Google Doodle Celebrates Harmonica Legend Toots Thielemans’ 100th Birthday – CNET [CNET]

The Belgian musician and composer turned the harmonica into a respected jazz instrument.

Toots Thielemen took the often-underappreciated instrument of the harmonica, gave it the sound of soul and, in the words of one jazz historian, turned it into “a legitimate voice of jazz.”

The Belgian jazz musician was also known for his guitar skills, whistling and composing, but it was his chromatic harmonica playing that made him the pre-eminent jazz harmonica player. Over the course of a career that lasted the better part of seven decades, Thielemans performed with jazz and blues legends such as Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and Quincy Jones, the latter who called Thielemans “one of the greatest musicians of our time.”

To celebrate Thielemans’ contribution to music, Google on Friday dedicated its Doodle to the jazz great on his 100th birthday.

Born Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans in Brussels in 1922, Thielemans picked up music at an early age, playing a homemade accordion at the age of 3. As a teenager, he began playing the guitar and harmonica, which he taught himself to play during the German occupation of Belgium.

After playing in Europe with the likes of Benny Goodman, Thielemans  immigrated to the US in 1952, playing with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra and fellow harmonica great Stevie Wonder. He also went on to play on the soundtracks of movies such as Midnight Cowboy and The Getaway, as well as contributing familiar sounds to four decades of Sesame Street experiences.

Thielemans would later collaborate with Paul Simon on his 1975 album Still Crazy After All These Years and with Billy Joel on his 1983 album Innocent Man.

In 2009, he was honored with the distinction of “Jazz Master” by the National Endowment of the Arts.

Thielemans died in 2016 at the age of 1994. After Thielemans’ death, Jones performed a concert in his honor at London’s Royal Albert Hall.