Toots Thielemans Quotes

It happened way back in Belgium, in 1946. We had a little amateur band, called Le Jazz Hot, and I was the up-and-coming fellow playing the guitar in Belgium. You know, I was playing like Django Rheinhardt, Charlie Christian�a combination of whatever was played then; it was just before the advent of bebop, I would say. But my name, Jean Thielemans�that doesn�t swing at all. Names on the scene at that time were Toots Mondello, who was with Benny Goodman, and the arranger Toots Camarata; so they said: �That�s it�Toots.� I said: �Okay, why not?�� it started like that, and it stuck. It�s been a lucky label, I guess, through the years.
Toots Thielemans

My parents had a sidewalk cafe: every Sunday there was an accordion player and apparently I went through the motions, squeezing a shoebox. One of the regulars in �the cafe said to my father: �I think you should get your son an accordion�that�s what he�s trying to do, with that shoebox.� So they got me a little cardboard diatonic accordion�I still have it. I started to play the National Anthem, and things like that. It seems I was musically gifted�but my parents just never pushed in that direction.
Toots Thielemans