When you hear jazz harmonica, you’re probably listening to Jean-Baptiste “Toots” Thielemans, the Brussels-born jazz giant who dominated that musical niche for practically the entirety of his long lifetime. Toots himself said that his harmonica’s voice “[occupied] that little space between a smile and a tear.” As well as the jazz harmonica player who captured and held the genre for generations, Thielemans was also a monster jazz guitarist, who wrote jazz/pop hits like his (most famous) “Bluesette”.
No one poured more pathos, sadness, and joy into the humble mouth organ, and it’s possible that no one else ever will. Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor “Toots” Thielemans died peacefully in his sleep today at the age of 94.
All composite things are impermanent,
They are subject to birth and death;
Put an end to birth and death,
And there is a blissful tranquillity. — Gatha of Impermanence