Toots Thielemans gets a Google Doodle for his 100th birthday! Of course, he’s rendered in his golden years, so I’ve appended a photo from his comparative youth.
It’s only been six years since the Belgian harmonica player tooted his last. He lived a long and fruitful life, bringing joy and consolation to millions.
Besides his considerable jazz achievements, Thielemans performed on the soundtracks of John Williams’ “The Sugarland Express” and “Cinderella Liberty.” He can also be heard in the film version of “Midnight Cowboy” (though Tommy Reilly appears on the original soundtrack album).
And no one of my generation will forget his contribution to this:
From Sesame Street to the only X-rated movie ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, with the Boston Pops, no less. John Barry wrote the music, by the way.
Toots plays “Cinderella Liberty”
Toots visits Letterman
Toots on guitar, jamming with Miles Davis, Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Max Roach and more in 1949
With Billy Joel
Prime Toots, with harmonica, guitar, and whistle
Quincy Jones called him “one of the greatest musicians of our time.” If you do a Google search today, be sure and honk for Toots!
David Amram, born in Philadelphia on this date in 1930, has always been equally at home in classical music, jazz, folk, and world music. The composer of over 100 orchestral and chamber works, music for Broadway and film (including the scores for “Splendor in the Grass” and “The Manchurian Candidate”), and two operas, he’s also the author of three books: “Vibrations: The Adventures and Musical Times of David Amram” (1968), “Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac” (2002), and “Upbeat: Nine Lives of a Musical Cat” (2007).
Amram was raised on a farm in Bucks County. There, he was introduced to classical, jazz, and cantorial music by his father and uncle. He took piano lessons and experimented with instruments of the brass family, finally centering on the French horn. Following a year at Oberlin, he lit out for George Washington University, where he studied history. While there, he performed as a freelance hornist with the National Symphony. He also studied privately with two musicians in the orchestra.
Amram became a pioneer of the “jazz French horn,” as well as the New York Philharmonic’s first composer-in-residence (designated such in 1966). He’s worked with artists ranging from Dizzy Gillespie to Bob Dylan to Leonard Bernstein, from Jack Kerouac to Arthur Miller, from Christopher Plummer to Johnny Depp. He’s a musician without borders, always open to new experiences.
At 91, Amram is still cookin’. He’ll be performing tonight in Newport, RI, celebrating his birthday with a concert of his chamber music, jazz, and folk compositions. On Friday, he’ll be in Tarrytown, NY, with his jazz quartet. On December 3, he’ll be playing with pianist Dick Hyman in Sarasota, FL. And on December 5, he’ll be in Manhattan for his annual “Amram Jam” – a program of jazz and classical chamber music, the instrumentalists joined by vocalists, songwriters, actors, poets, and dancers that’s anticipated to stretch into the wee hours of the morning.
For more information, check the Amram calendar at his website:
If you can’t be at tonight’s concert, you might do as he suggested last year, during “stay at home,” and just take a moment to send him an ESP thought-o-gram. Happy birthday, David Amram!
Granted, I suppose it was a long time ago that I took the shrink wrap off his brilliantly played classical debut album of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto, a treasured gift from a high school girlfriend, on the recommendation of her wise and knowledgeable father.
Marsalis, of course, has made his biggest mark as a jazz artist. He holds the influential positions of artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and music director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Marsalis founded the summer concert series in 1987, and he’s been directing the orchestra since 1996.
Although he hails from an illustrious New Orleans family of jazz musicians – his father was Ellis, and among his brothers are Branford, Delfeayo, and Jason Marsalis – it had originally been the plan for Wynton to pursue a career in classical music. He moved to New York City to attend Juilliard, but then he fell in with Art Blakey and toured Europe as one of Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. That was followed by a tour with Herbie Hancock. In 1982, he began forming his own ensembles.
In 1997, Marsalis’ “Blood on the Fields” became the first jazz work to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Controversially, Duke Ellington had been denied a special citation in 1965. He was finally recognized in 1999 – a full quarter century after his death.
Marsalis is the only musician ever to be awarded a Grammy in the classical and jazz categories in the same year – in 1983, for the aforementioned Haydn Trumpet Concerto and for his jazz album “Think of One.” Just to show it was no accident, he did it again in 1984, winning for an album of Baroque trumpet works, with soprano Edita Gruberova, and for “Hot House Flowers.” In all, he’s been recognized by the Grammys nine times.
I haven’t seen that girlfriend in 35 years, probably, but I’m still listening to Marsalis’ Haydn.
Happy birthday, Wynton Marsalis.
A selection from “Blood on the Fields”
“Hellbound Highball” from String Quartet No. 1 “At the Octoroon Balls”
It’s not everyone who can choose the time and circumstances of their birth.
One of the most important figures in American music really had no idea when he was born. So he and his manager settled on July 4. What could be more American than that? Furthermore, 1900 signified the start of a new century, the beginning of a new era. Thus it was that Louis Armstrong was “born” in New Orleans on July 4, 1900.
It wasn’t until the 1980s, well after Armstrong’s death in 1971, that a researcher discovered Armstrong’s baptismal records and it was established that his actual birthdate was August 4, 1901. So Armstrong would have been 120 years-old today. He died fifty years ago, on July 6.
Here is a special document, indeed. Armstrong and his All-Stars perform “St. Louis Blues,” with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein (Bernstein’s name mispronounced by Edward R. Murrow!) at Lewisohn Stadium on July 14, 1956. The composer, W.C. Handy, is in attendance.
It’s a fairly well-known fact that my birthday is July 4. Or at any rate, once somebody learns it, they’re not likely to forget.
For years, I thought I shared the date with Louis Armstrong. But it turns out Armstrong had no idea when he was born. It wasn’t until the 1980s that a researcher discovered Armstrong’s baptismal records and confirmed his official birthday was August 4, 1901.
Oh well, at least I’ve still got Stephen Foster (born July 4, 1826).
Armstrong, one of the most important figures in American jazz, as well as one of the most beloved musicians of the 20th century, died 50 years ago today.
That’s right, the world lost Satchmo and Stravinsky in the same year.
With Velma Middleton, singing (and playing) “All That Meat and No Potatoes”
With uncanny Danny, namedropping the masters, in “The Five Pennies”
With the Duke on Ed Sullivan
PHOTO: Playing with Grace, on the set of “High Society”
