The great mouth organ player Toots Thielemans has just died. We ought to be thankful for his artistry, incomparable as anyone can hear on this superb track.
My deepest condolences and sincerest sympathies to the family, friends and kin of the late Toots Thielemans. We are all in mourning... Fly high and fly home, Toots. God bless you and your beautiful soul. Thank you for all the wonderful music!
Yes, lots of thanks to Toots........ Condolences?....... well he was 94...... I'll stick to my Thank you Toots! It was hard not to feel glad when listening to you!
My deepest condolences and sincerest sympathies to the family, friends and kin of the late Toots Thielemans. We are all in mourning... Fly high and fly home, Toots. God bless you and your beautiful soul. Thank you for all the wonderful music!
The definitive version of this awesome jazz waltz. In addition to Toots on the harmonica and Bill Evans on the piano, the chunky bass lines and phrasing by Marc Johnson are fat and funky and really set the tone of the song. Look for the amazing cluster harmonies in the piano lines, along with multiple moving phrases and arpeggios, switching hands and voices effortlessly. Drums are crisp and simple. A virtually perfect performance.
Become unsatiable getting this piece on loop day by day.. not able to decide what to enjoy more: Bill's aristocratic mastery on piano, Toots' soulful phrasing.. maybe Marc Johnson's vibrant backing, one of his best works I have ever heard.. or maybe secret lays in this beautiful Toots tune itself? One of rare moments when just everything settles the way Lord must have been dreaming about, while creating jazz. True masterpiece..
Recorded on the former sea-floor of The Netherlands. In the Meerkoet, Lelystad. Late seventies, I assume. Years of hope and belief in a make-able future.
I never saw Evans live unfortunately but I did have the chance to see Toots Thielmans. What an amazing musician and the most amazing thing was he was a chromatic harmonica player who had a serious asthma condition. He also wasn't too shabby on the guitar. And a delightful human being to boot.
This is an incredible version. Lovely. However, I'm particular to the bass, and it is my strongest opinion that this one of the best bass performances for this song. Johnson's groove, voice leading, rhythmic and harmonic phrasing, intonation and tone is a delight.
I agree wholeheartedly, except in one respect. The tone has more bite in the mid-range than I'm used to hearing, and I'm enjoying the clarity and definition immensely. However, I think this sounds more like Eddie Gomez than Marc Johnson. J-basses are great; I should get one sometime. I might just skip the knife part, though; how would that help the sound?
The harmonies of this tune has always delighted me. Bright, colorful, resounding , reverberating, cycle of fourths. Toots, played with any and everybody. A true treasure. His likeness does not pass this way often.
Is this a Zen koan thing where since only sequencers are truly spot on it is a matter of one's approach to life, or is it just this ass thinks the rhythm sections sucks.... I do not know really intent is so hard to get over the internet
I'm with YOU, Nereo. This thing has been with us since 1962. (Fifty~four YEARS). And there's STILL nothing~else like it. I mean, i like 'the Stones' as much~as anyone else...(but 'Honky~Tonk Woman' just doesn't do~it for me.)
It was at Montmartre Hus in Copenhagen. We waited to hear his performance. Then the owner of the Club, "Danmarks Kaj", announced that Bill was at the Hotel there but not feeling so good and cancelled the presentation. Evans died that week.
Gorgeous, beautiful, and everything else, but why on earth does my beloved Bill hike up the tempo to an insane up tempo, after Toots has just exposed the lovely, cool, layback tempo??? Bill does this often. It brings the piece to a sort of hysteric crescendo. The solos loose their intonation, and become practised scales and arpeggios. Evans is still a god to me, but I wish he'd sometimes just keep the tempo.
When in the future for their grandchildren in GOOGLE search. They will ask you: - Oh! Grandpa, why do not you realize that slow extermination of the Indians? And your conscience will feel bitter taste to know that the Indians for over 500 years has suffered injustice, violence and oppression and other brutalities. Brazil today, has become an example of democracy in Latin America. But this scourge persists.
No they won't. They will ask why some people insist on introducing politics into what is supposed to be a musical experience. And they will conclude that the people who did ARE MORONS!
Coltrane, Miles, Ornette Colema , Parker, Mingus and many others had political underpinnings, the black experience, what does this contrived judgmental slam try to prove and name callers are always projecting the names that fit them, like tRumpkin Rumpkin does
