Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans (Brussels, Belgium, April 2… Read Full Bio ↴Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans (Brussels, Belgium, April 29, 1922 - August 22, 2016), known as Toots Thielemans, was a Belgian jazz musician. He was known for his harmonica playing, as well as his guitar and whistling skills.
A jazz standard by Toots Thielemans is "Bluesette," where he used whistling and guitar in unison. He worked both as a bandleader and as a sideman, including many projects with composer/arranger Quincy Jones. He performed on many film soundtracks, such as Midnight Cowboy, Cinderella Liberty, Jean de Florette, The Sugarland Express, The Yakuza, Turkish Delight, the 1972 version of The Getaway, French Kiss, Dunderklumpen!, and in various television programs, including Sesame Street, whose closing credits (which did not list him accordingly) featured his performance, on harmonica, of the show's theme, the Belgian television series Witse, and in the Netherlands, for the Baantjer series.

Thielemans started his career as a guitar player. In 1949 he joined a jam session in Paris with Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Max Roach and others. In 1951 he went on tour with Bobbejaan Schoepen.

He moved to the United States in 1952 where he was a member of Charlie Parker's All-Stars. He played and recorded with names like Ella Fitzgerald, The George Shearing Quintet, Quincy Jones, Bill Evans, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Astrud Gilberto, Elis Regina and others.

A jazz standard by Toots Thielemans is "Bluesette" where he used whistling and guitar in unison. Bluesette became a major 1962 world-wide hit for him and this still much beloved and requested piece has been re-recorded by him and commercially released on records/CDs many times over both in various studio versions and live on-stage performances performed in several different countries. His trademark harmonica playing can also be heard in movie scores such as Breakfast at Tiffany's (where his plaintive "Moon River" solo in the opening scene brilliantly establishes the film's mood of romance noir), Midnight Cowboy, Bagdad Café, French Kiss, and in various TV programs like Sesame Street, the Belgian TV series Witse and the Dutch TV series Baantjer. His professional whistling and harmonica playing can be heard on Old Spice radio and TV commercials that have been made over the years. In 1983 he contributed to Billy Joel's album An Innocent Man, and his trademark harmonica can be heard on "Leave a Tender Moment Alone."

In the 90s Thielemans embarked on theme projects that included world music. In 1998 he released the a French flavoured album titled "Chez Toots" that included the Les Moulins De Mon Coeur (The Windmills of My Heart) featuring guest singer Johnny Mathis. This CD continues to sell well.

Today Jean "Toots" Thielemans remains a strong favorite among jazz aficionados and professional critics alike. His music CDs continue to delight (many of which were recorded in the 2000s) and have introduced him to entire new generations of keen fans.
Apart from his popularity as an accomplished musician, he is well liked for his modesty and kind demeanor. In his native Belgium, he is also popular for describing himself as a Brussels "ket", which means "street kid" in old Brussels slang. He received a joint honorary doctorate from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and in 2001 Thielemans was ennobled a baron by King Albert II of Belgium.
In 2005 he was nominated for the title of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian). In the Flemish version he ended 20th place, in the Walloon version he ended 44th place.

Thielemans may have had a significant impact on The Beatles, (John Lennon in particular), during the group's pre-fame formative years. When performing in a 1959 Hamburg Germany with the pre-fame Beatles, John Lennon (sometimes with fellow Beatle George Harrison in tow) would often go over to the club where Toots was performing (at a noontime venue) as a member of The George Shearing Quintet. Lennon evidently was taken with Toot's harmonica playing and also for the guitar Toots was playing, an electric American made Rickenbacker with a short play neck. Based on the sound Lennon heard, he decided to purchase a natural alder wood "alderglo" colored three pickup Rickenbacker 1958 model 325 Capri guitar with a short scale as former Beatle and friend, George Harrison would recall to various interviewers many years later. (This iconic famous guitar often fondly referred to as the "Holy Grail" of all guitars, which was customized and tinkered with many times over the years by Lennon including being re-painted to jetglo black in September 1962, is the very same guitar that he played on The Beatles first and third appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show during February 1964).

Toots Thielemans died peacefully in his sleep on August 22, 2016 after being hospitalized for a fall a month earlier.

Stardust
Toots Thielemans Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

And now the purple dusk of twilight time
Steals across the meadows of my heart
High up in the sky the little stars climb
Always reminding me that we're apart
You wander down the lane and far away
Leaving me a song that will not die
Love is now the stardust of yesterday
The music of the years gone by.

Sometimes I wonder, how I spend
The lonely nights
Dreaming of a song
The melody
Haunts my reverie
And I am once again with you
When our love was new
And each kiss an inspiration
But that was long ago
And now my consolation is in the stardust of a song

Besides the garden wall, when stars are bright
You are in my arms
The nightingale
Tells his fairytale
Of paradise, where roses grew
Though I dream in vain
In my heart it will remain

My stardust melody
The memory of love's refrain.

Overall Meaning

In the song Stardust, Toots Thielemans sings about the emotion of nostalgia for a love that is now gone, but lives on in the memories of the past. The purple dusk of twilight time is used as a symbolic reference to the closing stages of the day when darkness is about to set in – a metaphor for the end of a relationship, when things have come to a close. The stars that continue to climb high in the sky are repeated throughout the song, creating a sense of distance and separation as they remind the singer of the one they love, who is now far away. The line ‘Love is now the stardust of yesterday, the music of the years gone by’ expresses the pain and sadness of having lost something that was once so special, a theme that is central to many romantic songs.

Line by Line Meaning

And now the purple dusk of twilight time
As the sun sets, a melancholy feeling takes over

Steals across the meadows of my heart
This feeling slowly spreads through my being

High up in the sky the little stars climb
In the night sky, the stars shine bright

Always reminding me that we're apart
Their presence serves as a constant reminder of our distance

You wander down the lane and far away
You've gone away, leaving me behind

Leaving me a song that will not die
But you've left me with a memory that won't fade

Love is now the stardust of yesterday
Our love has turned into a distant memory

The music of the years gone by.
The song serves as a reminder of our past love

Sometimes I wonder, how I spend
I often ponder how I use my time

The lonely nights
In those moments of solitude

Dreaming of a song
I find myself lost in thought, thinking of a melody

The melody
The tune that keeps playing in my mind

Haunts my reverie
It's a persistent memory that won't leave my thoughts

And I am once again with you
In those moments of reverie, I feel as if I'm with you again

When our love was new
During the early days of our relationship

And each kiss an inspiration
Every kiss was a source of inspiration and joy

But that was long ago
But those days are far behind us now

And now my consolation is in the stardust of a song
But now, the only comfort I find is in the memories that the song brings back to me

Besides the garden wall, when stars are bright
By the garden wall, under the starlit sky

You are in my arms
I hold you close, in my mind's eye

The nightingale
As the nightingale sings

Tells his fairytale
It weaves a tale of magic and wonder

Of paradise, where roses grew
Describing a place of beauty and love

Though I dream in vain
Even though I know it's impossible

In my heart it will remain
The memory of our love will always be with me

My stardust melody
That tune that's stuck in my head

The memory of love's refrain.
Bringing back the memory of love and loss

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: CHRISTOPHER GENTRY, JOHN HUTCHINSON DEAN, MATTHEW EVERITT, SIMON IAN WHITE, STUART BLACK

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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