Toots Thielemans, one of the most outstanding jazz musicians in history, will perform in Poland one time only during a concert of the ERA of JAZZ series.
Due to his advanced age (81 years), the artist agrees to participate only in the most prestigious jazz events of the year. This year these will include the Northsea Festival and a closed concert at London's Royal Albert Hall. In addition to these, the legendary musician will perform an exclusive recital for the ERA of JAZZ series.
Toots Thielemans is a multi-instrumentalist (harmonica, guitar, vocals) and jazz legend, an artist who has done as much for the development and popularity of jazz as Charlie Parker, Benny Goodman and Quincy Jones. Thielemans was a member of Parker's band when he debuted on the stage of the Paris Jazz Festival in 1949; he went on to play with a number of Goodman's bands in the 1950s, and was the star performer in the orchestras and bands of Quincy Jones in the 1960s. Toots Thielemans's recording credits encompass several hundred albums. Dozens of these are recordings of the artist's original music. Others are the result of Thielemans's collaborative efforts with some of the greats of jazz, classical and popular music. His next album will feature a plethora of stars, including Joshua Redman, John Scofield, Mike Mainieri, Herbie Hancock, Charlie Haden and Ernie Watts.
Thielemans was already playing the accordion at age three and shifted to the harmonica as a teenager. Over the next few years, he would expand the instruments he played to include the guitar and whistles. Apart from the guitar, his proficiency was confined to instruments that were none too popular in jazz music. He was nevertheless convincing and outstanding enough as an artist to convince Benny Goodman, who included him in his band during a tour of Europe in 1950. In 1953, Thielemans began working with George Shearing, a collaboration that would last five years. In the 1960s, he garnered tremendous popularity for a recording of an original composition titled BLUESETTE. He performed frequently in jazz clubs in Europe and the United Sates and appeared at numerous international jazz festivals. He performed with musicians of stature like Oscar Peterson (1975) and Dizzy Gillespie (1980) and recorded a great deal of film music. He remains a master of bop, though many recordings show him to be an excellent performer of ballads. Thielemans possesses an incredibly vast and outstanding jazz repertoire that encompasses jazz samba and bossa nova as well as jazz standards and popular music hits. Throughout his career, he has collected numerous jazz awards and trophies of great prestige. Recent distinctions have included the Northsea Festival "Bird" Award and induction into the Jazz Hall of Fame in 2002.
Adding to the splendor of this ERA of JAZZ concert will be Giovanni Mirrabassi, one of Europe's most interesting pianists. Mirrabassi will perform works from his premiere album titled PARIS-WARSAW, created with the Andrzej Jagodzinski Trio. His music is deep and cozy, sensitive and assertive, Polish and Parisian. It also contains echoes of Italian melodies, French romanticism and - perhaps most surprisingly - the lightness and liveliness of the "jazzy Chopin - Jagodzinski." This is sure to derive from Giovanni Mirrabassi's interesting, perfectly thought out compositions that are beautifully performed. With the recordings on PARIS-WARSAW, this highly capable pianist and composer - who has thus far been demonstrating his talent for jazz in the European ensembles of a number of outstanding musicians - not only opens a new chapter of his career in Poland, but also seems to release a new energy in the trio of Jagodzinski, Bartkowski and Ciegielski. Rarely in the past have audiences witnessed such a complete and cohesive combination of two musical dimensions: eloquent composition and perfection in performance.
Era of Jazz / Era Jazzu / Dionizy Piatkowski
tel. (+48 61) 813 25 66
www.jazz.pl
