"Toots" Thielemans © Andrea Canter

Named a 2009 NEA Jazz Master, "Toots" Thielemans will appear with the Kenny Werner trio Yoshi's in San Francisco on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday: November 11, 12 & 13. Then they move accross the bay to perform at Yoshis in Oakland on Friday, Saturday & Sunday: November 14, 15 & 16. They then perform at Kuumbwa Jazz Center Santa Cruz on Monday, November 17th. The trio features renowned pianist Kenny Werner with Scott Colley on bass and Antonio Sanchez on drums. 

Harmonica player, guitarist, and whistler Jean-Baptiste "Toots" Thielemans was born April 29, 1922, in Brussels, and has been credited by jazz aficionados and jazz critics as being among the greatest jazz harmonica players of the 20th century.

Kenny Werner © Andrea Canter

Thielemans learned to play the accordion at the age of three, took up chromatic harmonica at 17, and taught himself to play the guitar in the early 1940s. In 1950, he toured Europe as a guitarist with the Benny Goodman Sextet in and then immigrated to the United States the following year, becoming a member of the George Shearing Quintet.  In 1959, Thielemans began working as a freelance, playing and recording with Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, Bill Evans, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Astrud Gilberto, and Elis Regina, among others.

Scott Colley

Thielemans's two-volume Brasil Project was popular in the 1990s and found him smoothly interacting on harmonica with top Brazilian musicians. A perennial winner of Down Beat readers and critics poll for "miscellaneous instruments", Thielemans has received many awards and titles including "Chevalier des arts et des letters" in France; Professor Honoris Causa at the two universities of Brussels, Belgium; and in 2001 the Belgian King Albert II honored him with the title "Baron".

Yoshi’s in San Francisco  is located  at1330 Fillmore, and Yoshi's in Oakland is at Jack London Square. Visit www.yoshis.com for ticket information .

The Kuumbwa Jazz Center is located at 320-2 Cedar Street in Santa Cruz. Contact: (831) 427-2227 and www.kuumbwajazz.org

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