melodies, and boundless joy and energy. Thielemans and Werner have been performing as a duo for years, and the addition of Brazilian guitar virtuoso Castro-Neves adds a new dimension to their typically sublime interaction. The old Dakota in St. Paul as well as the Artists Quarter (still in St Paul) have welcomed Kenny Werner's trio several times in recent years, and Thielemans and Werner delighted a Dakota crowd about two years ago, shortly after the release of their live duet recording (Toots Thielemans & Kenny Werner, Verve). And while the 80-something Thielemans is certainly the senior partner, each member of this trio is a star in his own right.

Nicknamed "Toots" after musicians Toots Mondello and Toots Camarata, Belgian Jean Thielemans got hooked on jazz during the German occupation of Belgium during World War II. His first instrument (at age three) was the accordion; he picked up the harmonica as a hobby and won a guitar on a bet. Influenced by Django Reinhart and Charlie Parker, Thielemans joined the Benny Goodman tour in 1950; moving to the US a few years later, he played with the Charlie Parker All-Stars and George Shearing Quintet. Along the way. Thielemans invented a new sound --whistling while playing the guitar; he became a commercially successful "whistler," best known for his work for the Old Spice commercial and using his new technique in his famous composition, "Bluesette," in 1962. His harmonica can be heard on numerous film scores, including Midnight Cowboy, The Getaway, Sugarland Express, and Cinderella Liberty, and he provided solo harmonica background for Sesame Street.  Throughout his long career, Thielemans has played with the greatest stars of jazz and pop, including George Shearing, Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, Bill Evans, Jaco Pastorius, Natalie Cole, Pat Metheny, Paul Simon, and Billy Joel. Described by the Boston Globe as "the fountainhead of modern jazz harmonica," Thielemans is "an extraordinary improviser who can make the harmonica sing like Bird.... Nobody in jazz plays melody with more grace and feeling" (San Francisco Chronicle).

In fall 2004, Thielemans was awarded the German Jazz Trophy and won the Jazz Journalists Association's "Miscellaneous Instrument - Player of the Year."  Said the late trumpeter Clifford Brown, "Toots, the way you play the harmonica they should not call it a miscellaneous instrument."

One of the idiom's most lyrical interpreters and composers, pianist Kenny Werner was born in Brooklyn and joined a children's song and dance group at age four. At age 11, he recorded a single with a fifteen-piece orchestra and played stride piano on television. Still in high school, he studied at the Manhattan School of Music, later becoming a classical piano major. His interest in improvisation led him to the jazz program at the Berklee School of Music; he began recording in the late 1970s, appearing on Charles Mingus' Something Like a Bird. In the 1980s, Werner toured with Archie Shepp and the Mel Lewis Orchestra, worked in duo formats with Rufus Reid, Ray Drummond, and Jaki Byard, and performed solo concerts in Europe and New York. Three National Endowment of the Arts grants helped further his career as a composer and enabled him to present his compositions at Symphony Space in New York. He also wrote compositions for the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, which became the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. With Ratzo Harris and Tom Rainey, Werner spent 14 years experimenting with trio formats, and in the 1990s, this format became his main focus. Bob Blumenthal (Boston Globe) noted that Werner's ensemble "has provided an ever-evolving definition of the spontaneity that remains at the heart of jazz... unsurpassed as a working trio."

Over the years, Kenny Werner has performed and/or recorded with such luminaries as Bob Brookmeyer, Ron Carter, Joe Williams, Chico Freeman, Sonny Fortune, Peter Erskine, John Abercrombie, Bobby McFerrin, Lee Konitz, Billy Hart, Marian McPartland, Joe Henderson, Tom Harrell, Gunther Schuller, Ed Blackwell, Paul Motian, John Scofield, Jack DeJohnette, Eddie Gomez, Dave Holland, Charlie Haden, Chris Potter, and Joe Lovano.

Kenny Werner is one of the most active educators in jazz today. He joined the faculty of the New School's jazz department in New York City in 1987, and gives clinics at many universities in the United States and abroad, as well as conducting private lessons. Now on the faculty of New York University, Werner has published many articles and books on music theory and performance. These days, in addition to teaching, he often plays in duet with Toots Thielemans and performs his own music, mostly with his current trio (Ari Hoenig on drums and Johannes Wiedenmueller on bass) or with jazz orchestras and other large ensembles. And despite a list of successful studio recordings, the success of Form & Fantasy (Double Time Records, 2001), a live trio date from The Sunset Cafe in Paris, led him to decide "never to record a trio in the studio again. It just doesn't tell the story of the kind of great things that happen spontaneously on the bandstand when we have the resonance of people listening and watching." 

Noted Jazziz Magazine, "One of New York's best-kept piano secrets is Kenny Werner, a true innovator with a delicate touch and a vivid imagination...."

Brazilian guitar legend Oscar Castro-Neves was born in Rio in 1940, one of a set of triplets in a musical family. He started playing with his brothers in his early teens, gaining local attention with radio and television appearances. At 16, his song "Cry Your Sadness" was recorded and became an instant hit. Following his  participation in the legendary Bossa Nova concert at Carnegie Hall in 1962, he toured with Stan Getz and, later, with Sergio Mendes, with whom he worked for ten years and recorded 15 albums. One of his longest collaborations has been with Paul Winter; he toured extensively with the Winter Consort, and since then the two have recorded and performed together on a number of projects. Says Winter of Castro-Neves, "Troubador and trickster, he is an irresistible catalyst in any musical situation...He brings us back to the joy of being alive."  

As a composer, arranger, producer, group leader, and performer, Castro Neves' credits include sound tracks and pop acts, television productions, and working with Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones, Johnny Mandel, Joao Gilberto, Eliane Elias, Toots Thielemans, and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

 "The crystalline beauty of Castro-Neves' arrangements is matched by the rare delicacy with which they are interpreted...Castro-Neves is incapable of creating a dull moment, but that is an understatement. He is only capable of generating rhythmic, harmonic and melodic joy" (Leonard Feather).

Toots Thielemans, Kenny Werner, and Oscar Castro-Neves—from Belgium to Brooklyn to Rio, three unique voices join forces to create two global, swinging nights of pure musical magic.

For information about Toots Thielemans, Kenny Werner and Oscar Castro-Neves' performances on November 30-December 1, visit www.dakotacooks.com. Thielemans and Werner will perform as a duo on December 3-4 at Blues Alley in Washington, DC (see www.bluesalley.com).  More on Toots Thielemans at www.tootsthielmans.com; more on Kenny Werner at www.kennywerner.com; for Oscar Castro-Neves, visit www.oscarcastroneves.com